Build the ultimate brewhouse using our 2016 equipment buyer’s guide
Keith Gribbins
I’ve got these fermenters. Now, what else do I need?
From bottling to branding, fermenting to filling and milling to mashing, there are many vocational challenges to running a commercial craft brewery. Success starts with picking the right equipment and services for your brewhouse and packaging hall. Which canning line is ideal for your brewing business? What type of pipe will feed your glycol requirements? What types of coatings go best on brewery floors? How do you even go about planning all this craziness?
No need to panic. We understand you’re busy, and because we like and appreciate what you do so much, we decided to do all the legwork for you. We reached out to the top equipment manufacturers in the brewing industry (and a few of our marketing, software and label friends) to find the coolest and newest products that are turning heads and lifting eyebrows in the brewing industry. Industrial fans, liquid nitrogen dosers, brewery optimization software — we found 20-plus products that will change your brewery into both a beer and business leader. Always remember: We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.
Innovative, oil-free compressors
This compressor promises sanitary air.
Contamination is the beer killer. Bacteria, wild yeasts, unsanitary equipment, tainted raw materials — contaminants will produce off-flavors, acids, undesirable aromas, hazy beers and weird films. Atlas Copco isn’t about to add to the challenges of keeping a brewhouse clean. In fact, the machine innovator has come up with a pretty cool clean solution. Meet the Atlas Copco SF Oil-Free Scroll Compressor. It’s an intelligently designed machine that allows for multiple configurations to fit within any brewing arrangement. While it’s energy efficient and quiet, its best feature may be that it is oil-free. No oil in your air stream means no risk or potential for contamination. No one likes wasted beer, and no one likes oil in their beer. Wanna go greener? With outlet pressures to 145 psi, the SF Oil-Free Scrolls are also great solutions to feed Atlas Copco NGP Nitrogen Generators. For more info: Visit this web site. Cost: Actual purchase pricing varies considerably based on brewery configuration or requirements and can range from $4,000 and up.
Use nitrogen to create quality and rigidity
Cool science: Use nitrogen to help packaging.
NITRO! Are you confident enough to wield its power? We know that crazed look in your eyes. Yes, you’re clearly quite ready. Well, we bestow the power of nitro into your hands, but it’s probably not exactly what you’re thinking. This nitrogen is being used to control beer quality and add rigidity to beer containers. We believe this futuristic device is made by Chart Industries and goes by the name of the UltraDoser Liquid Nitrogen (LN2) Dosing System. The UltraDoser dispenses a precise dose of LN2 into every container every time just before the can or bottle is sealed. Because the LN2 displaces the oxygen from the headspace of the container, the beer maintains its integrity longer. The extended shelf life helps breweries distribute their beer over a wider geographical range. The dosed cans also become more rigid. They are able to be stacked and require less storage space in the brewery. Less storage space means more space designated for beer making. And (yep), UltraDoser can be used by brewers to offer a variety of beer styles, including those profit-producing Nitro beers, without having to use widgets or specialized cans. For more info: Visit www.chartdosers.com. Cost: Under $20,000.
A case packer that’s actually gentle
The soft catch feature on this sucka pays for itself.
Craft brewers know the name Standard-Knapp for its high-tech packaging and processing equipment — case packers, case sealers, pick-and-place modules, bottle handlers and beyond. All fine products, but of late we’ve been crushing on its 939S Versatron Soft Catch Servo Case Packer. It’s an ideal solution for the delicate case packing in the craft beer industry (these bottles are your babies), especially with its excellent “soft catch” function. Standard-Knapp’s 939S Versatron features a two-axis servo system that allows the packer to gently catch the product as it descends into the case. With its convenient push-button height adjustment feature, the lift table moves the case to the up position and waits until the bottle grid is full. Once the grid is full, riding strips shift to the side to initiate the bottle descent. At the same time, the lift table moves the case downward on a velocity curve, ultimately reaching the same speed as the bottles at the time of contact. This “soft catch” feature ensures the gentle handling of bottles, reducing damage and breakage and therefore waste costs. For more info: Visit www.standard-knapp.com. Cost: Not available.
Make robots do the keg handling
Robots even made this image for us.
Don’t let Terminator technology intimidate you. Embrace the future. Call in the robots to do your bidding — like Intelligrated’s Alvey robotic keg handling solutions — which automate manual palletizing and depalletizing of any size keg. Sorry humans, but these robots just ship product out the door more efficiently. Alvey uses robotic arms to gently handle kegs and to prevent damage and reduce operating costs. Single- and multi-arm options with varying levels of supporting automated systems can deliver increased throughput, efficiency and scalability for a wide range of budgets, operation sizes and throughput requirements. An ergonomic alternative to the back-breaking task of manual keg palletizing and depalletizing, this equipment frees employees for reassignment to more value-added tasks to maximize utility from labor resources. With integrated ID technology to track full and empty kegs, customers are able to monitor supply chain efficiency and locate non-conforming product before it hits the market. Intelligrated also can integrate vision systems and RFID tracking hardware to provide superior tracking capabilities to manual or barcode systems. For more info: Visit www.intelligrated.com. Cost: This is a custom solution, and price depends on the system.
