Commercial Garage Brewery

[mcdaino]

Can this be done? Im pretty sure it can, but if anyone has any idea/experience in the matter would love to hear from you!

I'm looking at about 35sq/m in total for the brew-house, fermentation space, storage, cleaning, bottling etc. Yeah, its a tiny area, but doable. See attached floor plan.

What need help on is the following please

What size brewery should I create? (Keep in mind this is a small step into what will hopefully be a larger enterprise in the future. Im thinking min 250L brew-length. )

What system should I build? (Thinking a HERMS would be good, but maybe no feasible at a larger size and will depend on utility power. IE no 3-phase for larger element. Id look at using 32 jet Mongolians on NG)

How much storage/cold storage area? (If doing 240L a week thats roughly 10 kegs or 30 slabs. Assuming I can sell that many Id need to store at least that amount for 2 weeks while conditioning. Slabs are roughly 40cm L x 20cm H x 30cm W)

Where should stuff like gas fittings and water go? (My house is on the right of the plans, an has plumbing to the top right hand corner, so thatd be the best place for brew house I assume)

How do I control fermentation temperature? (I assume I can use some sort of controllers that read off temp probes in the fermenters and feed back to control a pump that pumps either hot or cold liquor through the jacketing?)

Any thoughts on how I can get this approved for my garage? (Have spoken to some guys at the health department and have given me rough guidance)

General Layout of the Brewery (Where should I store grains, mill, gops, chemicals etc. Should fermentors be close to bottling station or brew-house?)

Any other tips/advise/contacts etc? Im more than happy to shout out a few beers for ideas/suggestions as this is a hefty project and Im feeling a little overwhelmed on some aspects. If anyone is looking at doing something similar Im happy to chat about what Ive found out so far about applications etc.

Below is a list of the parts Im looking to use, ones in red Ive not sourced an accurate price on

 

[manticle]

Pm Fents about the original set up for Kooinda.

 

[Malted]

Can this be done?

I am pretty sure you could have a brewery in a commercial garage.
You'd probably need to move some cars and hire some brewers instead of mechanics.
Maybe you could use the car hoist for hoisting BIAB?
Tyre balancer for centrifuge of beer instead of filtering?

 

[bkmad]

Can it be done. Yes - see here: http://www.happygoblin.com.au/brewery.html
His probably cost a fair bit less, but in-turn is probably more labour intensive.

If I were you I'd be going the 200L braumeister as a starting point. Efficient use of space and ready to go straight away.

 

[1975sandman]

Do you have any stockists lined up yet? I think that this will be fairly important as to what size you should make the brewery. Seems a waste if you can produce a large quantity of beer but cannot offload or sell it.

Maybe start off smaller then increase as demand increases? :unsure:

Just a thought.............

 

[Maxt]

I suppose it goes without saying, that you know all about the laws and governmental regulations and hoops that have to be jumped through?

 

[keifer33]

Also be worthwhile talking to your local council on what will be required. You mention its attached to your house which can open up all kinds of mixed use dramas especially if its under the main roof. That might put a big road block in your way.

 

[mcdaino]

Thanks for the prompt responses guys. 200L braumeister might work, though it runs off 3-phase power and I'm in a residential area. Not sure if I can get it approved.

My zoning of residential 1 and garage size are going to limit my capacity. We'll look at expanding when the beer takes off. If its sooner than we can afford will probably (unfortunately) have to look at contracting for a short time.

Looking at the council regulations, it looks like we have a chance of approval. Just not sure on the right way to approach the applications!

 

[stef]

Where abouts are you mc daino?

Thats gotta be the dream of a lot of us on here, so good luck to you! Bet it wont be easy though...

 

[stuchambers]

There is a minimum batch size that is profitable.
I recommend you work backwards from a sale price and see what kind of batch size is needed to cover your costs and then go from there.

Just the way I have thought about it in the past.

Cheers Stu

 

[DKS]

Can this be done? Im pretty sure it can, but if anyone has any idea/experience in the matter would love to hear from you!

I'm looking at about 35sq/m in total for the brew-house, fermentation space, storage, cleaning, bottling etc. Yeah, its a tiny area, but doable. See attached floor plan.

