What equipment does a commercial brewery need?

Starting a commercial brewery requires an array of equipment to handle the various stages of the brewing process. There are several factors to consider when purchasing major equipment for your brewery. In this article, we&#;ll look at the basic parts you&#;ll need and discuss the various options involved.

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What is commercial brewing equipment?

Commercial brewery equipment is specialized equipment and machinery used for commercial beer production. It includes important components designed to help the brewing process, maintain quality control, and maximize efficiency. From commercial brewery equipment to fermentation vessels, every component plays a vital role in the production of high-quality beer.

Commercial brewing process

1. Milling: The process begins with milling, and crushing the sprouted grains to open up the starch within them. The consistency of the grind affects the efficiency of mashing.
2. Mashing: In a mashing barrel, ground grains are mixed with water at a specific temperature to convert starch into fermentable sugars. This step creates a sweet wort that is the basis for all beer flavors.
3. Boil and hop: Transfer the wort to a brewing kettle and boil, adding hops to impart bitterness and aroma. This is a critical step in defining the characteristics of the beer.
4. Fermentation: After boiling, the wort is cooled and transferred to a fermentation tank. Yeast is introduced to convert sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, thus forming beer.
5. Conditioning and Filtration: Once fermentation is complete, the beer will enter the conditioning stage to further develop flavor. Filtration removes any impurities, leaving a clear and stable product.

• Mashing: Mashing equipment is the process of mixing grains (ground grains) with hot water to extract sugar from the grains. This process usually takes place in the mash tun. The temperature of the mash tun can be controlled to allow for the different enzymatic reactions required to break down the grain&#;s carbohydrates into fermentable sugars.
• Filtration: The filtration process is carried out in the filter barrel. This is the process of separating spent grains from liquid wort. The wort, which contains the sugars needed for fermentation, is then transferred to the brewing kettle.
• Boil and hops: Brewing kettles are used for the boiling process where hops are added to add bitterness, flavor, and aroma. Boil the wort to sterilize it and remove any unwanted flavors.
• Cooling: After boiling, the wort must be cooled to a temperature suitable for yeast fermentation. This process uses a heat exchanger, which cools the wort without the risk of contamination.
• Fermentation: The cooled wort is transferred to a fermentation vessel and yeast is added to it. Yeast consumes the sugar in the wort, producing alcohol, carbon dioxide, and various flavors. The temperature control system ensures that the fermentation process takes place at the optimal temperature for the yeast strain used.
• Maturation: After initial fermentation, the beer is usually transferred to conditioning or maturation tanks, where it continues to develop flavor over weeks or months.
• Filtering and Carbonation: Beer can be filtered to remove any remaining solids and carbonation can be added if necessary.
• Packaging: The final step in the process is packaging the beer into bottles, cans, kegs, or other containers for distribution and sale.

Commercial Brewery Needs Equipment Checklist

Brewery

You won&#;t get very far without the equipment to brew beer. Once you have the ingredients you need, like grains, yeast, hops, and anything else you add to your beer, it needs to go somewhere to start the brewing process. This is a critical piece of equipment needed to mass-produce beer and distribute it.

Malthouse

Grinding the grains you choose to use in your beer is the first step in brewing. A malt mill is a piece of equipment that can grind large amounts of grain at once. Considering you&#;re likely going to be consuming a lot of grains, you want something reliable that lasts a long time and goes through many batches. You don&#;t want the mill to grind the grain into particles that are too fine, as this will cause your mash to clump and stick to the mash tub, causing more problems later.

Mash tun

The mash tun has temperature control and allows you to mix the grains with water to produce the desired mash. The mash tun also heats the mixture, which helps break down the starches in the grains and convert them into the sugars needed to make the beer alcoholic.

Hydrothermal tank

Thermal tanks store and heat the water used in the brewing process. It provides hot water for mashing, sparging, and cleaning.

Wort cooler

After boiling, the wort needs to be quickly cooled to a temperature suitable for fermentation. Wort coolers, usually in the form of plate or shell and tube heat exchangers, help achieve this by transferring heat from the hot wort to the cold water.

Fermenter

When you&#;ve fully brewed your beer and added the basic ingredients, the next step is to transfer it to a fermenter, sometimes called a single tank, depending on the style. Commercial breweries require quite a few breweries, and they need to be larger to accommodate the large volumes of beer you want to produce. This is where you add yeast and turn the wort into real beer. Fermenters are carefully controlled environments that help yeast convert sugar into alcohol.

Brit tank

Once fermentation is complete, you&#;ll need a place to store it. For smaller operations, you can technically store your beer in a fermentation tank. However, commercial breweries need to immediately release these fermenters to produce new batches of beer so the beer can be transferred to beer tanks for storage. Brite tanks are not just for storage, though, as the environment in a Brite tank helps ferment beer carbonate faster so it can be packaged and consumed more quickly.

