A few months ago I had the opportunity to help a soon-to-be-opening brewery design their tasting room, and after months of licenses applied for, paperwork sent in, inspections upon inspections, Arches Brewing is now open for business! I guess a bit of a backstory is needed for those of you living in states (or countries, since this is the internet) that don't have these laws; if you make your own beer you can open up a physical location to show off your beer. Now you can't actually sell your own beer thanks to distribution laws, so you have to sell 'tours' of your facility where you can pour smaller amounts for your patrons to sample. Long story short, they needed some design help, and they pay in beer (joking, kind of), so I said yes!
Their brewing philosophy follows the German brewing schedule. In layman's terms, their brewing schedule follows the weather, with their different beers finishing and ready for drinking to go with the changing seasons. With the German taste driving their beers forward, they wanted a simple and clean tasting room that would still invoke the feeling of a traditional German beer hall.
We're really close to that beer hall feel. It's a tall, open space with light earthy tones to help bring the outdoors in. Sound deadening material was used on the ceiling to keep the room from becoming an echo chamber during the sure-to-be-busy tasting days. We chose black to keep the room from feeling too bright, and to help frame the space out a bit. Reclaimed wood from an old cotton mill is used extensively to help reinforce the targeted old-world feel, and to mimic their old-world beers. I think over the next year or so it will have all the finishing touches it needs.
There are a TON of ideas I threw at them to help bring the European flair; some stuck, some didn't. Some will come in later, some may never. The important thing is that the brewers are ecstatic with their growing and evolving tasting room. You can see the beginnings of the process, as well as preliminary renderings on the website under "Current Projects." Just know that there were many emails, texts, visits, etc. to get the look to where it is from where it was. I'm just glad I finally get to drink their beer!