Building out the brewing space is turning into a series of things I've never done before which is both fun because I like learning new things, but also means it's a time-consuming process and there's a bit of a risk of catastrophic failure.

But I really wanted to acid stain my floor as opposed to leaving it bare unfinished concrete so I decided to take a shot, figuring worst case I pay someone to come do it right or figure out some alternative flooring to put down.

After probably radically overpreparing the floor with a few passes of cleaning and stripping since it was brand-new concrete, the day came to apply the acid stain. I'd watched a bunch of YouTube videos so I figured I had this all figured out. (For those interested, I used Concrete Coatings Vivid Acid Stain in Walnut at full strength.)

In terms of the process, I did. But I wasn't prepared for the concrete to not very readily absorb the stain. Instead of the floor soaking it up as I'd seen on all the YouTube videos, it pooled. And sat. And sat.

Why? My only guess is the floor was too cold, given that it was March in the Pacific Northwest. I was pretty careful not to over-apply the stain, and though the brewery has a mini split but I sure as heck didn't think I wanted to be running that thing and having it suck in all the toxic fumes related to this process.

After letting it sit for a couple of hours, in a bit of a panic I went to the hardware store and bought two huge boxes of rags, figuring my only way to clean up this mess was to soak up the excess and hope for the best. Hours of pushing around rags with my rubber boots ensued.

Post-mopping the first coat seemed to be taking semi-decently. I let that sit overnight and the next day applied another coat, knowing I'd have to repeat my foot-mopping process to soak up anything that didn't get absorbed. After the stain had a chance to dry, I applied an ammonia solution to neutralize the stain.

Next, I went through half a dozen mop heads mopping the floor up with clean water until it came up clean. I followed that by more foot-mopping with clean rags to make 100% sure everything was coming up clean.

At the end of this very chaotic, messy process I thought it came out looking pretty cool. Lastly, I applied the sealer and the wax, which was by far the easiest part. After waiting 5 days the floor was ready for traffic.

So from near catastrophe, to hours of panicked mopping, to the finishing steps, I went from thinking I'd completely ruined my floor to being really happy I did this. But I don't think I ever want to acid stain a floor again.