A Comprehensive Guide to Commercial Brewing Systems

With the rise of the craft beer movement, the need for efficient and top-notch commercial brewing system equipment has never been higher. Every brewery's core lies in its brewing equipment, which plays a crucial role in defining the quality, consistency, and production efficiency of the beer. Micet's commercial brewing solutions offer a range of products from individual components and process modules to complete turnkey projects, all engineered to provide precision control over the brewing process while allowing the flexibility needed to create exceptional beer.

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Understanding Commercial Brewing Systems

Commercial brewing systems are specialized setups intended for large-scale beer and fermented beverage production. These systems range in complexity from compact units for craft breweries to substantial configurations for major industrial facilities. Whether for brewpubs, microbreweries, craft breweries, or large industrial giants, these systems are essential in catering to beer enthusiasts globally.

1. Brewpub Systems: Brewpub systems are compact brewing setups commonly used in restaurants or bars, allowing these venues to serve their unique brews directly on tap.
2. Microbrewery Systems: Microbreweries are characterized by their smaller scale but offer more diverse functionalities compared to brewpub systems. They focus on producing craft beers for local markets.
3. Craft Brewery Systems: Medium-sized craft brewery systems are designed for producing higher volumes of beer and distributing them across broader regions, maintaining the essence of craft beer.
4. Industrial Brewery Systems: These are large-scale operations with massive production capacities, serving broad markets and often dominating the beer industry.

Key Components of Commercial Brewing Equipment

Milling Equipment

Before brewing begins, the grains must be milled into a fine powder. Milling equipment ensures a consistent grain size and texture for optimal brewing. These mills differ in capacity, with some capable of processing over 10,000 pounds of grain per hour.

Brewery Equipment

This core segment includes a variety of components essential for turning grains into wort. The process starts with the mash tun, where malt is mixed with water. The mixture then moves to the lauter tun for separation into liquid wort and spent grains. The wort is boiled with hops and other ingredients for the desired flavor profile.

Fundamental Brewery Components:

• Mash Tun: Converts starch into sugar.
• Boil Kettle: Boils wort with hops.
• Fermentor: Yeast converts sugar into alcohol.
• Filtration System: Ensures clarity and purity.
• Packaging: Includes bottling, canning, and barreling equipment.

Customization of Equipment Based on Brewery Needs:

PARAMETER

TYPICAL RANGE

Annual beer production capacity

1,000 – 10+ million barrels

Mash filter capacity

500 – 10,000 kg/batch

Brew kettle size

500 to 5,000 barrel batches

Fermentation tank size

100 to 3,000 barrels each

Bright beer tank size

500 to 5,000 barrels each

Mash Tun

The mash tun is essential for brewing, controlling temperature, and mixing grains with water to produce mash. It heats the mixture, converting starches to sugars necessary for fermentation.

After mashing, the wort moves to a fermenter where yeast is added. Fermenters are designed to regulate temperature, pressure, and oxygen to optimize fermentation. Made of stainless steel, they can range from hundreds to several thousand gallons. For commercial breweries, larger fermenters are required to manage significant beer volumes.

Brite Tank

Post-fermentation, beer needs storage. Smaller operations might keep beer in fermenters, but commercial breweries often require brite tanks for storage to free up fermenters for subsequent batches. Brite tanks help beer carbonate faster in a controlled environment, making it ready for packaging.

Filtration Equipment

After fermentation, beer is transferred to conditioning tanks for aging and clarification. This process develops flavor while yeast and sediments settle, ensuring clear, crisp beer. Any remaining substances, though not harmful, can affect taste or hasten spoilage if not removed.

Packaging Equipment

Ready for the market, beer undergoes packaging using filling machines, canning machines, and barreling equipment. These machines handle filling, capping, labeling, and sealing, preparing the containers for distribution.

Maintaining hygiene is vital in brewing. Without rigorous cleaning, bacteria and contaminants can ruin batches. Equipment like CIP tanks, hoses, and pumps ensure thorough cleaning and sanitizing of brewing systems before and after use. Whether through automated keg cleaning or effective chemical use, cleanliness is a non-negotiable aspect of brewing success.

