Sizing Systems for Capacity & Volume Output for the Brewery
- Feb 11, 2022
- 129
- tiantai
Sizing Systems for Capacity & Volume Output for the Brewery
As a general rule of thumb, you can figure a potential of up to 50 brewing weeks per year, leaving two weeks a year for deep cleaning shutdown, or break for the holiday season, etc. Based on a 50 week year: one brew per day for a five day week gives you a potential of 250 brew days per year. As mentioned, a mix and match of one to two brews a week is a common brewing schedule that most breweries see their first few years, perhaps a number of weeks in the year with zero brews. Eventually, the two brews a week becomes the norm, and a eventually that one double brew day here and there may come into the mix, provided there is the corresponding fermentation capacity. Other considerations to include in your analysis for growth are: a double sized, self-heating Hot Liquor tank (allowing time saving ease for back to back batches), double or triple sized Fermentation and Brite Tanks to support back to back brews, and adding a third brewhouse vessel (mash mixer or dedicated whirlpool) to reduce labor time for double and triple batch days. For back to back brews that are becoming more and more on the schedule throughout the year, equipment upgrades that save time are the 2x-3x self heating Hot Liquor Tank (or some incorporation of Hot Water on Demand systems), and/or the addition of a third-brewhouse vessel, a dedicated Whirlpool. As long as you have the fermentation capacity, you can get away with you original brewhouse set up, but the brew day will consist of more hours. At some point the additional hours multiplied over the year will help justify the addition of that self heating 2x sized Hot Liquor Tank, and as a second step, the dedicated Whirlpool.
Most sources recommend that your business plan include five years of growth. Including preemptive strategies on controlled growth in your business plan can be very helpful to refer back to as guidance when supply and demand issues are creeping up. For example, if you decide to embark on some local self-distribution, cans in nearby stores, or kegs at local restaurants, and you find that this is creating incremental demand such that your patrons at the brewpub are disappointed when you are out of their favorite beer, what is your plan? Did you self-distribute to early without a step by step strategy to answer the demand both in the pub and with outside sales? Should you draw back the provision for local self-distribution if your patrons sitting on premise are experiencing inconsistency in the availability of their favorite beers, perhaps the very beer they invited a group of friends to try? Always take excellent care of your on premise patrons first by having all your staple beers in good supply.
How Year 6-7 and beyond may Unfold
Potentially, should you have the floor space and fermentation capacity, by year 6-7 you could be brewing back to back brews, double or triple batching, several weeks of the year, or more. Eventually, you may be feeling the need to add another brewer or a dedicated cellar person to your roster. Following this, you could be evaluating adding production space, or a space offsite for an additional brewhouse.
If your market/community as yet more capacity for growth, and you are creeping in on brewing every day, or double or triple batching several days per week becomes the norm, and perhaps you've added that 2x/3x self heating HLT, and maybe the dedicated whirlpool, getting the most efficiency out of the available hours in a day, you are on approach to maxing out the reasonable potential of your brewhouse. With this happening, you likely you have a beer or two that your community can't get enough of, local restaurants that can't get the kegs they want, and local liquor stores that have you have on backorder. Is it time to expand? What will the next 5 years look like? Keep in mind that prior to the COVID 19 Pandemic, many breweries that had gone well beyond the Brewpub business model with distribution, were beginning to scale back, shoring up the better margins and getting out of the shelf-space war. Distribution has a whole other level of complexities, much lower margins, expansion of production space, increased roster of staff, perhaps 2nd and third shifts, and the sometimes crazy fight for shelf-space. The COVID pandemic did give breweries that were already canning and distributing an advantage, as they were not as reliant on on-premise sales. Who knows how all this will play out.
Although this is a tougher element in sales and marketing to figure, excess demand can be a very good thing. This usually stems out of a mix of three different components that are difficult to create, predict, and plan for. These three things are; the exceptional one or two beers that are all the rage, a phenomenal on premise atmosphere, and continually outstanding marketing. Excess demand can be creating out of just one of these components, but generally there is some magic combination. Maybe your could have strong marketing on mediocre beer, but perhaps your on-premise atmosphere is taking up the slack. Typically, this all begins with fantastic beer. Think Bell's Two Hearted, Dogfish IPA and the likes, think local/regional phenomenon's that you know of.
