From my experience, just about everyone gets way too small a brewhouse out the gate. It’s very rare that someone regrets buying too large of a brewhouse-and I’m talking 30 barrels or less, because buying a 50 or 60 bbl brewhouse that’s where you can get yourself in trouble. Even taking the advice of buying a 10 bbl system, I’ve seen so many regret that, sometimes even within a year or two. Now, with markets getting tighter, the conversation of going too big is certainly more relevant, but when you look at what your potential growth could be, especially since labor costs a lot more now than when I first started brewing, you’re gonna spend a whole lot more in labor doing multiple turns in the long run. Plus it’s a lot more expensive to expand after opening than before (you’re very likely could have to move buildings). You really need to know your market and have a realistic 10-year plan. I can’t tell you how many people that buy a 10 or 15 bbl brewhouse and buy only, or mostly only, double-fill tanks out the gate. The amount you could potentially spend in labor in one year will generally pay for twice the size of brewhouse. Also, you can design the brewhouse where it affectively can brew half batches or near half batches depending on the gravity, which makes a whole hell of a lot more sense than setting yourself up with always doing multiple turns. My favorite size is a 20 barrel system because if it’s well designed you can make anywhere from 10 to 15 barrels on it And also go over 20, which you could get away with not ever having to buy another brewhouse ever again. I designed a 3-vessel 20 bbl system that could do about 12 to 15 bbl of a moderate gravity, and I got up to 29 bbl into the boil kettle for a lower gravity beer. Did that order right before Covid hit and that same order a year would have been almost $100,000 more. Don’t just settle with stock designs and dimensions for brewing equipment. If a company doesn’t want to bend at all, then that’s not really a company I care to do business with because there are a lot of designs out there that are pretty shitty; if you’ve never used a pro set up before, then it’s easy to get taken advantage of.
I am the head brewer at a brewery with a 5 BBL/ 2 V brewhouse, we have 4,5 BBL uni's and 4, 10 BBL uni's. we have 25 beers on tap and sell about 20-30 1/2 BBL's per week. Sometimes we brew 3-4 times per week, sometimes just1or 2. on rare occasions we will do 2 turns of the same beer.
A dark and a pale ale from the brewhouse can be 50 different beers in production. Different mix, different dryhoping, adding isohops, high gravity delution etc. As you said, better have larger fermentationtanks than brewhouse. 2-5 brews in a tank. I would then put some money into some smaller tanks for mixing, dryhoping small products without wasting tank capacity in the large tanks. Or you are stuck with the high selling products, ie lager, pale ale. I work in a brewery with 250 hl brewhouse and 1000 (850+ headspace) hl fermenters. Its like an oiltanker, big and slow. We don't maka anything less than 200 hl and that is wasted capacity. Mostly filled tanks.
I brew beer in my shed but even there good planing ahead helps a lot. Great video, will definitely dive in into your channel as I'm thinking of going big! Greetings from UK.
Hey Janus....thanks for watching. I really appreciate it. I've pretty well soft launched this channel and I hope that the number of viewers and subscribers grows in the future. Don't forget to tell your friends!
Thanks Dustin - I'm taking a couple of weeks out as I'm sorting out some back end stuff to get editing happening much quicker but I'll be back soon....I've got heaps of info to share. Thanks for watching!
Almost all modern fermentation vessels are also pressure vessels so you could pressure ferment there if you wanted to. The issue with fermenting in a bright tank is without the cone, it's difficult to dunno yeast off. I hope that helps. Thanks for watching!
Two quetions Hendo. 1. How do I work out my forecast for beer production? 2. What is "high gravity" beer production and what is it about it that makes you so enthusiastic?
Hi Mark A, Good questions! 1 - If you're yet to build your brewery then your business plan and the financials will lead you to how much annual output volume you need (don't forget to factor in future growth). If you're already established, then previous sales will be your guide. As you start in your brewing business, you'll get better at predicting production. 2 - I love high gravity wort production because it's highly efficient and very easy to implement! The main advantage is - imagine having a tank that required 3 brews to fill and you could fill it in just 2 brews thus saving 8 hours of brewing time? That. See my videos on the topic - th-cam.com/video/T3-fjTKIktg/w-d-xo.html and th-cam.com/video/-GqiH-NEHLc/w-d-xo.html. Thanks so much for watching :-)
@@RockstarBrewer Thanks for getting back so quick. I'm that guy you spoke about - an amatuer home brewer who suddenly has the chance to start his own small brewery and is in great need of professional help. I don't want to blow it.
Hey am from south Africa am a learning brewer but my beer shelf life only make one week how can I extend my beer shelf life and what kind of sterilized chemicals must I use. I Wil appreciate you feed back.
boiling water and acidic water+chlorine bleach solution. done it since I've started, never had an issue I've left pakaged beer in 60F (15.6C) for several months to see how it changes/if it's infected, and I've never really had an issue other than hop-creep on a couple of beers i got a bit of hop material in the packaging (I don't really filter).
Hey Hendo, I love your videos being technical but concise. My tap water is 800ppm and I manage to get it down to 45ppm with a reverse osmosis. Waste water has 1100ppm and have large amount of this. Can I use this 1100ppm water for my cleaning? Also, should sparge water have the same water profile as the brewing water or RO water is fine? Cheers!