Heat source

There are three types of heating systems:

• Steam heating
• Electric heating
• Heating by direct fire

If the budget is limited and the brewing system capacity is less than L, electric heating is the best choice. But, if a brewing system exceeding L requires power support, besides to the higher electricity costs for daily operation, more funds may be required to install the power requirements for brewhouse operation.

Filtration equipment

Between the different tanks you have throughout your brewery, you need to have the right technology in place to filter your beer as it&#;s being brewed. One of the key reasons you need to take filtration is that it removes yeast and other solids from your beer. While not all these substances are inedible or will spoil the product, if not removed early, they may affect the taste in ways you don&#;t want or cause the product to spoil faster.

Carbonation equipment

Carbonation equipment is used to add carbon dioxide to beer to bring it to the desired level of carbonation. This can be done with a carbonator or carbonation tank, which dissolves carbon dioxide into the beer under controlled pressure.

Cleaning equipment

Maintaining cleanliness and hygiene is essential for brewing. CIP systems allow breweries to clean and sanitize beer equipment without disassembling it. It involves circulating cleaning solutions and disinfectants through the various components of the brewing system.

Filling system

Whether you use cans or bottles, you need a filling machine. There are many different types to choose from. Especially with bottlers, you need to know whether you want to package carbonated beer or rely on bottle conditioning for carbonation. If you plan to package carbonated beer, you will need an isobaric (counterpressure) bottling or canning line.

How to choose your commercial brewery equipment?

Choosing the right commercial brewing equipment is a major decision that can have a profound impact on the efficiency of your brewing operation, the quality of your beer, and ultimately the success of your business.

Capacity

Your equipment should meet your brewing needs in terms of output. Consider your current needs, but also keep future growth in mind. If you plan to expand your business, you may want to choose a system with higher capacity to accommodate this growth. The YoLong team can help you design your commercial brewing equipment layout.

Quality

The quality of your equipment will affect the quality of your beer. High-quality equipment lasts longer, performs better, and may save you money on maintenance and repairs in the long run. Check the quality of materials used, workmanship, and the reputation of the manufacturer.

Function

Different brewing systems offer different features and levels of automation. Some brewers may prefer to practice using a manual system, while others may choose a more automated system to streamline the brewing process and increase consistency.

Flexibility

Some systems are designed to be versatile, allowing you to brew various styles of beer without the need for extra equipment. If you plan to produce a variety of beers, look for a system that offers this flexibility.

Space requirements

Consider the size of your brewing equipment and the space available in your facility. Ensure system comfort and efficient workflow.

Budget

Cost is an important factor, but it shouldn&#;t be the only one. In the long run, cheap equipment can end up costing you more if it doesn&#;t perform or requires frequent repairs. Always consider the value the equipment provides quality, functionality, and potential return on investment.

After-sales service

Look for suppliers that offer good after-sales service, including installation, maintenance, repairs, and spare parts supply. This support is invaluable in keeping your operations running .

Supplier reputation

Choose a supplier with a good reputation within the industry. Look for reviews or ask for references to make sure they are reliable and provide high-quality equipment and service. With a strong focus on quality and customer service, MICET has developed a reputation as a reliable brewing equipment supplier.

Today I want to share some real world brewery equipment tips, from projects I&#;m working on right now.

I&#;m working on projects for The Philippines and Japan. One is a direct-fire system, while the other will use a gas steam boiler.

As we move through the process, I&#;ve had to make some adjustments to the project, working with both the client and manufacturer.

The reason I&#;m writing this is well I had one big issue, which came up and well&#;freaked me out!

It was the position of the wort outlet on a brew kettle/whirlpool!

Wort Outlet Height &#; Real World Brewery Equipment Tips

Why did it freak me out? Well, as I reviewing the kettle drawings on behalf of the client, I saw this:

So, I asked a simple question, how many liters of wort were below the wort outlet please?

The answer came back at 50-liters!!!

Imagine losing 50-liters of wort every time you brew&#;it&#;s way too much. Please note, this was a 350-liter system.

Now when it comes to brewing you can&#;t get all the wort out of the kettle. As there&#;ll be some trub and hop matter at the bottom of the kettle, after the collection has finished.

Depending on the setup, you&#;ll have either combined whirlpool/kettle or they&#;ll be separate vessels.

Brewers use a whirlpool to form a hop cone, to separate this matter (trub and hop) from the wort. You can&#;t get all the wort, but you want to minimize the loss.

Typical Whirlpool Cone in a Craft Brewery

50-liters is way too much, especially as we&#;ve added a hop strainer to this project. To learn more about adding a hop strainer to your system, please read this article.

When it comes to your own brewery project, make sure you ask about the wort volume below the wort outlet.

