The Perch brews its first beer, but you’ll have to wait awhile

And then there was beer!

After a delay of several months, The Perch Pub & Brewery in Chandler finally brewed its first batch of beer today during a marathon 13-hour brewing session.

Dubbed a “calibration pale ale,” the 100-gallon batch was a test run of The Perch’s newly installed three-barrel system by brewer Andrew Bauman (pictured), who was aided by East Valley home brewer Jeremy Jones.

(Note to novice brewers: You usually don’t want to lean on boilers marked “Hot.”)

The Perch originally was scheduled to open last October, with the brewery starting production in January. The restaurant and bar finally opened on Valentine’s Day.

So the big question: When will East Valley beer lovers finally be able to try some of The Perch’s own beers on its 32 taps?

Bauman plans at least one more calibration session to tweak his equipment before launching into his planned beers. And he’d like to have five beers on tap on launch day.

Assuming the calibrations go well (and given that most beers take about 14 days to ferment), the most optimistic estimate for the debut of The Perch’s own beers would be sometime during the first week of June.