What need help on is the following please

What size brewery should I create? (Keep in mind this is a small step into what will hopefully be a larger enterprise in the future. Im thinking min 250L brew-length. )

What system should I build? (Thinking a HERMS would be good, but maybe no feasible at a larger size and will depend on utility power. IE no 3-phase for larger element. Id look at using 32 jet Mongolians on NG)

How much storage/cold storage area? (If doing 240L a week thats roughly 10 kegs or 30 slabs. Assuming I can sell that many Id need to store at least that amount for 2 weeks while conditioning. Slabs are roughly 40cm L x 20cm H x 30cm W)

Where should stuff like gas fittings and water go? (My house is on the right of the plans, an has plumbing to the top right hand corner, so thatd be the best place for brew house I assume)

How do I control fermentation temperature? (I assume I can use some sort of controllers that read off temp probes in the fermenters and feed back to control a pump that pumps either hot or cold liquor through the jacketing?)

Any thoughts on how I can get this approved for my garage? (Have spoken to some guys at the health department and have given me rough guidance)

General Layout of the Brewery (Where should I store grains, mill, gops, chemicals etc. Should fermentors be close to bottling station or brew-house?)

Any other tips/advise/contacts etc? Im more than happy to shout out a few beers for ideas/suggestions as this is a hefty project and Im feeling a little overwhelmed on some aspects. If anyone is looking at doing something similar Im happy to chat about what Ive found out so far about applications etc.

Below is a list of the parts Im looking to use, ones in red Ive not sourced an accurate price on

I commend your enthusiasm and what youve put together so far.
Its going to be a struggle to get get it to fly unless youve done the research.I feel volume its going to be a prob as for dollar return given brewery size .
Have a chat with Fents as suggested and any other commercial brewers for that matter.
Untill the laws change any small op is going to struggle and the micro brew scene likewise.
My wifes family in US enjoy what we can"t as far as that goes. Brewer/baker whats the dif?.
Best wishes for success
Daz

 

[kocken42]

3-phase power should be achievable, we got it installed to power the ducted reverse-cycle airconditioner.

 

[Jace89]

I'm actually thinking about doing something very samilar to your plans. The only thing I can't get my head around is fermantion control. I'm looking at getting atleast 300ltr tank for fermenting, havnt done much research yet....so I'll be watching your thread!

 

[mcdaino]

I'm in northern melb. I've done a heap of work on talking to brewers and looking into commercial setups. My main weakness is lack of knowledge of what the council or ATO will approve. That and not knowing what to install as far as electricity and gas connections go. But I should figure it out.

If this doesn't go ahead I'll be looking at renting a commercial property and starting there. Man this stuff is expensive! ha ha.

Follow me on my blog if want to hear what I'm doing. When I get his whole thing up and running I'll be helping out people like me who want to start their dream. So feel free to drop me a line anytime!

Thanks again for the thoughts.

https://daintonbrewing.wordpress.com/

 

[Wolfy]

My wifes family in US enjoy what we can"t as far as that goes. Brewer/baker whats the dif?.

More like Brewer/Winemaker in regard to taxation here in Australia.

 

[manticle]

I should also mention Stephen Kentucky (username might be stephenkentucky?) who recently set up a 200L braumeister to do small commercial batches if I'm not mistaken.

Best bet is to chat with the guys who have done it.

 

[raven19]

The only thing I can't get my head around is fermantion control.

Glycol chilling lines to keep the larger vessels at the desired temp.

 

[raven19]

This blog is not quite as funny as Beerfinger's...! :lol:

Quote:
"Where were we again? We were nowhere. I was telling a story about a shit day in a shitburg. Well it wasnt all about fecal matter. In fact it was about visiting a brewery in Port Adelaide. I did not know I was going to Collingwoods slightly less retarded sister clubs haunt..."

Quote:
"which I wouldnt do if I wasnt stupid. Stupid Zombies. Stupid Adelaide. Stupid me."

I wish you well, but please don't judge our small country town on the Port Dock and their extract beers thanks.

Their strong ale is nice though.

 

[komodo]

Thanks for the prompt responses guys. 200L braumeister might work, though it runs off 3-phase power and I'm in a residential area. Not sure if I can get it approved.

How old is your house (being in nth suburbs im assuming not new..?)
As a lot of NEW houses have 3 phase standard. They use one phase for shed and lighting from memory, one for general power and one for oven and AC I think?

Honestly I think 200L is a bit small - I would have thought 1000 - 1500L would be where you would want to be starting for a commercial setup. Obviously however if others are doing commercial batches of a 200L size then its feesable.

 

[gibbocore]

I reckon 200L is the perfect size to pump out about 800L a weekend for example. And anything larger i'd be looking at contract brewing if you need to go larger, but 800L should be plenty to get your brand out there and generate enough interest to warrant any further investment.