EDIT: I decided to go with a 7bbl system later in this thread and have included some of my initial concepts for my layout. The files are available for download in this thread. I edited to add this statement to help people searching or reading older threads. The discussion on my start up plans continues on page 3. -Jon
First, I apologize if this is in the wrong spot.
I am looking for some feedback on the following operations concept/plan for a brewpub. I would much appreciate any help or guidance you would provide. First, I want to acknowledge that it will be a hell of a lot of work, but since I don't mind working 12-15 hours a day (not for someone else though), I will do whatever it takes to never work for someone else again.
The brewpub is to be located in upper mid-west/norther great plains town with a population of approximately 50k people with another 20k within 30 miles. We are located within 1.5 hours from the Canadian border and seeing a lot of Canadian traffic in our city almost every weekend. The town is currently experiencing exponential growth due to oilfield activity, as such, we feel that if we are going to pull this off now is the time.
The downtown area in which it is to be located has plans to add several hundred apartments in a 4 block radius within the next 10 years,with construction starting on phase 1 this year.
The building in question is located in the downtown portion of the city and has 3500 sq. feet on the main floor, none of the walls on the main floor are load bearing, so we have a clean slate when we renovate the building. My business partner owns the building and the apartments located above the space designated for the brewpub, so leasing is not an issue. We also have access to the full 3500 sq. foot basement for whatever we need (storage of empty kegs, more fermentation room).
We have decided to start on a Sabco system brewing two 10 gallon batches a day to fill our 8-12 30 gallon fermenters. I know this is less than ideal, but you must remember the population size and also take in to account this is macro country. However, several very small beer bars in the area that carry a wide selection of craft brews are doing well.
We plan on using a 15 day cycle for brewing our house ales, with more time in the fermenter if stock allows (or as dictated by style/gravity/yeast) as we will be serving from kegs and not from the tanks. With this plan we are looking at roughly 135 to 210 barrels a year, not much compared to what most of you guys (and gals) are brewing.
We have no plans for a kitchen right away and are not required by law in our jurisdiction to do so. We plan to associate with several restaurants in the downtown area to provide food for our patrons, if they want more than the typical bar snacks. We plan to open around 4pm or 5pm everyday as would not see a lot of lunch traffic.
We also plan to leave room for some limited restaurant equipment (grill, cooler, freezer, prep and expo) to be added later as we want to focus on our brewing and servicing our loans before risking food service. Since the oil activity has come this way, finding people to work in kitchen positions is getting bad, even the local McDonalds is paying close to $15 an hour.
We plan on installing 21 taps in the brewpub and running our products in 5-8 taps at any given time, the rest would be regional microbrews with one marco and a few national craft beers. I have an idea of the layout for the brewroom, fermentation room, grain storage and my office which will also hold all of the IT equipment and yeast storage.
Our only barrier to entry is local ordinance preventing a brewery from operating in the downtown area (zoning) however we feel this was intended for production size breweries, not brewpubs with our intended size. We do not feel this poses any significant threat, but I thought it should be mentioned. So if you have any comments on handling city council on this issue (awesome)...
So I am looking for feedback on an major design flaws in the concept/plan or anything you would like to share with me to make it a little easier. Also, if you experienced people could give me an idea on size of the brewroom, fermentation room, grain storage and walk-in cooler size for the amount of taps; I would appreciate that very much. Questions are much appreciated as well as it stimulates the creative/problem solving process which seems to be a daily task in the industry. (Thank you for taking the time to read all that.)
Thanks in advance for your words of wisdom and hopefully we will brew on!
Cheers! -Jon
First, I apologize if this is in the wrong spot.
I am looking for some feedback on the following operations concept/plan for a brewpub. I would much appreciate any help or guidance you would provide. First, I want to acknowledge that it will be a hell of a lot of work, but since I don't mind working 12-15 hours a day (not for someone else though), I will do whatever it takes to never work for someone else again.
The brewpub is to be located in upper mid-west/norther great plains town with a population of approximately 50k people with another 20k within 30 miles. We are located within 1.5 hours from the Canadian border and seeing a lot of Canadian traffic in our city almost every weekend. The town is currently experiencing exponential growth due to oilfield activity, as such, we feel that if we are going to pull this off now is the time.
The downtown area in which it is to be located has plans to add several hundred apartments in a 4 block radius within the next 10 years,with construction starting on phase 1 this year.
The building in question is located in the downtown portion of the city and has 3500 sq. feet on the main floor, none of the walls on the main floor are load bearing, so we have a clean slate when we renovate the building. My business partner owns the building and the apartments located above the space designated for the brewpub, so leasing is not an issue. We also have access to the full 3500 sq. foot basement for whatever we need (storage of empty kegs, more fermentation room).
We have decided to start on a Sabco system brewing two 10 gallon batches a day to fill our 8-12 30 gallon fermenters. I know this is less than ideal, but you must remember the population size and also take in to account this is macro country. However, several very small beer bars in the area that carry a wide selection of craft brews are doing well.
We plan on using a 15 day cycle for brewing our house ales, with more time in the fermenter if stock allows (or as dictated by style/gravity/yeast) as we will be serving from kegs and not from the tanks. With this plan we are looking at roughly 135 to 210 barrels a year, not much compared to what most of you guys (and gals) are brewing.
We have no plans for a kitchen right away and are not required by law in our jurisdiction to do so. We plan to associate with several restaurants in the downtown area to provide food for our patrons, if they want more than the typical bar snacks. We plan to open around 4pm or 5pm everyday as would not see a lot of lunch traffic.
We also plan to leave room for some limited restaurant equipment (grill, cooler, freezer, prep and expo) to be added later as we want to focus on our brewing and servicing our loans before risking food service. Since the oil activity has come this way, finding people to work in kitchen positions is getting bad, even the local McDonalds is paying close to $15 an hour.
We plan on installing 21 taps in the brewpub and running our products in 5-8 taps at any given time, the rest would be regional microbrews with one marco and a few national craft beers. I have an idea of the layout for the brewroom, fermentation room, grain storage and my office which will also hold all of the IT equipment and yeast storage.
Our only barrier to entry is local ordinance preventing a brewery from operating in the downtown area (zoning) however we feel this was intended for production size breweries, not brewpubs with our intended size. We do not feel this poses any significant threat, but I thought it should be mentioned. So if you have any comments on handling city council on this issue (awesome)...
So I am looking for feedback on an major design flaws in the concept/plan or anything you would like to share with me to make it a little easier. Also, if you experienced people could give me an idea on size of the brewroom, fermentation room, grain storage and walk-in cooler size for the amount of taps; I would appreciate that very much. Questions are much appreciated as well as it stimulates the creative/problem solving process which seems to be a daily task in the industry. (Thank you for taking the time to read all that.)
Thanks in advance for your words of wisdom and hopefully we will brew on!
Cheers! -Jon
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