General Brewhouse Capacity for the Brewpub (conservative estimate, based on 2-brews per week, 50 weeks per year)
Note: Mash Tuns are typically designed to accomodate producing a variety of beers, and yield to the fermenter the number of barrels matching the size of the brewhouse. However, your big beers, such as DIPA's, Stouts and Imperials, you can expect to scale back the batch size and yield to the fermenter a percentage less than the size of the brewhouse. If 60% or more of what you want to have on tap are big beers, meaning your signature is going to be big beers, then consider ordering an extra wide mash tun to maximize yield to the fermenter.
3.5 BBL = 875 BBLs per year
Grain Bill Range: 158-343lbs
5 BBL = 1250 BBLs per year
Grain Bill Range: 230-498lbs
7 BBL = 1750 BBLs per year
Grain Bill Range: 315-682lbs
10 BBL = 2500 BBLs per year
Grain Bill Range: 460-996lbs
15 BBL = 3750 BBLs per year
Grain Bill Range: 670-1451lbs
Cellar Capacity (Check out our Cellar Capacity Calculator Here)
Next up is deciding the number of and size of the tanks in your cellar. How many types of beers do you plan on having on tap, and what percentage of those beers will be Lagers?
Ales take approximately two weeks for Fermentation. This equates to 25 turns per 50 week year.
Lagers take approximately 4 weeks for Fermentation. This equates to 12.5 turns per 50 week year.
Based on this, how much cellar space do you need to hit your annual production numbers? Figure the required capacity for both your Ales and Lagers. Will your current facility, or space your are evaluating accommodate all the tanks needed to get you past the 5 year point?
We have noticed a trend with Start-Up breweries to launch with a (2-3) Fermentaters and (1) bright. This is usually the first trigger for considering an additional Fermenter. Over time, after the addition of increased fermentation capacity, it is recommended that you consider adding a double sized Fermenter .
As a general rule of thumb, you can figure a potential of up to 50 brewing weeks per year, leaving two weeks a year for deep cleaning shutdown, or break for the holiday season, etc. Based on a 50 week year: one brew per day for a five day week gives you a potential of 250 brew days per year. As mentioned, a mix and match of one to two brews a week is a common brewing schedule that most breweries see their first few years, perhaps a number of weeks in the year with zero brews. Eventually, the two brews a week becomes the norm, and a eventually that one double brew day here and there may come into the mix, provided there is the corresponding fermentation capacity. Other considerations to include in your analysis for growth are: a double sized, self-heating Hot Liquor tank (allowing time saving ease for back to back batches), double or triple sized Fermentation and Brite Tanks to support back to back brews, and adding a third brewhouse vessel (mash mixer or dedicated whirlpool) to reduce labor time for double and triple batch days. For back to back brews that are becoming more and more on the schedule throughout the year, equipment upgrades that save time are the 2x-3x self heating Hot Liquor Tank (or some incorporation of Hot Water on Demand systems), and/or the addition of a third-brewhouse vessel, a dedicated Whirlpool. As long as you have the fermentation capacity, you can get away with you original brewhouse set up, but the brew day will consist of more hours. At some point the additional hours multiplied over the year will help justify the addition of that self heating 2x sized Hot Liquor Tank, and as a second step, the dedicated Whirlpool.
Most sources recommend that your business plan include five years of growth. Including preemptive strategies on controlled growth in your business plan can be very helpful to refer back to as guidance when supply and demand issues are creeping up. For example, if you decide to embark on some local self-distribution, cans in nearby stores, or kegs at local restaurants, and you find that this is creating incremental demand such that your patrons at the brewpub are disappointed when you are out of their favorite beer, what is your plan? Did you self-distribute to early without a step by step strategy to answer the demand both in the pub and with outside sales? Should you draw back the provision for local self-distribution if your patrons sitting on premise are experiencing inconsistency in the availability of their favorite beers, perhaps the very beer they invited a group of friends to try? Always take excellent care of your on premise patrons first by having all your staple beers in good supply.