This is a really good question. Water chemistry is something I'm quite passionate about. I need your help to clarify your question though ... When you say your tap water is 800ppm, what exactly are you referring to? Normally, a water test has the different ions such as CA, SO4, Cl etc listed out. Let me know and I'd be happy to make a video about water chemistry.
Oh I get asked this all the time! My advice is to not connect any hoses up to your filter for best results when brewing this style. Thanks for watching!
Hey there Hendo, thanks for sharing these tips and tricks, a question I have (similar to the question below) where should I aim for in regards to PH? I know mash is 5.5 / 5.2 and always check my final runnings is not over 5.8 but where do I need to be at kettle up, F/O and final beer or finished beer PH? Cheers Hendo, Mike 🍻🍻
Hi Hendo thanks for the great content I'd like to ask about what you said about being able to fill 1 fermentation tank with several brews. How does one go about this? Do you pitch the yeast after the first brew and simply top up the fermenter with more wort and yeast after the follow up brews? Or add the yeast once all the brews are in the fermenter? What is the limit with how long wort can sit in the fermenter without pitching yeast?
Typically, a brewery will pitch yeast after the first brew. Then you simply brew on top of that. This can be done over a couple of days even. Thanks for watching!
High gravity brewing is a technique developed by accountants and engineers to maximise beer volume production over cost. If wort and beer quality are paramount, then HG brewing is off the table.
From my experience, just about everyone gets way too small a brewhouse out the gate. It’s very rare that someone regrets buying too large of a brewhouse-and I’m talking 30 barrels or less, because buying a 50 or 60 bbl brewhouse that’s where you can get yourself in trouble. Even taking the advice of buying a 10 bbl system, I’ve seen so many regret that, sometimes even within a year or two. Now, with markets getting tighter, the conversation of going too big is certainly more relevant, but when you look at what your potential growth could be, especially since labor costs a lot more now than when I first started brewing, you’re gonna spend a whole lot more in labor doing multiple turns in the long run. Plus it’s a lot more expensive to expand after opening than before (you’re very likely could have to move buildings). You really need to know your market and have a realistic 10-year plan. I can’t tell you how many people that buy a 10 or 15 bbl brewhouse and buy only, or mostly only, double-fill tanks out the gate. The amount you could potentially spend in labor in one year will generally pay for twice the size of brewhouse. Also, you can design the brewhouse where it affectively can brew half batches or near half batches depending on the gravity, which makes a whole hell of a lot more sense than setting yourself up with always doing multiple turns. My favorite size is a 20 barrel system because if it’s well designed you can make anywhere from 10 to 15 barrels on it And also go over 20, which you could get away with not ever having to buy another brewhouse ever again. I designed a 3-vessel 20 bbl system that could do about 12 to 15 bbl of a moderate gravity, and I got up to 29 bbl into the boil kettle for a lower gravity beer. Did that order right before Covid hit and that same order a year would have been almost $100,000 more. Don’t just settle with stock designs and dimensions for brewing equipment. If a company doesn’t want to bend at all, then that’s not really a company I care to do business with because there are a lot of designs out there that are pretty shitty; if you’ve never used a pro set up before, then it’s easy to get taken advantage of.
I am the head brewer at a brewery with a 5 BBL/ 2 V brewhouse, we have 4,5 BBL uni's and 4, 10 BBL uni's. we have 25 beers on tap and sell about 20-30 1/2 BBL's per week. Sometimes we brew 3-4 times per week, sometimes just1or 2. on rare occasions we will do 2 turns of the same beer.
A dark and a pale ale from the brewhouse can be 50 different beers in production. Different mix, different dryhoping, adding isohops, high gravity delution etc.
As you said, better have larger fermentationtanks than brewhouse. 2-5 brews in a tank. I would then put some money into some smaller tanks for mixing, dryhoping small products without wasting tank capacity in the large tanks. Or you are stuck with the high selling products, ie lager, pale ale.
I work in a brewery with 250 hl brewhouse and 1000 (850+ headspace) hl fermenters. Its like an oiltanker, big and slow. We don't maka anything less than 200 hl and that is wasted capacity. Mostly filled tanks.
Thank you so much for explaining everything in detail. I'm no where near brewing this size but its nice to know info.
I brew beer in my shed but even there good planing ahead helps a lot. Great video, will definitely dive in into your channel as I'm thinking of going big! Greetings from UK.
Thanks for sharing all these uncommon knowledge. Good luck with the relaunch of your channel. You deserve to have way more subscribers and views...
Hey Janus....thanks for watching. I really appreciate it. I've pretty well soft launched this channel and I hope that the number of viewers and subscribers grows in the future. Don't forget to tell your friends!
Nice video, as a homebrew guy this was very interesting, cheers!
Thanks for this video. I've just found your channel and subscribed, and look forward to see more of your content.
Cheers!
Thanks heaps for watching!
Really grounded and quality advice. Top stuff! Thank you :)
So much great information …thank you !
Glad it helped. Thanks for watching!
