So.
Sometimes things go strange.
The brew system I spoke of... It's kind of in limbo.
See- people are all different. What is completely normal to one person, is strange to another.
Push comes to shove, there is a local supplier who is NEW to building complete systems, who is getting a quote together for us. This is not to say the system has any problems or drawbacks, it is simply dealing with what some may consider an "unknown"
The local supplier can provide a very high level of support, which is certainly a plus.
So. People. Look at it like this- a brewery is a collection of stainless steel tubes with holes and plugs in it. Plus fermenters, which are double layered tubes with a cone shaped bottom and holes and plugs. Plenty of valves and clamps are involved, but that's beside the point.
In a brewery, you want a consistent product to result. In home brewing, the brewer uses thermometers and timers to make the product as consistent as they wish. Though this is fine, when it is for sale and taxable, there is a bit higher expectation. A brewery CONTROLLER helps this process by monitoring and adjusting the process. Human interaction is important, and electromechanical assistance is helpful to monitor and alert to potential problems.
A brewery controller is a device which monitors temperatures then makes something happen. In the mash tun, the brewery controller turns a heating device (electric or gas or steam) on or off. In a Mash Tun, similarly the controller turns a pump or element or something on or off. Boil kettle, pumps, etc. In fermentation, the brewery controller will open or close valves which allow glycol to move in or out of the jacket surrounding the vessel, cooling the wort depending on the monitored temperature.
The brewery controller is not that difficult. It can boil down to simple thermo controllers.
To ensure the consistency, it is very helpful to be able to program the controller to do some of these things autonomously, and repeatably.
SO- as with most things, the devil is in the details. Making all these little things work together, is where the critical point occurs. How easy is it to see all the details of the brewery or each fermenter? How do you program a "schedule" for these things? This is where it gets sticky.
Never a dull moment. It is important to remember- keep your eye on the prize. Particularly in the situation we find ourselves in, having a committed team will overcome the obstacles, no matter how large. Helping each other, being able to understand the perspective of each team member, and knowing that everyone is striving for the same goal, is INVALUABLE. Frustrations will occur, and having faith in your team will keep you grounded.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Brewery Size
What size brewery should you get? There are a LOT of factors to consider.
What kind of brewery do you intend on opening? Production to retailers, taproom, brewpub...
How much volume do you need to produce?
What KIND of beer... do you intend on doing "strange" beers? Lagers?
How much space do you have for your brewhouse?
We struggled with this question. It's a big deal. I mean-
In our case, we had thoughts of a 2 bbl, a 3 bbl, a 3.5 bbl, and a 7 bbl.
The 7 bbl came into play for only a short (though critical) time because we got word that a local brewery was going to expand and would possibly have a 7 bbl available for sale. Unfortunately, this didn't fit our timeline as they were buying a 15 from someone who was having a 30 built... with the delay between each brewer installing and then decommissioning their brewery, then shipping it, etc etc etc... it just didn't work. Personally, I thought that was too big for us anyways.
The 2 bbl is the closest to a homebrew system. The grain bills are relatively small, initial cost is the least. There are "off the shelf" systems ready to ship. Sabco makes a 2 bbl system. I mean, it doesn't get more "homebrew" than that.
We went with a 3 bbl system. It produces enough to take care of the pub, plus a few extra kegs for promos or select accounts. It is a small enough system that "crazy" beers aren't using incredible resources and can rotate. The brewpub is not going to have the "standard 5" taps. Though we may do a pale ale, an IPA, a hef, a stout, and an amber... there isn't an expectation that any of these will be on "all the time". IF we have a beer which guests want in regular rotation, then yes- we can do that. The expectation is that there will be a constant stream of different beers available. A 3 bbl allows this to happen. I mean, with the constant push to innovate, 3 bbl is a good number to add strange ingredients- it's quite flexible.
A 3 bbl system can produce, with our fermentation space, considering every brew goes perfectly and we do no lagers, 675 bbl per year. This is every fermenter full, every day of the year. 14 day brew cycles gives 25 cycles per fermenter per year. 3, 6 bbl fermenters, and 3, 3 bbl fermenters. That's 9 brews every 2 weeks. SO- don't really expect THAT to be the case. I will still have to clean the fermenters, keg the beer, and perform standard maintenance. BUT- if need be, the max amount we could do is 675 bbl. That's a LOT of beer for a brewpub with 20 additional guest handles on.
