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Sizing brewpub addition to a taphouse/brick oven pizzeria

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  • Sizing brewpub addition to a taphouse/brick oven pizzeria

    Gentlemen (and ladies of course!)

    I need help sizing our system... our establishment already having 24 beers on tap!

    We opened a brick oven pizza and craft beer bar in March of 2010, in a sleepy college town (Greenwood, SC) of 20,000, with 70,000 in our county. We have enjoyed tremendous success and support from our community, somewhat pioneering the local craft movement (everyone used to leave town for culture…) in our town. We have been a bootstrap operation, building the place ourselves in an old abandoned downtown row-building on a tight budget. As time and growth allowed, we purchased the neighboring building and installed a larger cooler and a long-draw 24 line draft system about 2 and a half years ago. About 18 months ago, we turned the front 2/3s of the newly purchased building into expanded restaurant space, and we have been fortunate enough to have continued our growth and have filled out our newly expanded space. For the remainder of our new space, we have about 450 sq ft that we allocated to what was a hopeful spot for a brewery. So here we have arrived; as the best establishment to tackle the task of being the local brewpub, and equipped with experienced award winning home brewers in our area ready to turn the page with us. We are currently repairing the concrete floor (proper drainage, etc) and setting up the brew space. 450 sq ft is what we have, so we hope to make the most of it.

    A few other notes to precede the discussion… In the past year we have sold about 100 bbls of draft beer on 24 lines. Our top four beers (macro craft, like blue moon, fat tire, dogfish 90min and Westbrook White Thai) have sold about 27 bbls worth in the trailing 12 months. In our state (SC), brewpubs have no ability to distribute, so that does not need to be factored in, however ‘togo’ sales are unlimited (growlers, and I also wonder what other vessels might be allowed) so I would like to think we will experience some growth in that area. There is, of course, always the chance that the ever evolving brew laws may change to be more like surrounding states (NC, GA) with a more successful beer industry.

    So here are our challenges… sizing a system based on current consumption (not much), and the fact that in house brews will be competing with our commercial brews available on tap. We plan to serve 3-6 beers on tap, and our hope is for at least 2 of those beers to replace top sellers. We are currently teetering between a 2bbl and a 3.5bbl system, with (3) 2-4bbl jacketed fermenters. We plan to keg (no room for brites), and have a 50 degree cellaring room for the mass keg storage that will likely be needed. We also have the main long-draw cooler for whatever is on tap. I am trying to keep expansion in mind, so we discussed putting in a 3.5bbl brew system with 2bbl jacketed fermenters… so if the need arose to grow we would only have to replace fermenters and not the whole brewhouse. We’ve considered several different scenarios, but rather than lay them all out I thought we might leave it to the pro brewer community for any input you have to offer!

    If there is any interest, I'm happy to provide a floorplan or any other data anyone might feel would be helpful.
    Last edited by Geep; 03-17-2014, 06:06 PM.

  • #2
    Get the bigger system. Brew days are long, and you will brew less. Not to mention the increase in capital cost is minimal at that level. Just think, after a hard day of brewing, would you rather have 4 kegs to sell, or 7? (more likely 6 and two sixtels vs 3 and one sixtel)

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