Getting into space required a lot of inventing, a lot of craziness, and a lot of badasses.

Most people know Neil Armstrong was the first person on the moon and some even know of his modest, down home family type of personality which was somewhat juxtaposed with the other astronauts.

What most people don’t know is Neil’s journey to the moon was preceded by several times looking straight at death and calmly saying, not today. I have work to do.

Neil is considered to be the first civilian astronaut because he was not employed by the armed forces at the time he became an astronaut, however he had served in the Navy as a pilot before attending Purdue.

During the Korean war, he was on a bombing run and was hit by anti-aircraft fire and had to bail out.

After the war, he came to Purdue and got his degree and went on to become a test pilot.

He flew in the experimental rocket plane, the X-15 seven times.


One of the flights he was flying so fast and so high, that when he attempted to start to descend to land, there wasn’t enough air around the plane for the planes controls to be effective. He managed to get the plane slowed enough and low enough that his controls started to work again, but now, still traveling at 10 football fields per second, he had passed his landing site and had to turn around, which the plane wasn’t really designed to do. He managed to get it turned around and landed in his original landing site instead of bouncing off the atmosphere and breaking apart in the air, or gliding uncontrollably into the ocean. https://youtu.be/xSJ-Oo9G0Qk?t=42

After the X-15 program, Neil joined the Air Force’s Man in Space Soonest program (no really, that’s what it was called) which later became Project Mercury after NASA was formed and took over space operations from the Air Force. Neil was also selected to fly Boeing’s X-20 Dyna-soar (they were really good at naming things back then) which was a tiny plane that was launched on a rocket.


Though the program was cancelled during construction and the X-20 never flew, the concept for a plane being launched by a rocket later turned into the Space Shuttle Program.

But probably Neil’s biggest moment of simply shrugging off death came while preparing for the moon landing and flying the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV).

Neil had flown the LLRV 30-40 times, but on May 6, 1968 experienced a failed thruster, ejected at the last second, and after being checked out medically, simply went back to his office to continue working without mentioning his crash to anyone in the office as if it were no big deal. (You can skip to 1:25 if you don’t want a short description of the actual Lunar Lander) https://youtu.be/OlJGQ92IgFk

Most of you have probably seen the old videos of astronauts in the centrifuge and other weird bouncing chairs and such (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6F9Ar_FK4o), but some of the other training astronauts have to endure that is less known to the public is survival training.

Astronauts have to undergo desert, jungle, open sea, and arctic survival training.

In the early days of space flight, much like everything else, training was less planned out and more “let’s drops these guys in the middle of the jungle with no supplies and see what happens. It was quite literally that.

Here is Neil Armstrong and other Mercury astronauts building some survival contraptions



Sometimes you’re just dropped in the desert. Sometimes you’re given supplies. Supplies in that most likely if your capsule crashed in the desert and you survived, most likely the parachute for the capsule would be with you, so you can make protective clothing and shelter from it.




Water training was critical, as the desert, jungle, and arctic training was to prepare for a mission failure of some kind in which the capsule is off course on take-off or landing and crashes outside the designated landing area. Before the shuttle program, all NASA space craft came back to earth via water landing. So extensive training was done in water.

This training ranged from “throw them into the ocean to see how long they can tread water before putting themselves in a harness to be air lifted out”

to putting them in an actual test space craft to be able to perform exiting the craft while floating in the ocean.



(Why are they in full bio-suits in that last one? Never having been to the moon and back, NASA wasn’t sure if the astronauts would be contaminated, so they practiced water exists in full bio-suits as well, which the Apollo 11 crew actually wore upon return to the earth after their trip to the moon)

Training eventually became more structured and much of the training started to be done in more controllable environments such as specially built pool where different water conditions could be created.




Today’s astronaut has a different kind of training. 6+ hour space walks are common for ISS astronauts, so learning how to live in a pressurized space suit for that long is key to both surviving and performing their duties in space. Here is Purdue Astronaut Scott Tingle describing the rigorous underwater spacewalk training astronauts have to complete. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sbMi0rqX8o

Yes. Yes you were. We did promise to start doing regular construction updates.

About that…

Turns out spring is a busy time for, well, just about everyone but especially contractors and permit issuers. So as of yet, we don’t have our construction permit and are still waiting on contractor bids to come in. Until then, we can’t make any major progress on the building itself.

HOWEVER! We’re not just sitting around thinking up clever space related beer names for beer we can eventually serve you (we’re doing that, it’s just not the only thing we’re doing).

What’s been done so far?
– we have applied for our federal TTB permit and hope to have that in the next few weeks
-We have applied for our local alcohol permits
-We have ordered our Blichmann Engineering 5 barrel brewing system and hope to have that the beginning of August
– We have started buying kitchen equipment
– and we’ve been petting and hugging a lot of cats to keep our stress levels under control.

Permits and paperwork have taken up most of our time.

Ideally, all the things we’re waiting on come in all at once and we can power through construction quickly. Luckily, the plumbing and electrical upgrades are the biggest construction needed and the space will just need some decorating and some places for you to sit for us to open our doors.

Stay tuned for more updates.

We finally have a location for the brewery! For real this time!

Our architects are working on floor plans right now and as soon as we have them finalized, we will have a better idea of our timeline for opening. Keep checking our website and social media for updates!

Six months is a long time for us to be silent, and for that we apologize. Some of you have contacted us through social media, and this last weekend we had the pleasure of chatting with some of you in person while attending the Winter Warmer at Lafayette Brew Co. The general topic: When the hell are you going to open and why no updates?

