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Building a brewery

kw642

Master Brewer
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Nov 23, 2018
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Location
Toronto
I'm currently brewing 10g batches and it's going great.  So much so, that I'd like to scale up to 30g batches.  Any advice on kettles, designs, pumps (never used a brew pump before) etc., would be greatly appreciated.  Also, to make a 10g batch suitable for 30g on Beersmith - do you just multiply all your ingredients by 3?
 
Beersmith has a scale feature to help you scale recipes. Keep in mind a recipe usually needs adjusting.  You need your new equipment profile first.

When brewing larger batches, cooling takes more water and time. A lot more of both.

Folks often underestimate the heat needed to get 45 gallons to boil too.  A little propane tank isn't going to cut it.
 
I would look for a manufacturer offering a complete 1 barrel system. There are several who do so... Blichmann, SS Brewtech, Spike... just to name a few. And as jomebrew said, please don't just multiply by 3! Simply by asking that question... and I am not trying to be snarky, flippant or a smart ass...perhaps you should wait until you've built up a larger foundation of knowledge before taking such a leap.
 
As a brewer of larger batches (25g usually) I can attest to several factors here that have been mentioned.

1: It's not just that easy.
2: my electric bill skyrocketed when switching to eherms 10g batches to eherms 25g batches in 32g kettles.
  a: like... wow... running up to three 6kw elements at various times during a brew day is huge.
3: You really, really, need to spend some more time brewing on your current level. If you've never used a pump etc. before, perhaps you should just upgrade your current system to make your brewday more productive and enjoyable?

most importantly, why do you desire the upgrade? what is your current setup and brewday like?

honestly I often miss my smaller rig, I could have a brew day start to finish in about 4-5 hours. with my larger system I find it often runs closer to 6-7 hours. (longer time to heat, cool, more cleaning, etc.)
 
Good advice, thank you.  I picked up a pump and I'm going to try it with my current set up.  I wasn't looking to triple production right away, just with the way things are trending (supply isn't meeting demand) I felt that I should find out what's involved as the time will likely come where I'll need to do it.  This summer I've brewed 10g every other week, sometimes even weekly - we entertain a lot!  I think I'll add pieces over time as you suggested, starting with the brew pump.
 
As an individual one can brew 100g per year, max 200 gallons per household. One also cannot sell or take any sort of compensation for their beer... So be cautious.

Brewing commercially is a huge headache. If you're just entertaining friends, I would suggest perhaps a single step up, to a half barrel brewhouse. If you're brewing predominately low gravity beers you can easily top off a half barrel brewhouse to get 30+ gallons of say 1.050 wort.

something that may help you if your personal demand is only during summer time, would be to brew beers that store well (pilsner, stout, etc) in the winter, and keep them in cold storage for summer.
 
dtapke said:
As an individual one can brew 100g per year, max 200 gallons per household. One also cannot sell or take any sort of compensation for their beer... So be cautious.

He's from Toronto. I don't believe Canada has such limits on how much you can make.

 
gotcha, quick search didn't turn up much other than you can't have more than 50 gallons on premise according to this post:

https://www.canadianhomebrewers.com/viewtopic.php?t=2618
 
I'm a bit curious, if you've already been brewing 10g batches bi-weekly, what have you been brewing on? I've responded to your post on building a mash tun, this makes me assume you haven't been brewing 10g batches all grain?

What do YOU want from your brewery?

Are you asking about the differences from HERMs to RIMs to BIAB?

Each setup has its pro's and cons, I'm an eHERMs brewer. Oginme is a BIAB guy, I'm sure someone here is a RIMs brewer...
 
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