How to Open a Brewery? What You Need to Know When Starting Out

Are you figuring out how to open a brewery? You’re not alone; I have spoken to several people, planning to open a brewery for the summer of 2021…

If you’ve a similar timeline, you must be doing your initial planning now. So, putting together:

• A Business plan and…
• Working out the type of brewery you want to be
• Sizing your brewery
• Looking at locations
• Building out who’ll make up your team or at least what roles need to be filled
• Speaking to other people in the industry with experience

…Plus, a whole lot more.

You’re right to be planning now; because soon you’ll need to order your brewhouse for it to be ready in time.

Timeline for Ordering and Installing a Brewery - How to Open a Brewery

If you’re like the majority of people; you plan to order your equipment from China.

So, how long does it take from ordering the equipment for it to be ready? I spoke to a number of manufacturers in China and here’s what they told me.

If you look at the table above it takes around 90 days from signing a contract plus paying the first instalment before the brewhouse is ready to receive.

However, there are other factors to consider when buying brewing equipment so the real timeline is actually.

So, if all goes well and there are no unforeseen difficulties; you’re looking at around 5 months.

If you’re buying from China, you’re losing an extra two weeks as everything shuts down for Chinese New Year.

Hot take? If you plan to open the summer of 2021, you need to order your equipment soon!

=> Get your FREE brewing project consultation call, send me a message to arrange <=

How to Open a Brewery? What Equipment Do I Need to Order?

When opening a brewery, I often get asked “What is the minimum equipment I need to order to get up and running.

Here’s what you need:

• Mill – For crushing the malt ready for brewing
• Hot Water Tank – For cleaning and brewing
• Heating system – Steam is best, but can use electric elements on smaller systems
• Brewhouse – The tanks used for making wort on brew day
• Fermentation vessels (Uni-Tanks) – Where the magic happens
• Heat Exchanger – Cooling wort on the way to fermenter
• Wort Aeration – Used to add pure O2 to the wort to help the yeast
• Chilling and glycol system – Used to regulate FV temp and chill beer
• Control panel – To control brewhouse and FV chilling
• Transfer/CIP Pump – For moving beer and cleaning tanks

Then there are the optional extras:

• Keg Cleaner – For cleaning kegs
• Cold Storage – Room for storing kegs and raw materials like hops
• Bright Beer Tank – Place to put clear beer

I always advise you get these three extras. It allows you to brew more beer and keep up with demand easier.

If you’re serving out of your uni-tanks (also known as DPV') it takes up a lot of room. It’s best to transfer to kegs for serving.

Then brewing into your empty tank. Putting beer into kegs means you need cold storage to keep beer fresh.

How to Open a Brewery - Prepping the Building

With any brewing project; some actions are needed to prepare the building. Which are:

Water - Recommended water pressure for a brewery is 60 psi with a flow of at least 100 liters a minute

Drainage - Channel drains with stainless steel or fiber glass gratings are the best options. Also drains need to be correctly sized. Able to handle 5 liters of effluent for every 1 liter of beer produced.

Finish - The right floor can save you time plus money down the line. Brewery floors have to be sealed and resistant to strong alkalis and acids

Electrical – Breweries need 3-phase

Sizing – If you size and design your brewhouse correctly, it can grow with your business providing a solid long-term investment.

Ceiling Height – If you’ve high ceilings, it might make sense to stack tanks if floor space is at a premium.

Venting – When making beer you will boil your wort in kettle so; you need a flue to vent the steam produced. If you choose a steam fired system; you’ll need an exhaust flue in the boiler room. If you choose a direct gas-fired system then you’ll need exhaust flue for the kettle firebox.

Equipment delivery - For the actual delivery day of the equipment you will need forklift and maybe also a crane (depending on the size of the system). As well as check access to the building is sufficient to allow your equipment ample room to pass through.

As you can see, lots of planning goes into a brewing project. There’s more too; such as the legal requirements, sourcing raw materials and working out which beers you want to brew.

So, Do Need Help with Your Brewery Project?

I’m a British brewer with 25 years international experience, I’ve brewed in the UK, France, Bermuda, Armenia and am now based in China. I have several brewery installations under my belt.

Here’s a picture of my last one in Yunnan, China.

I first came to China in 2010 to brew. In that time, I’ve built up a number of contacts in the trade. I’ve work with several Chinese equipment suppliers personally plus; got feedback from brewers who’ve used other Chinese manufacturers.

I know the reputable manufacturers, whom do good work and provide proper aftercare services. Also, I can help you find the right brewery equipment supplier for building a tailor-made brewery to your needs and budget.

I offer other services such as:

Help you with installing your brewing system – If you’re based in Asia, I can help you with the physical brewery install.

Source a particular piece of equipment - If you’re looking to upgrade your brewery. Recently I had a brewery in the Caribbean looking to upgrade from DE filtering to purchasing a centrifuge from China.

Recipe formulation – I’ve worked in several countries; brewing many beer styles. So, have a portfolio of beers that I’ve brewed commercially.

Training – On some brewery installs, I have stayed, to train the brewing team and get procedures in place. This included building and writing SOP’s (standard operating procedures).

Let’s Talk…FREE Consultation

Do you have a brewery project you’re working on? Think talking to an experienced brewer could help?

Then please feel free to reach out. I offer a free consultation, so, we can chat about your project.

• Allowing me to offer you insights
• Make introductions if you need help on a project
• Discuss whether you would like me to assist in anyway

You can contact me here directly on LinkedIn or email me at:

[email protected]

I am also on WeChat and WhatsApp; you can add me by scanning the QR codes below:

Thanks for reading my article, I hope you found it useful plus look forward to chatting, if you want to discuss your brewing project.

Have a good day.

Cheers

Neil

Here are testimonials from people I have worked with on brewing projects...