Moving a brewery

[burlybeer]

I have to move a brewery. The brewery is 7bbl and I think it would all fit on one truck, but is it OK to move fermenters and other tanks standing upright or do they need to be shipped on their side. I am particularly concerned about the stresses of the legs vibrating and cracking the cone.

What is my best avenue for shippers, should I contact a moving company or is there a particular kind of shipper that deals with industrial equipment. Any other advice or pointers?

Thanks

[GlacierBrewing]

I have to move a brewery. Is it OK to move fermenters and other tanks standing upright or do they need to be shipped on their side.

What is my best route for shipping, should I contact a moving company? Any other advice or pointers?

Thanks

While the tanks could probably take being shipped on their sides, I have always thought it would be better to have the tanks shipped standing upright. When I shipped our brewhouse, I insisted the tanks were upright. They take up less space on the flatbed, they CAN be strapped down and secured just fine and you won't have to worry about jackets cracking.

my two cents.....

Prost!
Dave

[Airidini]

How big is the brewery? How large are the tanks, ie. 7bbl, 10bbl, 15bbl, 30bbl?

[jazzmac]

Yeah, if the tanks are over 10 feet tall you run into height issues on the roads. We shipped our entire brewery from WY to CT on 4 flatbeds and a box truck. The 5 40 bbl fermenters were fine being shipped on their sides.

[burlybeer]

Sorry, I've edited my questions for better clarity. Thanks for the responses so far.

[jazzmac]

If the trucking company secures the load properly, there should be no problem. Stainless is pretty tough, and securing it correctly will prevent any issues.

[schlosser]

Moving Brewery

We just brought our 15 BBL Brewhouse, 15 BBL Fermenters and Bottling line from Philadephia area up to Rochester NY. We hired a lowboy trailer from a Towing Company (they move equipment as part of their business). All of the tanks were loaded upright and there were no issues. I believe we could have had tanks up to 11' tall and still been OK on the height.

Be careful who you hire. You can get a really good price from some people, but the driver may not know how to secure things or help you do so. We paid a premium (around 3 K for the entire load), but our driver was a true professional and helped load and secure the tanks and bottling line. The entire trip went by without a hitch.

We ended up getting our company through a referral from an investor, but I'd had looked for rigging companies as well as trucking companies. You may also want to look at heavy equipment and towing companies as they may have the trucks you need and may move equipment on the side.

Cheers,

Dave

[lhall]

A 7 bbl system might fit into a box truck. We moved our 10 bbl system from Iowa to TN in a 53' box trailer, with the tanks crammed in so they were touching with carpet inbetween the tanks and between the walls. No problems.

[Airidini]

lhall is correct. A 7bbl system will fit into a box truck trailer as long as one will accomodate every tank the brewery has. I helped uninstall and load two such MonoblockII systems, their cellars and peripherial equipment each into their own box trailers. They shipped from Florida to Arizona without incident. Everything was standing upright with heavy multi-layers of cardboard between each tank controlled by tie-down ratchet straps. Also, an industrial desiel powered tow motor (fork lift) with extended skis and wood chucks will be best suited for loading/ unloading once you get a tank close to the rear of the truck. A pair of floor jacks with wood chucks will be enough to move the tanks about whilst in the truck trailer. You could use industrial skates under each foot pad of the tanks to move them about as well, providing proper height clearance. Also, ratchet straps will be needed to stablize the tank to the two motor lift frame while loading/unloading.