Moving beer from brewery to off-site tap house

[torque2]

I now own an historic commercial building (built in 1866) in a high traffic area that I want to use as my tap house. I am planning out a 5 bbl brewery in my 3,000 ft2 shop on the property where I live (~ 12 miles from the tap house). The tap house does not have the space for an on-site brewery. I'm trying to figure out what is the best way to carry out distribution/serving. If this was a brewery / taproom in one setup I would obviously be serving out of brites, but transporting makes me think I'm limited to kegging at the brewery and serving from a walk-in. Has anyone faced this same issue? Are there any other ways to do this? Could beer be transported in bulk and then carbed at the tap house? I have a trailer mounted 250 gallon stainless dairy tank that could be used to transport. It could then be gravity fed or forced into brites in the basement of the tap house. I'm going to use brites at one end or the other. Looking forward to reducing need for cooperage and keg cleaning. Is this unrealistic / insane?

[Bizmut]

I'm considering the same thing as there is no suitable building to house a brewpub with its own production on site (medieval town - small buildings).. My plan is to use something like Pilsner Urquell uses in Prague http://www.landerholm.us/Prague/photos/pilsnerTruck.jpg

So a horizontal serving tank with a cooling system. I'd fill it with the finished beer and just transfer it to my on site serving tanks. The truck provides free marketing while it drives around, has a "cool" factor to it and its the easiest to transport finished beer in bulk.

And as it wouldn't be used that frequently for transferring beer to the pub, and it would be done early in the morning because of city code, it could also be used for events, festivals, concerts, etc. with a diy stand with a tap.

[TFC]

I now own an historic commercial building (built in 1866) in a high traffic area that I want to use as my tap house. I am planning out a 5 bbl brewery in my 3,000 ft2 shop on the property where I live (~ 12 miles from the tap house). The tap house does not have the space for an on-site brewery. I'm trying to figure out what is the best way to carry out distribution/serving. If this was a brewery / taproom in one setup I would obviously be serving out of brites, but transporting makes me think I'm limited to kegging at the brewery and serving from a walk-in. Has anyone faced this same issue? Are there any other ways to do this? Could beer be transported in bulk and then carbed at the tap house? I have a trailer mounted 250 gallon stainless dairy tank that could be used to transport. It could then be gravity fed or forced into brites in the basement of the tap house. I'm going to use brites at one end or the other. Looking forward to reducing need for cooperage and keg cleaning. Is this unrealistic / insane?

All depends on your state laws on what is allowable.


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[torque2]

Glad to see I'm not the only one out there tackling this issue. In oregon self-distribution is legal, if that is the concern to which you are referring.
Fortunately, with such a short distance to transport I shouldn't have to worry about a cooling system en route.
Are you talking about being able to pressurize the tank to carbonate for events and festivals? I don't think my tank can handle pressure and wouldn't it need some sort of certification to function that way? That would be one big ass keg!

[TFC]

Each state per the 21st amendment has jurisdiction on their liquor laws and definitions. Here in MN we do have the right to self distribution. I know because Lake Superior and I had to work on keeping them intact back in '05 when we almost loss them. Further your state is also granted the authority on definitions. So one state may define the tank as a large keg another may define it as a transport tank. Best to check with your state regulators for final answer as they will have the final say on the matter.


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[Bizmut]

I live in Europe and we are also allowed to self distribute, so I can only look at this from a technical point of view but it can be done. If you can push the fermented beer from the dairy tank with CO2 you have everything you need. Like I said, some large breweries in Europe distribute finished carbed beer like this to bars, you could just hook up a CO2 line from the cellar when you deliver your beer. I hope you find a good solution.

[foestauf]

I now own an historic commercial building (built in 1866) in a high traffic area that I want to use as my tap house. I am planning out a 5 bbl brewery in my 3,000 ft2 shop on the property where I live (~ 12 miles from the tap house). The tap house does not have the space for an on-site brewery. I'm trying to figure out what is the best way to carry out distribution/serving. If this was a brewery / taproom in one setup I would obviously be serving out of brites, but transporting makes me think I'm limited to kegging at the brewery and serving from a walk-in. Has anyone faced this same issue? Are there any other ways to do this? Could beer be transported in bulk and then carbed at the tap house? I have a trailer mounted 250 gallon stainless dairy tank that could be used to transport. It could then be gravity fed or forced into brites in the basement of the tap house. I'm going to use brites at one end or the other. Looking forward to reducing need for cooperage and keg cleaning. Is this unrealistic / insane?

Beer is much less susceptible to infection than dairy products and they transport that all over the world. Goose Island transports their barrel aged products to a separate barrel aging facility through the use of bulk dairy tanks to be aged and then bulk tanked back for packaging.