Bells & Whistles
Lucky me, I get a lot of feedback from brewers about these articles and also suggestions for new ones. This one comes from my friend Lance Johnson of Forgeworks, which build brewing systems here in Colorado.
The way we teach our Immersion Course is to emphasize building a brewery business without spending unnecessarily. So to me, avoiding all the pretty extras in your brewing equipment seems like a waste of money.
Many equipment manufacturers are having their brewing equipment made in China, and a lot of it has components that while look nice, aren’t needed to make great beer. I’m talking about mash tun rakes, hard piping, computer controls in the brewhouse, etc.
Don’t get me wrong, these things are needed in large breweries, 15 BBL’s and up, but for the majority of brewery start-ups, which are less that that in size, it just adds expense and cost. You really only need there basics for a brewpub or small brewery tasting room.
For example, you need
Kettle, direct fired preferably with a site glass and CIP spray ball and condensate drain.
Basic Mash Tun. It should include a false bottom, vorlauf, and sparge. A CIP would be nice as well as an attachment for a grist hydrator.
Hot Liquor Tank. This just holds your sparge water. It does not need to be insulated or have a heat source. Use your kettle for this water, and heat the water up to 180, and by the time you sparge you will be right at 170 (you are brewers, you know what I mean).
A good Sanitary Pump. Put this on a cart you can move around, and get a pump that is a known brand where you can easily purchase pump seal replacements.
An adequate Heat Exchanger. I like to put these on wheels, so they can be moved into position on brew day and then moved out of the way when not needed, but you could just as well mount them permanently to a wall if you have the space.
Grant. This can be any simple vessel to catch the wort coming out of your mash tun and then pumped to the kettle. By not pumping right out of your mash tun, there is less chance of a collapsed and stuck mash. I use a keg with a tri-clamp and the bottom.
Fermentation Vessels. These could be nice conical tanks, or simple Letina Tanks, or inexpensive dairy tanks. They need to be jacketed for glycol and of course sanitary.
Serving Tanks where beer is conditioned, carbonated and either served out of or kegged and packaged out of. They can be single wall in a cold room, or glycol jacketed. I prefer single wall and serve right out of them.
Hot Hose. You only need about 20 feet of hot hose, divided into one 8 ft section, and two 6 ft. sections. That will be enough to transfer from mash tun to kettle, whirl pool in your kettle, and transfer to the heat exchanger before moving your wort on to the fermentation vessel.
Transfer Hose. I like the clear Nutriflo hose that GW Kent sells. Buy it in 100 ft rolls and use it as your transfer hose, and also as blow off hose on your fermenters.
Glycol System set up for your fermenters.
Parts and Pieces. Extra tri-clamps, gaskets, butterfly valves, tees, elbows, a microscope, hemocytometer, accurate hydrometers in Plato
There are lots of little things as well, but this is basically all you need for your brewing equipment. I didn’t mention a rake for your mash tun, or a brewers platform, or a fancy control panel, or any hard piping that connects your mash tun to your kettle to your hot liquor tank to your pump and multiple valves. What a nightmare.
Instead you have a pump on a cart and two hoses that connect tanks. Instead of a control panel you have one on and off switch on your pump.
You will make beer just as good as with those systems that come with all the bells and whistles that cost $150,000 to $250,000. Your brewing system should cost much less than $100,000. I can set one up for less than $50,000.
When you are putting together your brewing package, ask the manufacturer you choose to do business with if they can just sell you the tanks you need without all the other crap that just costs you money, but not a lot of bang for the buck. Then spend your savings on building your brewing business for less money, which means you will be out of debt that much sooner.
If you choose to build your brewery this way, as Pedro say’s, “All your dreams will come true.”
If you have any other ideas for things you would like covered in these articles please reach out to me.