The reason for that silence? In this case it’s no news is bad news. 2018 was pretty rough on us. After spending much of the year working to get the Parkside location rezoned, parking variances, and raising funds to afford our down payment, we have unfortunately lost the Parkside building.

The main issue was, after all the previous issues we had getting our bank to embrace the concept of the vegetarian brewpub, the powers that be chose to provide us with a loan to buy the building, but would not provide a loan for the expansion and equipment needed to house the brewery portion. Additionally, one of the final steps in the process was an appraisal, which came back far lower than we needed in order to proceed with the purchase. While we possibly could have moved forward with renting the space rather than buying, it would have taken us several years to afford to build on the brewery. Making delicious vegetarian food for all of you is good, however our main mission is to brew beer, making the Parkside building no longer an option.

So we licked our wounds, and we sat. Quiet. Mourning.

We provide this update, not as a big announcement of what is to come, but as an announcement that we are still here and we are still moving forward. We just don’t have any solid timeline.

For the last couple of months, we have been negotiating with a couple of potential properties, but the process is quite slow and we do not have a timeline for when we will know where our home will be.

When we finally get a location secured, after some much needed celebratory beers, we will make an announcement to the world. We’ll have so many updates when we are working to open that you’ll pine for the days this last six months when we were silent.

As NASA flight director Gene Kranz said: “Failure is not an option”

YOU get a thank you! and YOU get a thank you…EVERYONE gets a thank you!!!

A well needed update. After the issues we experienced in our loan process a few weeks back and our cry for help showing the need for a plant based food solution in Greater Lafayette, we were able to get our bank back to the table and after making a few modifications to the business plan, our loan has been officially approved.

HOORAY!!!

Our next step is to finish raising a little extra money the bank is requiring for the down payment portion of the loan (which we’re moving along with right now) and we should have the keys to the building by mid-September.

Once we are closer to that date, we will update with a more solid timeline for when we will be opening. Stay tuned to our social media for a LOT more updates starting soon!

You:

Man, what the hell. Escape Velocity hasn’t made a peep in forever. Are they EVER going to open?

Us:

Man, are we EVER going to open? What the hell?

We’ve been quiet for a while since our crowdfunding effort. The main reason is we don’t really have any updates as of yet. The final stage in our journey to opening is waiting for our loan to process so we can purchase the Parkside building and get the doors open. It’s a long, slow process when you are starting a company alone, not rich, with only a few minor investors. It takes forever. ForEVER!

Pretty much every single morning, we wake up and this plays in our minds:

Except instead of Homer waiting to shoot stuff, it’s us waiting to sign stuff. Specifically loan paperwork that will let us get our damn doors open already.

So the update is: we’re also waiting, but there is an end in sight.

We should have our loan, and subsequently, the building in September. Once we get the building, we need to dig through all the Parkside seafood stuff to find out what we need and what we don’t need (Don’t need, 12 oyster shuckers, bin full of oyster shells, Parkside Seafood shirts, etc). Then we are doing some minor work to the building itself to make the front entrance and bathrooms ADA compliant, a little redecorating to switch from sea-faring ship to spaceship, then we will open our doors as a craft beer bar and vegetarian/vegan restaurant.

Ideally we are open in that capacity by Thanksgiving. During that time, construction of the brewing facility will start with us serving our own beer sometime in the beginning of 2019.

In more exciting news, despite not yet having a full scale brewery to brew in, our brewer, Jason (It’s me. I’m writing this post), continued brewing and entering competitions as a home brewer in preparation for the brewery opening, and our stout, Magnificent Desolation, took home the silver medal in the Indiana State Fair Brewer’s Cup for stouts!

This is the 4th award for the stout which includes Best of Show in the 2016 Indiana State Fair Brewer’s Cup and Silver Medal for stouts in the mid-west region of the National Homebrew Competition.

Stay tuned here and on our social media. We will have tangible updates soon if it kills us. Once we have a for sure timeline, we will have a regular opening/construction update post at least once a week. Oh buddy,  we can’t wait to have those posts for you. It’s happening. Soon.

Exciting news and a call for help! We’ve finally found the perfect home for Escape Velocity Brewing! We’ve successfully rezoned part of the property so we can build on a brewing facility, however for legal reasons, we had to start a new LLC to purchase the property, and so can’t use the other funds we have raised (don’t worry, they will be essential for construction and equipment costs). So are now asking one more time for your help in raising funds for the purchase of this building and land. Please considering donating to our Indiegogo campaign, and forwarding to your friends! We have new fun perks, and are SO CLOSE to realizing our dream of bringing delicious beer and vegetarian food to our community!

https://igg.me/at/escape-velocity

The cat’s out of the bag – we’re hoping to move into the former Parkside Seafood! We are currently under contract for this building, contingent on our ability to get approval to build a brewing facility onto the current structure.

The APC meeting was just one of the hurdles we have to jump. Up next:
– City Council Zoning Meeting
– City Variance Meeting
– Raising down payment funds (we have to purchase the building as a separate LLC from Escape Velocity Brewing, so can’t use the money we already have already raised for the brewery)

We are excited and hopeful that this will all go through! We live in this area, and are very excited at the prospect of being our own neighborhood pub! We love our community, and hope to serve delicious beer and vegetarian/vegan food to friends old and new in our neighborhood!

WLFI Story http://www.wlfi.com/content/news/Couple-hopes-to-open-brew-pub-in-Lafayette–480198023.html

Check out this article about Jason brewing with Broadripple brewpub and information about the brewery!

http://www.nuvo.net/food_and_drink/beer_buzz/get-a-taste-of-the-state-fair-homebrew-best-of/article_7a9a066a-148c-11e7-9d46-db39c77268a8.html