Great content Hendo!, Looking forward to your future videos.
Thanks Dustin - I'm taking a couple of weeks out as I'm sorting out some back end stuff to get editing happening much quicker but I'll be back soon....I've got heaps of info to share. Thanks for watching!
@@RockstarBrewer + Your going to blow up here soon, with subscribers and views.
Really cool information , thanks a lot Rockstar
This bloke makes a lot of sense.
Hey man, love the video, it will help me a lot! But i noticed your background... is it from breaking bad?
Great video thank you.
Would a bright tank be a good option for pressure fermentation?
Almost all modern fermentation vessels are also pressure vessels so you could pressure ferment there if you wanted to. The issue with fermenting in a bright tank is without the cone, it's difficult to dunno yeast off. I hope that helps. Thanks for watching!
Cheers Hendo- great video!
Best video yet... good work. Keep it up hendo. Cheers 🍻
Hey Paul ....thanks for watching. I'm glad that this channel is having an impact 😀
saved a lot of time and paper watching this video, cheers mate!!
Well if you're building a brewery and you want me to dive deeper into ab aspect of that, let me know what you'd like me to cover. Happy to help!
Thanks for making these videos.
Thanks for watching 🍺😁
Your tips are awesome thanks a lot
Two quetions Hendo. 1. How do I work out my forecast for beer production? 2. What is "high gravity" beer production and what is it about it that makes you so enthusiastic?
Hi Mark A,
Good questions!
1 - If you're yet to build your brewery then your business plan and the financials will lead you to how much annual output volume you need (don't forget to factor in future growth). If you're already established, then previous sales will be your guide. As you start in your brewing business, you'll get better at predicting production.
2 - I love high gravity wort production because it's highly efficient and very easy to implement! The main advantage is - imagine having a tank that required 3 brews to fill and you could fill it in just 2 brews thus saving 8 hours of brewing time? That. See my videos on the topic - th-cam.com/video/T3-fjTKIktg/w-d-xo.html and th-cam.com/video/-GqiH-NEHLc/w-d-xo.html.
Thanks so much for watching :-)
@@RockstarBrewer Thanks for getting back so quick. I'm that guy you spoke about - an amatuer home brewer who suddenly has the chance to start his own small brewery and is in great need of professional help. I don't want to blow it.
What should you calculate regarding revenue? How much income pr hl?
That varies from country to country and tbh, finances are not my area of expertise. Making good beer though? I'm your man.
Hey am from south Africa am a learning brewer but my beer shelf life only make one week how can I extend my beer shelf life and what kind of sterilized chemicals must I use. I Wil appreciate you feed back.
boiling water and acidic water+chlorine bleach solution. done it since I've started, never had an issue I've left pakaged beer in 60F (15.6C) for several months to see how it changes/if it's infected, and I've never really had an issue other than hop-creep on a couple of beers i got a bit of hop material in the packaging (I don't really filter).
Hey Hendo, I love your videos being technical but concise.
My tap water is 800ppm and I manage to get it down to 45ppm with a reverse osmosis. Waste water has 1100ppm and have large amount of this. Can I use this 1100ppm water for my cleaning? Also, should sparge water have the same water profile as the brewing water or RO water is fine?
Cheers!
This is a really good question. Water chemistry is something I'm quite passionate about. I need your help to clarify your question though ... When you say your tap water is 800ppm, what exactly are you referring to? Normally, a water test has the different ions such as CA, SO4, Cl etc listed out. Let me know and I'd be happy to make a video about water chemistry.
45ppm of what?
What are some filtration options for Hazy IPA'S
Oh I get asked this all the time! My advice is to not connect any hoses up to your filter for best results when brewing this style. Thanks for watching!
Hey there Hendo, thanks for sharing these tips and tricks, a question I have (similar to the question below) where should I aim for in regards to PH? I know mash is 5.5 / 5.2 and always check my final runnings is not over 5.8 but where do I need to be at kettle up, F/O and final beer or finished beer PH? Cheers Hendo, Mike 🍻🍻
Hi Mike. Great question thank you! I've copied your question into my question queue and I'll make a video about it soon 🙂
@@RockstarBrewer awesome thank you Hendo! 🍻🍻🍻
How do you know how much beer are you going to sell??
That, my friend, requires a sound business plan! Something outside the scope of what I do.
Hi Hendo thanks for the great content
I'd like to ask about what you said about being able to fill 1 fermentation tank with several brews. How does one go about this? Do you pitch the yeast after the first brew and simply top up the fermenter with more wort and yeast after the follow up brews? Or add the yeast once all the brews are in the fermenter?
What is the limit with how long wort can sit in the fermenter without pitching yeast?
Typically, a brewery will pitch yeast after the first brew. Then you simply brew on top of that. This can be done over a couple of days even. Thanks for watching!
nice🍻
LEGEND
100 cases is 85litres
High gravity brewing is a technique developed by accountants and engineers to maximise beer volume production over cost. If wort and beer quality are paramount, then HG brewing is off the table.
Your favourite craft brewery employs high gravity brewing techniques on the wort side at the very least, I guarantee it. Thanks for watching!