Brewhouse Size

Colorado Boy Montrose. There is an auger run from mill to the mash tun

I have seen a lot of discussion on various Facebook groups about what size you need for your brewhouse, and I thought I would give my 2 cents on this as well. You know where I’m going to go with this discussion - small. Oh, I can see the eyes rolling, but there is no discussion needed about wanting more space. Everyone, me included, would like the largest brewhouse you can get, but that’s not always possible.

Much of this depends on the size of your operation of course. For discussion purposes I will concentrate on the 7BBL brewery or smaller, which make up the vast majority of breweries in the U.S. Why? If you look at the annual survey that the Brewers Association puts out in the New Brewer magazine, by far, over 80% of the barrels produced are under 1,000 per year. When you are in that category, you just don’t need a really big system. Depending on yeast strain and type of beers produced (ales vs. lagers) a 7 BBL brewery with 3 fermenters will get you there.

What you need in your brewhouse therefore is a kettle, which is about 54 inches in diameter, a mash tun - the same, a hot liquor tank, which can be a stand alone of only 32 inches (that’s what we use, not insulated and no heat source. It’s located on a stand just outside the brewhouse) or one stacked in combination with your mash tun. You also need your three fermenters, which are about 42 inches if conical, or if using a Letina Tank, then 32 inches - by the way if I used all Letina Fermenters, I could fit 4. Plus a pump, which is on a cart, and a heat exchanger, which can also be on wheels and moved or securely attached to a wall. I also think you need a table to set stuff on and a sink.

In addition you want a mill, which is about 2 foot square and a flex auger to your mash tun. This mill can be in an adjacent room where you store you grain. At Colorado Boy all our grain takes up about 2 pallets and we order once a month. So this room is about 10 by 10 or 100 Sq. Ft.

There is also the conditioning room. This is where your kegs and serving tanks are stored. I like serving tanks rather than a single jacketed bright tank that you have to keg off of, but that’s just me. In our Montrose location this room has 5 tanks and is only 6 by 16. When it comes to cold storage, the bigger the better so you can store more beer, but it was all the room I had to work with.

So now back to the brewhouse. Ours is too tiny but we have been using it for years and it works. The room has a brew kettle, mash tun, hot liquor tank, 2 conical fermenters, and one Letina, pump, heat exchanger, utility sink, and stainless table. The dimensions of this room are 10 by 16. That is of course a mer 160 sq. ft. I would love it to be bigger of course, but I just wanted you to know that you could get by with only that much space.

What do we get out of this? Well, we have eight beers on tap, with one or two of them lagers. We also have one cask on all the time. If we had more space I would love to do some barrel aging, but you have to work with what you have.

Yes, go as big as you can, if you can. But going small allows your location search to open up quite a bit. As I’ve said in the past, I can squeeze a brewery into just about any space. The Ridgway Colorado Boy is even smaller if you can believe that.

If you want me to look at what you are planning just reach out to me. I’m happy to take a look.