Brewhouse floor and drain

[mgranath]

I'm about to build a new brewhouse and i have thinked a bit about this.

- Shall the floor slope toward the middle or to a corner? The room is 7 x 5 meters.
- Should I have more drains? A slot is not possible.
- Epoxy or tiles on the floor?

Micke

[jfulton]

Slope at 1/8" to 1/4" per foot to center floor drain. The number of drains will depend on the size of your "wet" areas. As a small brewpub we have one twelve foot drain between the brewhouse and fermenters and two small 3" drains in the bright tank area. Definitely tile! Most epoxy will not last on the brewery floor.

[CaptainEBC]

I am starting a similar operation and am running into the same types of floordrain questions.

Is it absolutely necessary to slope the floor? I am planning a small 3 bbl system. Originally I had plans to have a 5X12' sloping slot drain arrangement in front of the brewery. After seeing a 15 bbl brewery with just a flat slot drain and hoses running into it, I thought of going this way this to save money.

At such a small brewery size, does it make sense to spend more to have a more complex drainage system, or just save some cash and buy a couple of squeeges?

Heres a picture of my current sloped design:

https://www.enegrenbrewing.com/images/brewery/brewery-cutaway-from-fermenter-side.JPG

[lhall]

It's good to run hoses to a drain whether you have a sloped floor or not. But no matter what, your floor will get wet. And now is the only time to put in the proper floor. When you are spending hours squeege-ing your floor in the future you will wish you had.

[mgranath]

The slope of the floor of the brewhouse in my current brewery is non-existent. I am sure that the floor must slope, I just do not know where it is best to place the floor drains.

[samhuff]

A center drain would be best.

A corner drain would be different, you could slop the floor to the drain and recess the drain in a small 2'x2' basin to catch EVERYTHING and then put grating over the basin to make it "walkable".

I would also put containment at the walls, that way if there is a spill, it gets caught by the containment rather than going under the wall and into the restaurant or next door shop (if there is one). This can be done easily even with existing walls and buildings by just coming in and pouring the containment berms and then finishing it off with a heavy layer of sealant and caulk where the berm meets the existing floor.

If you wanted to check the slope in your existing space, you could always do a marble test. Just take some marbles and drop them on the floor, they will roll to the lowest point in the room which is where your drain should be.

[Jim Lieb]

Get the floor sloped! The first brewery I worked in the General Contractors did not pay attention to the concrete people during construction and I paid the price. I had 2 drains in the floor a 12" and a 5", the 5" was at the highest spot on the floor. The corners were the lowest spots and water just pooled there. When I cleaned beneath the Brew house, I needed someone else there with a squeege, because when I pushed the water out from underneath, it would go out the doorway into my grain storage area. I use to kid folks that I was a nationally rank squeege operator. I use to spend at least the last 5-10 minutes of my day squeeging the floor.

As for epoxy vs. tile, I have worked with both. If using epoxy, get the higher temperature epoxy installed. Epoxy does wear off in higher traffic areas and may need replace eventually. If installing tile, make sure chemical resistant grout is used, and when that wears away, it gets re-grouted or the tiles will start to lift.

Jim Lieb
Rocky River Brewing Co.

[sdgbrew]

slope

I am going to be moving into a building that already has drains but the slope is only about 1 inch over 15 feet... What do you guys think of that? Do able?

Thanks

[Vendetta]

I am going to be moving into a building that already has drains but the slope is only about 1 inch over 15 feet... What do you guys think of that? Do able?

Thanks

I worked in a brewery with no slope and small circular drains, so it is doable, but we had outlying curbs to keep everything in. Get to love your squeegee, though.