Stages of Commercial Beer Brewing

1. Malting: Grains like barley are soaked and germinated, then dried to produce malt, the foundation of beer's flavor.
2. Mashing: Malt mixes with hot water in a mash tun, breaking down starch into fermentable sugars to form wort.
3. Boiling: The wort is boiled, hops added for bitterness, aroma, and flavor.
4. Fermentation: After boiling, cooled wort transfers to a fermentation tank, where yeast converts sugars into alcohol and CO2.
5. Conditioning: Beer matures, developing its flavor during this stage.
6. Packaging: Filtered, carbonated beer is bottled, canned, or kegged for distribution and consumption.

Commercial Brewing System Maintenance and Care

• Regular Cleaning and Sanitization: Routine cleaning and sanitizing prevent contamination and ensure beer quality. Daily schedules and food-grade disinfectants are essential.
• Preventative Maintenance: Consistent maintenance extends equipment life. Lubrication, seal replacements, and inspections detect and solve issues early.
• Troubleshooting: Even top-tier equipment can face issues. Brewers should be adept at troubleshooting to minimize downtime and maintain production flow.

Installing Commercial Brewing Systems

• Site and Facility Preparation: Selecting the right location and preparing the facility to accommodate the brewing system is crucial.
• Equipment Delivery and Setup: Smooth delivery and assembly are vital to avoid operational delays.
• Utility Connections: Correctly connecting to water, electricity, and steam supplies is fundamental for system functionality.
• Testing and Commissioning: Rigorous testing ensures everything operates efficiently.

Choosing the Right Commercial Brewing System Equipment

• Determine Your Scale: Identify your brewing scale—home, small commercial, or large industrial. This determines your system's size, capabilities, and budget.
• Decide on Automation Level: Choose between manual control for a hands-on approach or automated systems for efficiency and consistency.
• Budget Considerations: Balancing budget with quality is crucial. Investing in good equipment often translates to better returns.
• Future Expansion: Plan for future growth. Opt for modular systems that allow easy capacity additions.
• Consider Technical Support: Choose brands offering robust technical support, including manuals, helplines, or on-site training, to ease the learning curve.

When setting up a brewery, various factors must be considered in acquiring the main equipment. This guide reviews the essentials required and discusses relevant options where necessary.

A brewery has two main sections. The 'hot side' or brewhouse handles initial brewing stages from milling to mashing and boiling to chilling wort.

The 'cold side' or cellar is where fermentation, conditioning, dry hopping, and processes transforming wort into beer occur. Most brewery equipment falls within these sections, with some exceptions.

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Brewhouse (Hot Side) Essentials

The brewhouse involves various heated vessels and pumps for wort transportation.

Choosing a Heat Source

The initial decision involves how you’ll heat your brewing vessels. Common methods include:

Steam
Steam-heated vessels, common in breweries, require a steam generator, transforming water into steam piped into vessel jackets. Powered by natural gas, electricity, or diesel, steam generators usually come with water softeners. Steam offers fine control as steam input can be precisely adjusted.

Electricity
Electric-heated vessels use elements similar to kitchen kettles. These elements vary in size and power, typically featuring 2-3 controllable elements for regulated heating. Electric setups don't require additional equipment.

Malt Mill

Required if using uncrushed malt, adjustable models are best. Commonly featuring 2 rollers adequate for small breweries’ needs, some models have more. Depending on space, a maneuverable model may be necessary. Capacity is often listed by malt weight per hour.

Hot Liquor/Water Tank (HLT)

HLTs store and heat brewing water (liquor). Optimal HLTs have multiple heating elements or jackets, enabling small quantity heating. It should include a level indicator for accurate measurements.

HLT size should be double the brewhouse size—1,000-liter HLT for a 500-liter boil kettle—to ensure sufficient liquid for processes like strike water, sparging, and cleaning.

HLTs should connect to the mash tun, sparge setup via a flowmeter, and CIP valves. Recirculation via pump ensures accurate temperature readings and even mixing of agents or additives.

Flowmeter

For precise strike and sparge water measurement, flowmeters must be heat-resistant and waterproof.

Mash Tun

Mash tuns come in various designs, from simple open vessels to enclosed, heated systems with stirring paddles. Larger outputs (over 200 liters) require mechanical mixing. If using step mashing, a heatable mash tun is necessary.

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A mash tun should connect to a pump for mash transfer to the lauter tun. Desirable features include recirculation for consistent temperatures and built-in temperature probes.

Lauter Tun

Lauter tuns filter sweet wort from grain, featuring sparge rings connecting to HLT via flowmeter. Recirculating hot wort back over grain aids in wort clarification before boiling. It's typically unheated. During sparge, filtered wort transits to the boil kettle.

