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Floor design - pitch whole floor or just brewhouse?

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  • Floor design - pitch whole floor or just brewhouse?

    Hi all,

    I'm new to this forum, hopefully you experienced professionals can offer me some sound advise! My business partners and I are setting up a new micro brewery. 2500L mash, lauter, kettle. CLT, HLT, Glycol. 4x5KL fermentors, 1x5KL BB. We have a 1000 bottle per hour bottling machine and a kegger. OK, there is the startup scale. So, a few questions I hope you can help with. Oh, we're based in Wellington, New Zealand BTW. The building we are leasing is brand new. Has a lovely new concrete floor 100% spirit level.

    1. Floor.

    Most of the threads I have read state you should pitch the whole floor for drainage. We want to limit this due to cost (new startup self funded and all that). Could we get away with pitching the floor under the brewhouse, the kegger and the bottling machine and leave level under the fermentors and BB? We have plans for long drains in front of these so will pump any unwanted fluids into the drains. I know there will be spillage, but we can squeegee this into the drains. This won't be often. Below is an image of our max capacity when we grow. What do you folks think? Bear in mind everything we do to this building we may have to undo when we leave. We have room for further expansion on site BTW by way of additional buildings. We will be coating the entire floor with a grippy waterproof finish.

    Click image for larger version

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    2. Refrigeration. Does anyone refrigerate kegs and bottles prior to shipping? I can see this being necessary only for larger yeast beer. Like with any brewery, we will brew to order, so the process should be pretty lean and fast. But, when starting up we will have surplus. We have a 20ft refrigerated container we plan to use. A good plan? Our tanks will all be glycol chilled.

    Thanks in advance.

  • #2
    I would suggest you re-pour your brewery floor so you have a 1-2% fall towards your drains. That way, whatever spills on the ground can be hosed to the drain and make your life much easier. I am going through this right now, and yeah it'll be expensive, but it'll be worth it. Side note: Can your existing concrete floor handle the load of your brewing equipment? It might be good, given your tendencies for big earthquakes these days, to redo the slab anyways.
    Side note, I just poured my brewery floor last week, remaining floor this week. It is the single most expensive start-up cost I have, more so than the brewhouse! It wasn't supposed to be that way, but sh*t happens.
    Good luck

    Comment


    • #3
      If you really want to avoid pitching the whole floor, at the very least pitch 1% to 2% from the walls to a space where you can get behind and hose it out.

      That said...do you really want standing water overnight in a brewery? A business where you spend a significant amount of time and money sanitizing everything?

      Comment


      • #4
        Here to Help

        I am here to help. Anything needed feel free to call or email me

        Chris Klein
        Chris@cascadefloors.com
        541-510-1080
        Chris Klein
        Cell 541-510-1080
        Office (503) 769-6823
        WWW.CASCADEFLOORS.COM
        chris@cascadefloors.com

        Comment


        • #5
          If you really think that you're going to have 20x 40bbl fermenters running full throttle one day and you'll be in this facility long term, then yeah you should do the floors. Otherwise you are going to become VERY familiar with a squeegee and a power washer. Otherwise, you can probably get away with the cheaper option, just know that it will eventually be a big pain in the butt to maintain and keep clean.

          Also you said

          "I know there will be spillage, but we can squeegee this into the drains. This won't be often"

          Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I think it's wishful thinking at best to say that floors won't often get wet in a craft brewery environment, especially a startup...
          Last edited by TonyT; 03-18-2017, 12:58 PM.

          Comment


          • #6
            That looks like a pretty large scale operation, what percentage of the budget could sloping the entire floor be? I haven't gotten this far yet in my start-up, I'm actually really interested in the projected cost. I assume you have a price for both options....

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Cascade Floors View Post
              I am here to help. Anything needed feel free to call or email me

              Chris Klein
              Chris@cascadefloors.com
              541-510-1080
              What's a good ballpark number or range to reslope a 3000sf concrete floor in the U.S.?

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by seekingalpha View Post
                What's a good ballpark number or range to reslope a 3000sf concrete floor in the U.S.?
                with concrete or coatings? It really all depends on distance to drain, how many drains, and thickens needed to achieve these variables. Email me
                Chris Klein
                Cell 541-510-1080
                Office (503) 769-6823
                WWW.CASCADEFLOORS.COM
                chris@cascadefloors.com

                Comment

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