Jim Harte and Simon Olney are simultaneously undertaking two momentous tasks: Constructing and opening western Nevada County's only brewery, and dealing with the sundry regulatory hurdles that go along with that.

Thanks to a local brewery advocacy group, the latter just got a little bit easier.

Harte, along with Simon Olney, his business partner, are working daily to open the Ol' Republic Brewery on Argall Street in Nevada City, just behind SPD Market. The pair, still faced with the daunting task of installing nearly everything in their new brewhouse and tasting room, including a bar, bathroom and refrigerated rooms for their freshly brewed beer to age, received a regulatory reprieve this week courtesy of the Nevada City-based California Small Brewers Association.

“Previously, craft brewers wishing to have a tasting room at the brewery would be required to install several industrial sinks, redo plumbing and electrical wiring, among other requirements, simply to provide beer samples,” wrote Tom McCormick, the association's executive director in a press release. “These renovations can cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars creating a huge burden for small breweries.”

Because breweries with tasting rooms were regulated like restaurants, they were required to have cold storage for food regardless of whether they served food, which Ol' Republic's owners do not plan.

“Most health departments had ignored these rules in the past, but over the last few years they were suddenly exerting their power,” McCormick said in a phone interview with The Union. Health inspectors tightened up on breweries likely as a way to drum up revenue, he added.

When Harte and Olney originally presented their plans to Nevada County's building and environmental health departments, they ran into stumbling blocks relating to the old restrictions that could have resulted in more delays and cost because of increased construction time, Harte said.

Knowing the problems the regulations were causing for small brewers, McCormick's group pushed legislation to regulate beer tasting rooms like wine tasting rooms. The bill was introduced by Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego; and Assemblyman Wes Chesbro, D-Arcata. It subsequently passed both state legislative houses unanimously and earned Gov. Jerry Brown's signature of approval Monday, making it state law. The law still requires high standards for cleaning glassware and maintaining a healthy environment, but drops many regulations applied to the food service industry.

As much as things are a struggle right now in terms of budgets and so forth, both parties agreed we needed some common sense legislation,” McCormick said. “And breweries are a classic example of an industry that's good for the state. We hire a lot of people because we're very inefficient... small breweries are just not very automated. We make a good quality product that's local, we pay a lot of taxes, and we ship our products to other states and sometimes other countries.”

When county health officials became aware of McCormick's advancing bill, they dropped regulatory requirements and even refunded $600 in fees to Ol' Republic, Harte said.

“When we found this thing (the bill) there were some high-fives,” Olney said. “The best part about that new bill was that it relieved a little bit of pressure on Jim and I.”

Subject to regulatory hurdles from the city, county, state and federal levels (”we're just waiting for a world regulatory body,” Harte said, with just a hint of irony), the relief provided by the bill was welcome.

“It was almost like a little gold nugget,” Harte added.

The bill was unusual for McCormick's group, which usually does not introduce legislation, he said.

“Ninety percent of our work is defensive, we're usually trying to protect the industry,” McCormick added.

Harte and Olney look forward to serving up their first pour in the next two months, after originally planning to open sometime this month.

“We've been working on beer at home,” Olney said. “We're ready to start selling it now.”

To contact Staff Writer Kyle Magin, e-mail kmagin@theunion.com or call (530) 477-4239.