The space is a bit limited in the area we have available. It's beautiful- like a huge courtyard. The brewing space, however, is in a 9' x 22' room. The fermentation room is 9' x 11' and the grain mill room is 9' x 11'. SO- we've got some storage issues, and we are going to have to build an additional area for keg cleaning and storage. We're also building a 22' x 12' walk in cooler for keg storage since we are serving out of kegs and not "serving vessels", due to space limitations in the Keg cooler for the pub. The brewhouse will fit in the brew room comfortably. The fermentation area will be tight.
This is how we ended up with a 3 bbl system.
NOW- what is it you ask? It's a BrewMation electric rig with LOTS of gizmos. Pretty "Cadillac" for a first time pro brewer, to be sure.
Some Press:
Mouth by Southwest Article
What kind of brewery do you intend on opening? Production to retailers, taproom, brewpub...
How much volume do you need to produce?
What KIND of beer... do you intend on doing "strange" beers? Lagers?
How much space do you have for your brewhouse?
We struggled with this question. It's a big deal. I mean-
- You don't want to undersize and run out of beer
- You don't want to oversize and spend too much money up front
- Is there room for the brewery of "X" size in your space?
- What kind/size fermenters are you using? (this affects a lot of things)
- What systems are available to you?
- How much money can you spend comfortably?
- Is the brewery a "showpiece" or is a down-and-dirty setup OK?
In our case, we had thoughts of a 2 bbl, a 3 bbl, a 3.5 bbl, and a 7 bbl.
The 7 bbl came into play for only a short (though critical) time because we got word that a local brewery was going to expand and would possibly have a 7 bbl available for sale. Unfortunately, this didn't fit our timeline as they were buying a 15 from someone who was having a 30 built... with the delay between each brewer installing and then decommissioning their brewery, then shipping it, etc etc etc... it just didn't work. Personally, I thought that was too big for us anyways.
The 2 bbl is the closest to a homebrew system. The grain bills are relatively small, initial cost is the least. There are "off the shelf" systems ready to ship. Sabco makes a 2 bbl system. I mean, it doesn't get more "homebrew" than that.
We went with a 3 bbl system. It produces enough to take care of the pub, plus a few extra kegs for promos or select accounts. It is a small enough system that "crazy" beers aren't using incredible resources and can rotate. The brewpub is not going to have the "standard 5" taps. Though we may do a pale ale, an IPA, a hef, a stout, and an amber... there isn't an expectation that any of these will be on "all the time". IF we have a beer which guests want in regular rotation, then yes- we can do that. The expectation is that there will be a constant stream of different beers available. A 3 bbl allows this to happen. I mean, with the constant push to innovate, 3 bbl is a good number to add strange ingredients- it's quite flexible.
A 3 bbl system can produce, with our fermentation space, considering every brew goes perfectly and we do no lagers, 675 bbl per year. This is every fermenter full, every day of the year. 14 day brew cycles gives 25 cycles per fermenter per year. 3, 6 bbl fermenters, and 3, 3 bbl fermenters. That's 9 brews every 2 weeks. SO- don't really expect THAT to be the case. I will still have to clean the fermenters, keg the beer, and perform standard maintenance. BUT- if need be, the max amount we could do is 675 bbl. That's a LOT of beer for a brewpub with 20 additional guest handles on.
The space is a bit limited in the area we have available. It's beautiful- like a huge courtyard. The brewing space, however, is in a 9' x 22' room. The fermentation room is 9' x 11' and the grain mill room is 9' x 11'. SO- we've got some storage issues, and we are going to have to build an additional area for keg cleaning and storage. We're also building a 22' x 12' walk in cooler for keg storage since we are serving out of kegs and not "serving vessels", due to space limitations in the Keg cooler for the pub. The brewhouse will fit in the brew room comfortably. The fermentation area will be tight.
This is how we ended up with a 3 bbl system.
NOW- what is it you ask? It's a BrewMation electric rig with LOTS of gizmos. Pretty "Cadillac" for a first time pro brewer, to be sure.