In this project we lowered the wort outlet to 20-liters. As this is a 350-liter brewhouse; 50-liters meant losing around 14% of the brew, in the kettle.

Now we&#;re losing 5.7% (20-liters below the outlet) but, this will be mostly trub and hop matter. A much better scenario.

The strainer protects hop matter and trub from entering the heat exchanger.

When having a hop strainer before the heat exchanger, make sure it can be isolated and cleaned, in case it becomes blocked.

Strainer being taken out of the housing

When Using RO (Reverse Osmosis) Water &#; Ensure Cold RO Water Can Be Pumped to Your Water Mixing Station

Whatever set-up you have, be it a fully-automatic or manual brewhouse. Ensure the RO water for both mashing and sparging uses both hot and cold RO water.

I&#;ve seen many setups where the hot water from the HLT (hot liquor tank) is RO water.

However, if this water is too hot, and needs to be mixed with cold water, it&#;s from the mains rather than RO.

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When you use RO water; it&#;s best to have a buffer tank of treated RO water.

Connect the piping from the buffer tank so, treated cold RO water can be used at the water mixing station, on the brew-deck.

So, all the water used in the brew, is fully RO water. Is the best solution for a brewer.

Real World Brewery Equipment Tips &#; Sizing Up

This is something I talk about a lot, especially with tanks size. It pays to go bigger with unitanks, as you end up with more available tank volume, for a cheaper price.

Tanks prices aren&#;t logarithmic; a 2,000-liter FV (fermentation vessel) isn&#;t twice the price of a 1,000-liter FV.

They take roughly the same amount of time to make, it&#;s simply paying for the extra materials.

For example, The Philippines project I&#;m currently working on is a 350-liter system. I advised them to get 1 x 1,000-liter tank. So, they&#;ll brew in to the FV, three times to fill it.

You&#;re saying, Neil &#;3 x 350-liters is 1,050-liters&#;.

Yes, you&#;re right&#;

Factoring in Beer Losses

However, with beer losses from the whirlpool and from chilling the wort, a 1,000-liter tank will be sufficient.

Furthermore, 1,000-liters tanks are standard in the industry. Having one tank which needs to be filled up three times, over the course of two-days is good for this project.

It can ensure the clients have stock of the biggest seller, at all times.

As you can see in the above picture, the price of a 350-liter tank is $2,920, whilst for a 1,000-liter tank it&#;s $4,930.

3 * $2,920 = $8,760 for 3 x 350-liter unitanks

 &#;> Which is $3,830 more than $4,930 the price of 1 x 1,000-liter unitank.

There&#;s a significant saving there. As well as taking up less space too, one big tank instead of three small tanks.

Please note: Most cellar tanks automatically have 20% head space. Meaning a 1,000-liter FV can actually hold 1,200-liters or more.

This extra headspace is for the krausen, to learn more please read this article.

Keg Washer and Other Equipment

This just doesn&#;t apply for just tanks; it can be the same for other equipment too. It&#;s always worth asking for the next size up. For example, the project I&#;m working on for Japan&#;

The client was insisting a single head keg cleaner, was all he needed. He was looking to save money on the project.

I only work with reputable suppliers.

On this project the supplier quite rightly pointed out, a double head keg cleaner was a better option, as pricing was similar.

If you look at the pricing below, you can see a single-head keg cleaner is $6,700 while the double-head option is only $7,000. Just $300 dollars more to clean kegs, twice as quickly.

It&#;s worth paying extra, to have the double-head option. It&#;ll save time in labour plus, will be useful when sales volumes increase as the brewery grows.

An Example of Double Head Cleaner &#; This One is Actually in Stock in a Baltimore Warehouse, click here for more info

Spare Pump with Seals for Hot Liquids &#; Real World Brewery Equipment Tips

For pretty much every project I advise on, I always add an extra transfer pump to the list. The transfer pump, is a workhorse in every brewery.

It&#;s used for moving beer in the cellar, mixing adjuncts and finings, can be used with a hop gun and for CIP&#;ing (clean-in-place) cellar tanks.

I suggest getting an extra pump with special seals. So, the transfer pump, can replace a brewhouse vessel pump, if one goes down.

&#;> The special seals allow a pump to work with hot liquids; like near boiling wort.

Often my clients live in remote places, where getting a pump fixed, will take some time. So, having a pump on-the-shelf ready to go, means much less downtime.

It can actually save a brew day.

Furthermore, I always ensure extra gaskets and seals are sent with the brewhouse to replace broken ones. Be it for pumps, brewhouse vessels or cellar tanks.

Last note on pumps: Make sure all transfer pumps have VDF (variable drive frequency) controls. So, the speed of a pump can be adjusted as needed.

