Ask Dr. Frankenbrew
10/8/23
If you are reading this, you and I are of like-minds perhaps. You want to get into the brewing business and pursue your passion, and you like the idea of Frankenbrew as a way to break into the business for less.
Maybe you’ve already done one brewery, sold it, and are thinking of starting another. Steve? Or would like to look at alternative ways to build or run a brewery. Yes, you and I are alike in that regard, and you, brave soul, are a Frankenbrewer. Embrace it.
This week I have a question that doesn’t have a clear cut answer, but let me try.
Question: Tom,
Would you recommend buying all your fermenters double the size of your actual brew house? It seems most brewery equipment "consultants" want you to spend an extra 20-30% in material costs, so you can double batch if needed, as they say it prevents you from not having to rebuy all new equipment if your consumer demand ever increases some day. Would you apply this to horizontal lager tanks due to the maturation time for lagers - thoughts?
Thank you,
Ian
Answer: Well Ian, first let me congratulate you on wanting to do a lager brewery. That will set you apart from the others. Of course I don’t know were you are located and you may be the only brewery around, but just as a reminder: Beer is so much more than IPA. So good on you to want to do lagers.
So let me start by saying “it depends.” First it depends on your budget and how much space you have. Second are you a manufacturing brewery or a brewpub?
For someone opening a manufacturing brewery, and I hope you are not, then yes, if you can afford it get double fermenters and a bright tank that you will package out of, go for it. But it you are going to be that big and you have the space, consider a conditioning tank to age your lagers. These are large dairy tanks that are typically horizontal, and very inexpensive for their capacity. Once fermentation is over, you can transfer to one of these tanks, lager it, then transfer to a bright tank for filtration and carbonation before packaging.
When I had the Palisade Brewery, my brewhouse was 20BBL, but my conicals and bright were 40BBL. That was a packaging brewery. I could comfortably brew only 20 BBL’s and not use the extra capacity but I had it for our popular brands.
However, if you are not doing a packaging brewery but instead a brewpub or tasting room brewery, the reality is you will most likely be brewing less than 1,000 BBL’s per year (as I’ve stated before, 93% of brewpubs and tasting room breweries do less than 1,000 BBL’s per year). You can easily do this with a 7 BBL system and four fermenters if doing ales. But for lagers your beer is going to be in the fermenter at least three weeks, then needs to be transferred to a conditioning tank to finish out for maybe another four weeks. In that case you might want six or eight fermenters, and then I would consider at least a couple of double sized Fermenters and conditioning tanks in addition to your regular line-up. Most likely at least one of your lagers is going to become really popular and you will want to double batch that one at least. The Dunkle, maybe not so much.
Even if you are a lager house, you still will probably also be brewing some ales, and yes, IPA. That one will be brewed often but as you can get it out of the fermenter in under two weeks, that frees up a bit more tank space.
Now even with a smaller lager brewery, if you have the cooler space, I would still consider dairy conditioning tanks. They will save you thousands, and even if they aren’t as pretty, no one will see them tucked into the cooler anyway.
Ian, send me a message (tom@coloradoboy.com) and tell me more about your project. I’d hate to think I didn’t answer your question fully enough.
