It’s the dawn of 11th Hour Brewing Co.

Most new breweries and taprooms say they want to offer cozy, family atmospheres and experiences, but sleepovers?

Those have been fairly regular at Eleventh Hour Brewing Co. in Lawrenceville, which is aiming, if final inspections are passed, to finally open at 4 p.m. Thursday. But so far, it’s the family opening the place who have been sometimes sleeping there, instead of driving home to McCandless and back.

At 10 a.m. Monday, brothers Cole and Jack McMahon, 8 and 9, still were lounging amid the blankies on their pullout couch, watching cartoons, in a former gas grill/ gas light showroom in what started out in 1872 as a school for German immigrants on Charlotte Street in Lawrenceville. It’s between 37th and 38th, two blocks off Butler Street.

The boys’ parents, Matt and Keana McMahon, were up and at ’em in the adjacent former trucking bays they have turned into Pittsburgh’s latest brewery and taproom, prepping for their Allegheny County health inspection, pushing contractors and polishing other details before they officially open some four years after they decided to give it a shot.

You might think that 11th Hour — or Eleventh Hour, as it’s sometimes spelled, including on one big wall in the taproom, but Ms. McMahon prefers the shorter “11th” — already has been open, and you may already have sipped some of its beers. That’s because over the course of their long journey, Mr. McMahon and his family and friends have poured samples at many local festivals, including, in the summer of 2015, the Beers of the Burgh fest in this very neighborhood. There, people formed long lines to get a taste of the home-brewed prototype for jalapeno-flavored pale ale called Burning Phoenix. There first public event was Brufest in fall of 2013.

Many beer fans who have been following 11th Hour on its various social media channels are looking forward to drinking its beer again, and Mr. McMahon can’t wait to sell them some.

In fact, just weeks after he and his assistant brewer — his 22-year-old stepson Justin Strzelczyk Jr. — did their first brews on the new 20-barrel brewhouse, the four brews they’re starting with already are available at several bars around town: a pale ale, an India pale ale, a brown ale and an oatmeal stout.

They don’t yet have names, but just Roman numerals, because as Mr. McMahon says, “Right now, we’re just in the beta testing.”

Which is a little ironic, since he’s been working on them and, more to the point, on finding a space to make them in larger quantities for an “agonizingly” long time. A location near home in Pine fell through, as did one near the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown, before they found this mongrel building and rented most of it, with first option to buy it. They like the out-of-the-way neighborhood “vibe back here,” as he puts it.

A big chunk of the interior space itself he and his family, including his brother Mark, transformed themselves, from plumbing the new brewhouse to building, mostly from old barnwood, the tables in the taproom that can hold nearly 100 people. About a dozen can sit at the concretetopped bar, built with the place’s old garage doors, while another dozen can sit at another bar along open half garage doors in the front. The decor is concrete floors, exposed steel beams and ductwork, plus a menagerie of clocks, all set to the 11th hour.

Mr. McMahon, who has kept his other job as a business intelligence consultant, recounts that even before Mrs. McMahon bought him a home-brewing kit to try, he had 11 as his lucky number, going back to the fact that he was born on 11/11/1979. Running his own brewery is “something I wanted to do before the 11th hour of my life.”

They both have a great sense of humor, fun and love, which they exhibit, even at crunch time, as during the photo shoot for this story, when she said, “I actually don’t like beer.”

“You’re also not very good at pouring beer,” he quipped with a grin, “so you might let me do that.” She giggled.

She is keeping her job as a stay-at-home mom, even if she often stays at the taproom, where she’ll have several roles, as will her 20-year-old daughter Sabrina from her first marriage to late Pittsburgh Steelers lineman Justin Strzelczyk. Mrs. McMahon, an activist against football head injuries who was depicted in and got a “special thanks” credit for the 2015 movie “Concussion,” says she misses the charity work she used to do as a Steelers wife. “I would like to integrate more charitable, community things.”

There’s a handful of parking spaces out front, where they plan to have a regular rotation of mobile vendors to provide food. Mr. McMahon continues to want to focus on the beer, which he will make in every conceivable style, and distributing it as widely as possible. He’s already thinking about where he might open up a satellite taproom and about canning.

Meanwhile, they plan to serve customers some local hard cider, and eventually some local wine, along with root beer. In fact, for this weekend’s grand opening, Mrs. McMahon may have her young boys serve root beer and root beer floats from a chalkboard-painted and games-filled kids corner, for which Jack designed and built a Lego table.

“This is an extension of my home at this point,” says Mrs. McMahon, who looks ahead to possibly turning one of the old offices into accommodations that actually could be offered to overnight guests.

In the meantime, look before you plop down on the couch, so you don’t sit on one of the two family dogs.

Hours to start are 4 to 10 p.m. Thursday and Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, but Wednesday could be added soon. If the opening has to be delayed, the McMahons will communicate that via social media.

11th Hour Brewing Co. is located at 3711 Charlotte St., Pittsburgh, PA 15201. For more, visit 11thhourbrews.com or call 412699-4074.

• 11th Hour is one of more than 50 craft breweries, 31 of them within a 50-mile radius of Pittsburgh, that will pour samples at the Steel City Big Pour beer, food, art and music festival at Construction Junction in Point Breeze on Sept. 9. Tickets — $80 — are available for both sessions — noon to 3 p.m. and 5 to 8 p.m. — at www.showclix.com/ events/1193. For this year’s fundraiser for the nonprofit supplier of building materials, organizers have partnered with the Restaurant Program of Sustainable Pittsburgh to line up more than 20 local restaurants that will be serving eats at this zero-waste event. As CJ executive director Mike Gable puts it, “We feel it is tremendously important to walkthe walk.” For more, visit cjreuse.org.

Other events may pop up in the week leading up to this 11th annual party. One, the second-annual Pour in the Park, happens the night before, on Sept. 8, at North Park Lake to benefit the Allegheny County Parks Foundation. Tickets — $55 for adults, $15 for young people ages 12 to 21 and designated drivers — are available at https:// www.showclix.com/event/pouratthepark2017. Read more about this familyfriendly event at acparksfoundation.org/ pour-park-back-september-8-2017.-northpark.

Starting at 9 on Sunday morning after the Big Pour, Fat Head’s Saloon on the South Side will hold its traditional Beer Brunch, as the Carson Street institution starts celebrating its 25th anniversary.

• Tickets go on sale online at noon Friday for the Juicy Brews Beer Fest in Sharpsburg, sponsored by Hop Culture online magazine and Dancing Gnome Beer. On Oct. 1, that brewery, nearby Grist House and Voodoo will be pouring with out-of-town guests Aslin Beer, Ocelot Brewing, Magnify Brewing, Seventh Son, Hoof Hearted, Triple Crossing, and Singlecut Beersmiths. Two hundred $50 tickets will be sold for each session — from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 3 to 6 p.m. — and attendees get a tasting glass, unlimited pours and a food voucher. More at https://www.facebook.com/events/ 123143218328649.

• Tickets ($75 Vip, $50 or $30 non-drinking) also are on sale for the Sept. 9 Brewtal Beer Fest, pairing brews and bands, at Mr. Smalls Theatre in Millvale: http:// www.pghbrewtalfest.com.