Some Press:
Mouth by Southwest Article
New Brewery Visits
Let's see... how many breweries have I visited?
That's really an impossible number to even think of. I remember in 1996 visiting Miller in Milwaukee. We visit San Diego as a family ALL the time, inevitably visiting myriad breweries.
Where have I BREWED? Or... been a "guest brewer", at least having an intimate part in brewing rather than a simple tour...
San Tan Brewing in Chandler, AZ on my 40th birthday - Devil's Ale
Mudshark Brewing in Lake Havasu, AZ - Tangerine Horchata Wit
Lightning Brewing in Poway, CA (San Diego) - Elemental Pils
Grand Canyon Brewery in Williams, AZ - Ruby Red Grapefruit IPA
In September I will be visiting College Street in Lake Havasu, and Joseph James in Henderson, NV.
There is also a chance that James and I will brew at The Bruery in September, but not positive about that one :)
Last weekend, I went on a tour with my friends in the Arizona Society of Homebrewers, to Flagstaff. On this tour, we visited Wanderlust. When I saw the system that Nathan was brewing on, I knew that it was the perfect system for The Perch. (I'll have another post about choosing a system...)
We also visited Mother Road, Lumberyard, and Beaver Street. When you are a homebrewer, brewery tours have a completely different feel than just being a beer fan. Homebrewers are in the brewery, relating the equipment and processes in the brewery, to the equipment and processes in their home. Sometimes the items translate directly, sometimes the scale of a brewery changes the process.
For example, Cold liquor tanks. This is not necessary in a homebrew system. My system has an inline water filter. At 3 Gallons per minute, I can fill my HLT in 3 minutes. In a professional system, that would take 45 minutes. SO- clearly you would want to have a faster method to fill your HLT. Instead of just using water pressure to go through a restrictive filter, you simply add a reservoir which fills continually, then pump filtered water from this reservoir, into your HLT at a much faster rate. This water can also be kept in (in my case) a refrigerator. This gives cold water which can be used to help with wort cooling after the boil, then circulated back into the HLT for your next brew, already hot, thereby recycling the energy consumed in one brew, into the next brew, while also using the water twice rather than running off the chill water.
There are several things like the above example which a homebrewer simply would not think of, because the scale of homebrewing simply doesn't require the attention to certain things which are important in a professional system.
That's really an impossible number to even think of. I remember in 1996 visiting Miller in Milwaukee. We visit San Diego as a family ALL the time, inevitably visiting myriad breweries.
Where have I BREWED? Or... been a "guest brewer", at least having an intimate part in brewing rather than a simple tour...
San Tan Brewing in Chandler, AZ on my 40th birthday - Devil's Ale
Mudshark Brewing in Lake Havasu, AZ - Tangerine Horchata Wit
Lightning Brewing in Poway, CA (San Diego) - Elemental Pils
Grand Canyon Brewery in Williams, AZ - Ruby Red Grapefruit IPA
In September I will be visiting College Street in Lake Havasu, and Joseph James in Henderson, NV.
There is also a chance that James and I will brew at The Bruery in September, but not positive about that one :)
Last weekend, I went on a tour with my friends in the Arizona Society of Homebrewers, to Flagstaff. On this tour, we visited Wanderlust. When I saw the system that Nathan was brewing on, I knew that it was the perfect system for The Perch. (I'll have another post about choosing a system...)
We also visited Mother Road, Lumberyard, and Beaver Street. When you are a homebrewer, brewery tours have a completely different feel than just being a beer fan. Homebrewers are in the brewery, relating the equipment and processes in the brewery, to the equipment and processes in their home. Sometimes the items translate directly, sometimes the scale of a brewery changes the process.
For example, Cold liquor tanks. This is not necessary in a homebrew system. My system has an inline water filter. At 3 Gallons per minute, I can fill my HLT in 3 minutes. In a professional system, that would take 45 minutes. SO- clearly you would want to have a faster method to fill your HLT. Instead of just using water pressure to go through a restrictive filter, you simply add a reservoir which fills continually, then pump filtered water from this reservoir, into your HLT at a much faster rate. This water can also be kept in (in my case) a refrigerator. This gives cold water which can be used to help with wort cooling after the boil, then circulated back into the HLT for your next brew, already hot, thereby recycling the energy consumed in one brew, into the next brew, while also using the water twice rather than running off the chill water.
