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  • Brewery facility plans

    Hi all, I'm looking for resources on facility requirements for a brewpub. I've been getting good info on equipment options and been able to get some info on what an establishment should have, but I'd like to learn more about this subject. Can anyone suggest good reading?

  • #2
    Hey Dog,

    That's a tall order. I've not seen any good books on the subject other than some of the usual like "The Practical Brewer" which is somewhat out of date. Oddly enough, after facilitizing (2) Breweries, my best "book" has been common sense and some Engineering know how.

    If you have specific questions, you can E-mail me direct. No problem. However, open ended questions like, "What's the best......." really depends on the equipment. I have always purchased the brewing equipment prior to facilitizing so that I knew what I was dealing with. If I had a direct fire kettle, I knew I needed so much gas to support the burner, locations either in the wall or ceiling to run the steam vent and combustion vent, and some venting for make-up air. This is but an example, but you can see that if you don't know the burner size in MBTUs, you can't size the pipe or know if you have enough gas supply.

    Sooooo...........without knowing any specifics, here's what I look for:
    1.) Gas supply. If you have direct fire or a boiler, you will need gas in either case. Up to 400K burners may run quite well on the usual 6" - 7" WC gas pressure supply if the runs are short enough (<60' - 70'). We have a 15 Bbl rig at our B2 facility that uses a 15 hp Parker boiler, we had 6" WC, but we needed 7" for a good burn. The gas company set us up on pound servise and we regulate it down to 13" WC from 2 psi. BTW - nearly all gas equipment you'll need / buy will run between 7" - 14" WC. Of course, there are line pressure losses to calculate as well.

    2.) Water supply. I like at least 45 - 50 gpm at 50 - 75 psi. Amazingly our B1 facility is on Mukilteo's waterfront at the bottom of a downward hill at sea level. The water district is a 625 ft above sea level, and we get a water pressure there at 125 psi! Anything less that 40 gpm and you'll just have to wait longer to fill any larger tanks. Lower water flow / pressures mean that when you are using the heat exchanger to cool finished wort, anyone else in your building won't see a drop at the water faucet.
    Take a look at the water analysis sheet from the water district in the area you will have your Brewery. Discuss it with them if you have any questions. Fortunately, both our facilities are in the same water district, so we know the analysis for both. Look at water hardness and the amount of Chlorine being added. Before I get an E-mail saying, "But.....Chlorine boils out during the kettle boil.", I would add that though this is true, the THMs (Trihalomethanes) do not, and they stay present in the beer. THMs are what's left after Chlorine breaks down organic matter (eeeewwww).
    Too much hardness will leave scale in every tank there is hot water and will shorten the life of hot water heaters and boilers. You will need GAC packs (Granulated Activated Carbon) along with particulate filters to remove Chlorine and THMs but hardess will require de-ionization, which, of course, is more expensive. We use GAC packs at B2, and you can indeed taste the difference (lack of chlorine) in the water even though the Pacific Northwest has some of the softest water in the nation.

    3.) Floor. Ideally, you want a concrete floor and a floor drain. The perfect floor will not only have this but also a 1/8" - 1/4" per foot slope to the drain. The floor should not be "floating", meaning that it should be directly poured onto the substrate and not suspended. Suspended floors will crack. A good, maintenance free concrete pad will be 6" thck at the thinnest portion and be re-inforced but 3/8" - 1/2" rebar on 1' - 2' centers in a criss-cross pattern. This rebar should be as close to the neutral axis of the pad as possible (3" deep into a 6" pad). A fibermesh added to the mix, along with the rebar, resists large cracking, but a few hairline cracks may still be present and can be filled with epoxy quite easily.
    I have seen in Brewpubs and actually considered building a brewing "basin" from stainless and framing it with timbers. The slope can be designed in, but must be shimmed at varying depths to maintain it. I've seen this in Brewpubs where the tanks are separated from the brewhouse and they are all out in a wood floored common area with the customers. These "Show Breweries" are hell for a Brewer to work in and are in-efficient. Several I have seen up here in the Northwest are either low producing rigs (3 - 5 Bbls) or have been removed entirely for added seating.
    I have had a slope poured onto an existing concrete floor, but it cracked away in no time. You really have to gouge the surface to get it to stick well. An epoxy sealer or tile topcoat is required to keep bacteria in check and limit yeast / caustic attack on the concrete.
    Floors should be able to withstand the load you will be placing on them and excessively large tanks may require core drilled footings to prevent damage to the floor from cracking due to compression bending. Very poorly poured concrete floors can take about 2,500 psi, but a well poured floor done by pro's, from well chosen materials (Caltite mix, for example), can withstand 6,000 - 7,000 psi and are very hard. Our pad at B2 is Caltite. Not cheap, but stuff of the pharaohs!

