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30 BBL Equipment Profile

browaar

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My partner and I are in the process of completing our business plan and need to determine the cost for each batch of beer we plan to brew. We have our recipes set in Beersmith, but need to set up a mock 30 BBL Equipment profile to scale the recipes. I understand that everyone's equipment is different, but we just need a baseline to estimate cost for investors. This is what I have so far after reading posts from other members, but could use some help to make sure its accurate.


 

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I have so many questions... 

Some thoughts:

Talk about and show your numbers in barrels. It is the industry standard number, plus investors can visualize it.

The mashtun dead space had better not be 15bbl! I think you're using that as capacity?

Expecting 1.2 bbl of loss to fermentation is very optimistic. I lose 1.75bbl to yeast and CO2 on 15 bbl, without dry hopping, and that's using a pretty good DE filter. Dry hopping adds 1.25 gallons of loss per pound of pellet hops. A little less if you use bags.

You're going to have some loss to trub. I have an older system that holds 1.3bbl. I just installed another brewery system that only loses 0.3bbl.

You can use chase water to recover wort in the chiller and hoses. Try to design your system so that the HLT can feed water to flush the manifold after both mash recirc and kettle knockout. It really recovers a lot of wort and makes cleaning much easier.

Boiloff will be 5 to 8%. For BeerSmith, your "boiloff" should include evaporation for whirlpool, stand time and chilling. I lose 0.6 bbl, during that process. Boil and post boil totals 1.8bbl, for me.
 
Thank you for the valuable feedback! I had another member reach out to me as well. He stated that if I am operating and production brewery with a 30BBL system that the system will have additional capacity to make sure I can always brew 930 gallons and I should adjust to have 930 gallons or 30BBLs after losses etc... So I have taken both of your feedback and incorporated it into my profile. Please let me know what you think!

Thanks again,
Aaron


 
That seems like a good starting point. With these numbers, you're not more than a couple hundred pounds different in grist. Good enough for estimates.

In brewing, most of your profit is made and lost in efficiencies that have nothing to do with wort production. Simple things like steam and glycol chiller capacity, floorspace, drains and access for trucks will be "hidden" beer costs that add up to much more than ingredients.

Whatever your plan, if you pay up front for growth and minimal labor needs, you'll reach profitability much sooner. I.E. Sloping floors for good drainage can save 2 hrs of labor to squeegee, every day. With taxes, that labor is around $12,000 a year. Time much better spent on filling kegs!

Same with investing in a 4 head, automated keg washer. You think you won't need it now, but it frees you up to do something else, without having to monitor it.

Maybe I sound like a curmudgeon in these posts. Sorry. I just hate to see a lot of enthusiasm and inspiration killed by poor planning. I just read about a respected, award winning brewery who will be shutting down at the end of this month. This despite 58% growth in the last two years. Why? They went cheap and have virtually no automation. This means margins so thin that they can't afford to reinvest, much less handle a rent increase or rise in minimum wage.
 
Aaron:

Just wanted to say thanks for posting this. We are in the same stage right now, and you made it easy on me! Hope everything is moving forward for y'all.

Cheers!
Craig
 
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