How Year 6-7 and beyond may Unfold
Potentially, should you have the floor space and fermentation capacity, by year 6-7 you could be brewing back to back brews, double or triple batching, several weeks of the year, or more. Eventually, you may be feeling the need to add another brewer or a dedicated cellar person to your roster. Following this, you could be evaluating adding production space, or a space offsite for an additional brewhouse.
If your market/community as yet more capacity for growth, and you are creeping in on brewing every day, or double or triple batching several days per week becomes the norm, and perhaps you've added that 2x/3x self heating HLT, and maybe the dedicated whirlpool, getting the most efficiency out of the available hours in a day, you are on approach to maxing out the reasonable potential of your brewhouse. With this happening, you likely you have a beer or two that your community can't get enough of, local restaurants that can't get the kegs they want, and local liquor stores that have you have on backorder. Is it time to expand? What will the next 5 years look like? Keep in mind that prior to the COVID 19 Pandemic, many breweries that had gone well beyond the Brewpub business model with distribution, were beginning to scale back, shoring up the better margins and getting out of the shelf-space war. Distribution has a whole other level of complexities, much lower margins, expansion of production space, increased roster of staff, perhaps 2nd and third shifts, and the sometimes crazy fight for shelf-space. The COVID pandemic did give breweries that were already canning and distributing an advantage, as they were not as reliant on on-premise sales. Who knows how all this will play out.
Although this is a tougher element in sales and marketing to figure, excess demand can be a very good thing. This usually stems out of a mix of three different components that are difficult to create, predict, and plan for. These three things are; the exceptional one or two beers that are all the rage, a phenomenal on premise atmosphere, and continually outstanding marketing. Excess demand can be creating out of just one of these components, but generally there is some magic combination. Maybe your could have strong marketing on mediocre beer, but perhaps your on-premise atmosphere is taking up the slack. Typically, this all begins with fantastic beer. Think Bell's Two Hearted, Dogfish IPA and the likes, think local/regional phenomenon's that you know of.
General Brewhouse Capacity for the Brewpub (conservative estimate, based on 2-brews per week, 50 weeks per year)
Note: Mash Tuns are typically designed to accomodate producing a variety of beers, and yield to the fermenter the number of barrels matching the size of the brewhouse. However, your big beers, such as DIPA's, Stouts and Imperials, you can expect to scale back the batch size and yield to the fermenter a percentage less than the size of the brewhouse. If 60% or more of what you want to have on tap are big beers, meaning your signature is going to be big beers, then consider ordering an extra wide mash tun to maximize yield to the fermenter.
3.5 BBL = 875 BBLs per year
Grain Bill Range: 158-343lbs
5 BBL = 1250 BBLs per year
Grain Bill Range: 230-498lbs
7 BBL = 1750 BBLs per year
Grain Bill Range: 315-682lbs
10 BBL = 2500 BBLs per year
Grain Bill Range: 460-996lbs
15 BBL = 3750 BBLs per year
Grain Bill Range: 670-1451lbs
Cellar Capacity (Check out our Cellar Capacity Calculator Here)
Next up is deciding the number of and size of the tanks in your cellar. How many types of beers do you plan on having on tap, and what percentage of those beers will be Lagers?
Ales take approximately two weeks for Fermentation. This equates to 25 turns per 50 week year.
Lagers take approximately 4 weeks for Fermentation. This equates to 12.5 turns per 50 week year.
Based on this, how much cellar space do you need to hit your annual production numbers? Figure the required capacity for both your Ales and Lagers. Will your current facility, or space your are evaluating accommodate all the tanks needed to get you past the 5 year point?
We have noticed a trend with Start-Up breweries to launch with a (2-3) Fermentaters and (1) bright. This is usually the first trigger for considering an additional Fermenter. Over time, after the addition of increased fermentation capacity, it is recommended that you consider adding a double sized Fermenter .
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