Brewery Pump With Cart and VDF Controls

Local Regulations &#; Real World Brewery Equipment Tips

Make sure you know the local regulations; of the place you decide to house your brewery. A brewery is often subject to quite a lot of protocols/guidelines.

This can vary from waste water treatment to having a separate room for a gas-powered boiler. It also, can relate back to equipment too.

For example, ensuring you have the right paperwork for pressure rated vessels.

There are also laws unique in certain countries, which if you don&#;t know about, can lead to unnecessary expenses down-the-line.

Pre-Testing of Seals, Gaskets and Hoses

For example, the project, I&#;m working on for Japan. Japanese regulations require some very unique pre-testing on things like gaskets, seals and beer hoses.

Where it makes sense to send samples to be tested so, everything is tested and passed before the equipment arrives.

Furthermore, vessels need to have markings every 2mm on the tank so, you know how much liquid is in each vessel, via a sight tube.

These Measurements Were Not Allowed &#; As They Were Only Every 5mm (Not the 2mm Regulations State)!

I&#;ve never come across these requirements before. However, the equipment supplier and I are working with the client, to ensure these checks and requirements, are taken care of.

If we didn&#;t prepare for this in advance, we could have had some real issues when we sent the brewhouse, if the proper checks hadn&#;t been done in advance

A lot of these Japanese requirements, are linked to historic regulations in the sake industry. It&#;s a pain, but something we simply need to take care of.

As you can see, it&#;s worth doing your research to ensure you know every local regulation.

To make sure the equipment made will pass inspection, ensuring a much easier delivery process.

Packaging &#; Real World Brewery Equipment Tips

I understand building a brewery is expensive, with equipment often being the largest capital cost.

However, when it comes to packaging into can or bottle, it&#;s not the place to try and save money.

I often get people who come to me for assistance, after already contacting some suppliers themselves. They&#;ve a quote from a Chinese supplier, for all their equipment.

We call these &#;turnkey project&#; quotes; which includes everything from the RO machine to the packaging line. 95 times out of a 100, the bottling line is similar to the one pictured below.

Typical Craft Bottling Machine Sent With A Chinese Turnkey Project

The bottling line is generally costs less than $10,000, the client is happy, and asks me what I think&#;

Always Look at the O2 (Oxygen Numbers)

When it comes to small-scale packaging lines in China, they generally worthless. The important metric to ask about, is the O2 (oxygen) numbers.

For beer in cans and bottles; you want packaged O2 below 60ppb, ideally below 30ppb is better.

In general, these &#;bottling lines&#; provided by Chinese equipment suppliers, get nowhere near these O2 numbers.

Even for Chinese companies, which claim to be &#;beer packaging specialists&#;, have some insane numbers in real-word situations.

Here&#;s a conversation in a WeChat brewers&#; group, I saw a while back. Where they are talking about a Chinese company, which makes beer packaging lines.

Always Check the O2 Numbers These Machines Supposedly Produce

Seeing O2 numbers in the hundreds, let alone the thousands will compromise your beer and have little shelf life. Getting all your equipment from one supplier, never makes sense.

Buying packaging equipment from China always needs to be thoroughly researched. There is one small-scale canning line I do recommend.

You can learn more about it, by reading this article, I wrote about it.

Often, I&#;ll get auxiliary equipment, like a keg washer from a different supplier than the main brewhouse equipment manufacturer&#;you&#;ll end up paying less, for a better equipment.

Real World Brewery Equipment Tips &#; Conclusions

Thanks for reading the article. As I say, I&#;ve experienced some recent issues on projects, I&#;m currently working on.

I wanted to share these with you, as they are not uncommon issues. It&#;s certainly worth knowing about them.

Every project is different, throwing up unique problems I need to overcome for the client. Which I work through with the manufacturer and customer together.

Need Help with Your Own Brewing Project

If you&#;re currently working on putting a brewery together, and would like some assistance or simply would like to talk it through. Then, feel free to reach out to me.

I&#;ve been a brewer for over 25-years, having worked on a number of different systems from brewpub to production breweries, around the globe.

I help people around the world with:

Put together equipment lists &#; From the project scope, a client has shared with me.

Identify reputable suppliers &#; Who are within budget and can fulfill the needs of the project. I&#;ve worked on equipment made by the suppliers personally, or have people in my network who recommend them.

Assist in the communications &#; Help ensure both parties (client and manufacturer) are on the same page; when it comes to the equipment and layouts. For example, ensure the wort outlet pipe is properly placed.

Be there to answer any questions &#; Often I&#;m there to make suggestions or answer client questions. We use an instant messaging service so, I can share pictures or videos to explain stuff, as needed.

Plus, a whole lot more. So, please feel free to contact me, my address is:

Or you can message me directly on your preferred network. Simply scan the relevant QR code below, add me and then send a direct message on there.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to discussing your project.

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