In case of earthquake, and to prevent general tank falling and moving, we had to bolt our tanks to the ground.

After we made triple sure our tanks were in the right locations, we marked each mounting pad and removed the tanks.

The first tanks we mounted were the fermentors. We had Patrick, a friend of a friend, come in and drill the holes for the two tanks using a roto hammer. Never had we seen concrete drilled with such ease.

We then anchored the mounting plates to the ground and lowered the fermentors back onto the plates.

That night Captain Chris had sweet dreams about the awesomeness of the roto hammer. He bought one the next day and went to work mounting the rest of the brewery.

Turns out it wasn’t as easy as Patrick made it look. We managed to smoke two drill bits and drive to the hardware store 3 or 4 times while mounting the tanks, but in the end we were successful.

Next up was to weld the tanks to the now secured mounting plates. Local homebrewer and craft beer fan Brian Oliver, is an underwater welder for the Navy. We were going to flood the brewery so he could weld the tanks for us, but we were unable to do so thanks to a well placed floor drain.

Instead, he asked around the Point Mugu Naval Base, the task was passed through command, and Tait Sorlie Sw1 volunteered to help – he’s a Navy welding instructor and inspector for the Seabees, they’re trained to fight and build. They also have an awesome logo:

He was able to easily weld all of our tanks securely to the mounting pads.

And now our brewery won’t fall over during earthquakes.