A spent grain outlet, like a side door, aids easy disposal.

Boil Kettle

A simple heated vessel, efficient models start heating with minimal liquid, reducing boil time. Small spaces may require condensers to extract steam and compounds or flues directing outside.

Whirlpool

Optional depending on beer type, whirlpools assist with late hop additions and solid separation pre-chilling.

Heat Exchanger

Heat exchangers rapidly cool boiled wort before fermentation. Plate heat exchangers (PHE) are common, using beer on one side, cold water, or glycol on the other. Include a thermometer at the beer outlet.

PHE configurations vary, commonly featuring hop filters or hopbacks pre-PHE, and yeast tanks and oxygen systems post-PHE. Size, measured in sq. meters, dictates cooling speed. For example, 500-liter brewhouses need around 5 sq. meters PHE; 1,000-liter setups need 10 sq. meters.

A return pipe for warm water into HLT pre-warms water, reducing energy costs.

Combination Vessels

Small breweries often combine vessels to save space. Common combinations include:

• Mash/Lauter Tun: Mashes, lauters, and sparges in one vessel.
• Boil Kettle/Whirlpool: This common combination needs dual outlets for wort transfer and end-of-brew draining.
• Mash/Boil Kettle: Mashes, separates in a lauter tun, then returns wort for boiling. Economical, but requires thorough cleaning between mashing and boiling stages.
• All-In-One: Single vessel for mashing, lautering, boiling, and whirlpooling. Generally using a large grain basket lifted mechanically, heated (and sometimes cooled), providing an affordable solution for small spaces.

Control Panel

Control panels range from simple PID systems for monitoring and controlling temperatures and pumps to PLC systems with touchscreens for comprehensive process monitoring and automation.

Control panels can be restricted to brewhouse functions or also include chilling operations.

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Cellar (Cold Side) Essentials

In the cellar, fermentation vessels and conditioning tanks are prevalent.

Fermenting Vessels

Choice depends on the beer type, ranging from open vessels to pressurized uni-tanks. Many small breweries prefer pressurized vessels for natural carbonation and faster processes. Bottling-conditioned beers don't need pressurized vessels.

Having a mix of sizes, such as 500-liter, 1,000-liter, and 2,000-liter fermenters, allows for batch splitting and experimentation. Fermenters can be customized with additions like dry hopping ports, carbonation stones, and spunding valves. Standard features include temperature probes, CIP spray balls, and sample valves.

Conditioning Tanks

Useful for lager aging and carbonation, bright beer tanks (BBTs) offer clarification and maturation. Vertical or horizontal options are available.

Glycol/Ice Water Tank

Glycol tanks are common for temperature maintenance and beer chilling. Glycol systems require separate pumps, automatic solenoid valves, control panels, and industrial chillers. Glycol should loop through the PHE to aid wort cooling.

Cold-Side Control Panel

Cold-side panels maintain fermenter temperatures and control processes like cold crashing. They can be PID or PLC-based and can be part of the brewhouse panel. Varying in size, they usually support multiple temperature controls.

Manual and automatic switching is essential if using glycol in the PHE.

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Additional Essential Items

Beyond main brewhouse and cellar equipment, several other essential items are needed to start a brewery.

CIP (Clean-in-Place) Station

Mobile CIP stations, typically with 2-3 vessels (50-200 liters), and a cleaning pump, facilitate cleaning. One vessel usually holds heated caustic cleaning agents, another for sanitizing acid washes, and optionally, a third for other acids or rinse water. Cleaning solutions are pumped into vessels and recirculated.

Hoses & Pipelines

Food-grade, heat-resistant hoses, rated up to 10 bars, are essential. Varied lengths are useful, shorter hoses for cleaning due to higher pressure. Tri-clamp connections allow for longer runs if needed.

Pipelines link pumps to vessels, ensuring smooth wort/beer flow. Stainless steel is preferred.

CO2 Tanks and Regulators

CO2 tanks are vital for processes like oxygen purging from pipes/tanks and maintaining tank pressure during packaging.

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Packaging Essentials

Key equipment includes:

Bottling/Canning Machine

Necessary for packaging, bottling/canning machines vary. For carbonated beer, isobaric (counter-pressure) machines minimize oxygen exposure. Machines should purge oxygen and handle other tasks like washing, labeling, and capping