    4.) Ceilings. My favorite is open trusses at least 15' off the ground. 17' - 20' is better for a horizontal truss to floor dimension, with a sloping roof pitch. Our peak at B2 is 27' or 28' from the floor, and we have (3) ceiling fans mounted at the centerbeam. High ceilings, though they are great for tall tanks and allow you to buy literally any used tank you could financially plan for, also will drive up your heating bills since hot air rises. Hopefully, if you are renting a warehouse space (as we did in an indstrial park), you get to walk around in it in the winter before you sign the lease. Exposed wood trusses are acceptable, as they will be far removed from the process. The bacteria or acetobacter infection that drives you crazy has all sorts of cool places to come from like that blown pump seal you haven't replaced, that stuck wad of hops in the heat exchanger, or that sanitizing rinse on your keg washer that came out pH neutral.........not that ol' creasote beam up there in the heavens.

    5.) Electricity. Until this last year, I had only experience with 1 or 2 phase power (110v or 220v). When we purchased the used equipemnt for B2 (which we also spent late Novemeber through December de-comissioning at the previous owners site) we saw that it was all 3 phase Delta High Leg power. Serendipitously, our industrial park facility we just rented had Delta High Leg 3 phase. Having run my own wiring at both home and at B1, I felt really glad to have 3 phase. Delta High Leg equipment will generally be rated at 208v - 280v 3 Ph.
    Why is 3 phase DHL (Delta High Leg) so nice? If you remember Watts = Volts x Amps, where Watts is a measure of power directly equatable to horsepower, you see that as the voltage goes up, the amperage requirement goes down. There are (3) legs to DHL; A = 120v, B = 208v, and C= 120v. Pulling off from legs A or C to neutral gives 120v power. A and C together give 220v - 240v (this is actually "2 phase", but most confuse it for single phase......each wire is a phase off the transformer). Wires A-B-C together produce 240 3 phase. When you use (3) wires to carry the power in lieu of 1, the amperage is dropped significantly, and you can indeed run that 3/4 hp pump on 16/4 wire! 3 phase pumps are more efficient and run smoother. Wire diameters are smaller.
    If you can't get 3 phase, then make sure you can get a double drop to your facility from the power pole. This will probably result in (2) meters and (2) breaker panels rated at 200A each, but your electrician can tell you more about that. I will state again that this all depends on yoru Brewery size. You may not need 400A, but if you have a Brewpub you most certainly will.

    6.) Sewer. Sewer districts are certainly getting finicky these days about what can and can't be dumped down the drain. We were dumping yeast for 10 years at our B1 facility when they came in and threatened to HUGELY increase our billing rate for the added BOD (Biological Oxygen Depleting) and TSS (Total Suspended Solids). BTW - They approved this dumping 10 years ago, I might add.
    To work around what to do with all this spent yeast, we installed a 500 gallon tank and pump directly to it from the fermeneters when dumping yeast. A sanitation service (who does "Honey Buckets"!) pumps the tank for us. No, it's not cheap, and some folks chemically treat their yeast prior to dumping down the drain, but that doesn't help your TSS count. Further, these days many sewer district are requiring separate retention basins for pre-treating effluent prior to it going to the sewer main. The only way to know this requirement is to talk with the sewer district folks. It helps to tour their plant so they know you're genuine.

    These are but a few, and I'm sure other colleagues here will chime in with others I have omitted for lack of time (cleanable walls, roll-up garage doors, ventilation fans, etc.). As you can see, Dog, the real facility requirements depends on:
    A.) The size of your brewing system.
    B.) The number of tanks you will have.
    C.) Production Brewery or Brewpub.
    D.) How much jing you have in your pocket.
    E.) How much rent your business plan will support (sorta like D, I suppose).

    I hope this helps..........

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    • #3
      Great Advice!

      Thanks for the great advice...so I'm looking at a brewpub. I'm looking at high traffic areas to get some good walk-in traffic. I was thinking that space zoned for restaurant space would likely be suitable for a brewpub (with some modifications). Does that sound right?

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      • #4
        Three things that are a MUST!
        1. Sloped, brewhouse/cellar floor WITH a trench drain.
        2. FRP(fiberglass reinforced panels) the walls.
        3. Insulate the glycol piping!
        Glacier Brewing Company
        406-883-2595
        info@glacierbrewing.com

        "who said what now?"

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        • #5
          Yeah, Glacier mentioned a few great points..............

          If you are in the site selection phase, a sloped floor is a must. 1/8" - 1/4" is customary. However, we don't use a trench drain, and yes, it would be nice. Our facility owner wouldn't allow it, so we went with a drain "pit" that pumps out when a specified level is reached.

          There are a ton of posts on this site based purely on that.

          FRP rules.

          Insulating your Glycol is manditory. We used "black foamy stuff" you can get at Hom Depot, but wrapped the tight joints with closed cell foam tape we got at McMaster-Carr. It sticks better than the tape you get at "The Depot".

          If you have a question on a particular subject, do a search on the item. There have been a LOT of dialogues on facilities on this website you can read and learn from that weren't around when I started a Brewery!

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