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  • Transporting mass quantity

    I am looking at opening a Brewpub in a densely populated city. Due to this, it is pretty much impossible to find a large enough space to house both a 15bbl system as well as a brewpub. Not to mention that rent is extremely high. We are considering producing our beer in a separate location (within a few miles) of our restaurant, which allows us a much larger space as well as the possibility for production expansion. We are considering brewing and fermenting our beer in this warehouse space and then transporting the beer to our brite/serving tanks a couple miles away at our pub.

    Instead of transporting our beer one keg at a time to our restaurant, we would like to do it in mass quantity. I'm sure I'm overlooking some major issue, but what would the obstacles be in transferring to a dedicated truck with a large stainless container, and then pumping it into our serving tanks at the restaurant?

  • #2
    It has been done before (transporting of beer or wort for processing elsewhere) but I would really question the cost benefit analysis. What is wrong with kegging and transporting? Are the visible serving tanks a big feature at the restaurant?

    Maybe it would be best to have a small pilot system at the restaurant to fill serving tanks and use the warehouse space for making your biggest sellers for the restaurant and any excess you want to distribute.

    Just a thought.

    On the other hand- if anyone has experience with this I would love to hear how expensive/complex it was as we are about to open in a smaller than ideal (if we grow quickly) space that has great traffic/visibility - future expansion may involve another site as the rent is a little high to keep expanding the current space.


    Brian

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    • #3
      ABC Issues?

      Does your state allow you to own/operate a retail and manufacturing licence simultaneously? Just asking, in Virginia where we are, you would have to also have at least a small pilot system in the pub with its own licence in order to get around the 3 tier issues.

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      • #4
        NJ laws aren't the best but they also aren't the worst. I'm still waiting on the answer if we can operate it under the same business. But if we cannot, we can operate as two separate businesses. NJ allows self-distribution so we can just sell from one business to the other.

        Yes, kegs would probably be easier, but we want the restaurant to feel more like a real brewpub rather than just a restaurant that happens to make some beer. Having large serving tanks and a pilot system at the restaurant helps with that.

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        • #5
          Double check your state's tied house laws before falling back on the We'll Just Create A Separate Company plan. Ownership stake in an alcohol production business may impact your ability to hold an ownership stake in a separate retail alcohol business, and vice versa. Each state is different on this.
          Russell Everett
          Co-Founder / Head Brewer
          Bainbridge Island Brewing
          Bainbridge Island, WA

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          • #6
            I know Granite City used to transport their beer (they might still.) I don't recall if they were transporting the pre-fermented wort, or if they were transporting the finished beer. Either is an option.

            Knock your brews out directly into the sanitized tank truck, deliver it to the brewery, add yeast in the fermenter, and away you go. That might also be a way around the licensing, since the brewpub will still be "brewing" the beer.

            Edit: Just looked at the Granite City website. They are in fact shipping the bitter wort between locations and fermenting on site. They say it's their patented brewing process, called "Fermentus Interruptus™"
            Last edited by kabrewku; 05-28-2015, 11:38 AM.

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            • #7
              Also check the patent laws under Granite City. They have some kind of patent on transporting beer in bulk. I think their patent is on transporting unpitched wort to another location and then pitching the yeast into the fermenter.
              Linus Hall
              Yazoo Brewing
              Nashville, TN
              www.yazoobrew.com

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              • #8
                I believe Firestone transports trucks of pitched wort to their barrelworks for fermentation. I've also seen trucks of bulk finished beer pump beer into large serving tanks. The latter is pretty common in parts of Europe, but is usually only done with one or two beers with the highest volume sales.
                Manuel

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                • #9
                  patent? really?

                  This has been done for at least a decade in Australia. More decades in Spain. And many more decades in the form of high gravity home brewing (also known as buy a can of malt syrup and ferment at home). A novel approach, it is not. And it is also not interrupting fermentation. And it is not then "brewed" on-premises. Is it?
                  Phillip Kelm--Palau Brewing Company Manager--

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                  • #10
                    Pilsner Urquell does it with their so-called "Tankovna" system, shipping beer in bulk within the Czech Republic, and recently to several UK pubs, as well.

                    Tankovna is a system where Pilsner Urquell delivers unpasteurized beer straight from the brewery to "tank bars" in Czech — and now in London (an 11 hour driv...

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