There are several things like the above example which a homebrewer simply would not think of, because the scale of homebrewing simply doesn't require the attention to certain things which are important in a professional system.
What has happened here, pray tell?
This blog will now become the blog of a homebrewer going pro.
NOW, I know a lot of homebrewers want to go pro, and have a "journey". As these things go, my journey was a fast one.
In March of 2011 I started homebrewing. I was instantly hooked, obsessed, and could NOT get enough. I went to the 2011 NHC in San Diego and 2012 NHC in Seattle. I have taught classes for the City of Chandler twice (the third session starts in October) and for Whole Foods.
I've got a further blog about my homebrew adventures at http://www.dahbrew.com for more info on that.
I have always been aggressive about sharing my beer, my thoughts on beer, and generally very inclusive of others, frequently hosting brew-outs and get togethers inviting new homebrewers to my home to learn while watching 2 or 3 brews at the same time, in my driveway.
Being such a builder of community afforded me opportunities to visit professional breweries and do guest brews with my friend James Swann, who is well known in the Craft Beer community here in Phoenix, having driven Whole Foods in Chandler to meteoric sales levels, in a BAR IN A GROCERY STORE. This is no easy feat and James is very good at marketing and promotion, along with offering very unique beers. Since he did so much volume, he really had access to many beers other retailers couldn't get. He also had a large cellar where he could collect and store beers for timed releases.
James was invited, and resisted, an opportunity to open a restaurant/pub with a fan, Rebecca. Eventually, the desire to break out of the restraints of ONLY running a beer bar, got to James and he relented, agreeing to join Rebecca. He had only one condition- that the restaurant include a Nano Brewery, and that I come on as the brewer. Rebecca agreed and the adventure began!
The only problem is, I knew nothing about this.
James approached me and offered me the opportunity. I was flattered and thrilled. I have a job that I actually LOVE- Catering Operations Manager. The only problem is, I love brewing more.
After thinking and talking and negotiating, we came to an agreement that works for everyone and our adventure is about to begin!
The brewpub (as I will call it for simplicity's sake from this point forward) is called The Perch and it will be opening in late October as a restaurant and taproom, and I should begin brewing in January.
Prosit!
NOW, I know a lot of homebrewers want to go pro, and have a "journey". As these things go, my journey was a fast one.
In March of 2011 I started homebrewing. I was instantly hooked, obsessed, and could NOT get enough. I went to the 2011 NHC in San Diego and 2012 NHC in Seattle. I have taught classes for the City of Chandler twice (the third session starts in October) and for Whole Foods.
I've got a further blog about my homebrew adventures at http://www.dahbrew.com for more info on that.
I have always been aggressive about sharing my beer, my thoughts on beer, and generally very inclusive of others, frequently hosting brew-outs and get togethers inviting new homebrewers to my home to learn while watching 2 or 3 brews at the same time, in my driveway.
Being such a builder of community afforded me opportunities to visit professional breweries and do guest brews with my friend James Swann, who is well known in the Craft Beer community here in Phoenix, having driven Whole Foods in Chandler to meteoric sales levels, in a BAR IN A GROCERY STORE. This is no easy feat and James is very good at marketing and promotion, along with offering very unique beers. Since he did so much volume, he really had access to many beers other retailers couldn't get. He also had a large cellar where he could collect and store beers for timed releases.
James was invited, and resisted, an opportunity to open a restaurant/pub with a fan, Rebecca. Eventually, the desire to break out of the restraints of ONLY running a beer bar, got to James and he relented, agreeing to join Rebecca. He had only one condition- that the restaurant include a Nano Brewery, and that I come on as the brewer. Rebecca agreed and the adventure began!
The only problem is, I knew nothing about this.
James approached me and offered me the opportunity. I was flattered and thrilled. I have a job that I actually LOVE- Catering Operations Manager. The only problem is, I love brewing more.
After thinking and talking and negotiating, we came to an agreement that works for everyone and our adventure is about to begin!
The brewpub (as I will call it for simplicity's sake from this point forward) is called The Perch and it will be opening in late October as a restaurant and taproom, and I should begin brewing in January.
Prosit!
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