The portable clean machine
An awesome, economical option for smaller breweries who think clean.
Quality control can be a difficult learning curve for small brewhouses. In fact, it can make or break a brand, which is why keeping your processes and equipment clean is imperative. Luckily, the engineers at Sani-Matic are here to help. These guys and gals are experts at sanitary process cleaning systems and components for beverage, food and pharmaceutical manufacturers worldwide. Take a gander at its Sani-Matic portable COP/CIP System — it’s an awesome, economical option for smaller breweries seeking a safe and sanitary process. The COP/CIP System serves as both a clean-out-of-place (COP) immersion parts washer, intended to clean parts removed from process equipment and as a portable clean-in-place (CIP) system ideal for the periodic cleaning of lines, tanks, fermenters and lauter tuns. The washer’s dual compartments provide both a CIP wash and CIP rinse supply reservoir that allows for once-through use or recirculation. For more info: Visit www.sanimatic.com. Cost: Depending on the configuration, the average price range is from $25,000 to $55,000.
A complete mash preparation system
Crushing the competition, along with various malts and grains.
The MILLSTAR is more than just a mill. I mean, it’s ALL CAPS. That’s how badass it is. GEA‘s MILLSTAR is a complete mash preparation system based on steeping conditioned milling technology that — when compared to conventional dry milling systems — “crushes” the competition. The MILLSTAR enables higher lauter tun loading while maintaining the uppermost extract yields. Brewers see faster run-off times with improved wort quality, increased flavor stability by eliminating oxygen uptake and a significantly reduced brewery footprint (we love the size). The package includes a malt hopper sized for a complete brew, brew water temperature and flow control equipment, a conditioning chute to increase humidity, the mill itself (with heavy-duty crushing rollers) and the hopper which collects the resultant ready-mash. The pump, which gently transfers the mash to the brewhouse, is also built in. The entire system is skillfully assembled in a single, self-supported, vertical arrangement. A semi-automatic MILLSTAR comes with a pre-assembled process panel and a stand-alone control system, which means simpler maintenance, easy tie-ins and faster installation and commissioning. For more info: Visit www.gea.com. Cost: The entry system for malt charges up to 2,700 lbs and runs at about $135,000.
Label us fans of pressure-sensitive
Glue-applied labels vs. pressure-sensitive labels. Know the differences.
Two questions: 1) What story are you trying to tell? And 2) when that beer sits on the shelf next to exactly one zillion other brands, how will your story stand out? Picking the perfect labels for your packaged beer is a solid start to telling a successful story, and to help we’ve found a label maker that’s great at making beer stories seem big. The label mavericks at Avery Dennison offer what’s called pressure-sensitive labels, the foundation of its Craft Beer Label Material Collection. When compared to glue-applied labels, pressure-sensitive materials offer some big advantages — for starters, greater design and production flexibility with fewer limits on label shape and size. No other decorating technology offers the same combination of brilliant graphics, intricate die cuts and virtually invisible edge lines — important elements that will enhance your label designs, attract attention and help move your product. While they might cost a little more up front, they’ll pay for themselves with easy changeovers and none of that nasty glue to clean up. For more info: Visit www.label.averydennison.com/craftbeer. Cost: Pricing is dependent on the type of label materials ordered.
Heavy-duty, heat-resistant urethane cement for brewing, bottling and canning beer.
Brewery floors need to be tough. They need to withstand heavy equipment, heavy traffic and exposure to chemicals, beer and lots of beard hair. When it comes to brewhouse floors, Westcoat‘s Temper-Crete Urethane Cement is ideal for a brew facility, due to its durability, heat resistance and chemical resistance. This unique cement application also works well in the bottling and kegging spaces due to its impact resistance. Plus, it can handle the forklifts, pallet jacks and kegs that come with your brewhouse. This Temper-Crete system helps protect the concrete substrate from the harsh exposure to water and chemicals too. It’s heavy-duty, heat-resistant urethane cement for brewing, bottling and canning area floors. For more info: Visit www.westcoat.com. Cost: Pricing could run from $8 to $16 per square foot for material and labor based on about 1,000 square foot pricing, but it will vary based on the size of the job, condition of substrate and prep, access to the area, local labor rates, desired thickness and choice of finish.
Industry-leading filling and labeling
You like touch screen controls? Well, we got touch screen controls.
Before buying a product, always be sure to investigate the manufacturer’s résumé. For more than 20 years, Meheen Mfg. has been delivering industry-leading carbonating and filling machine technologies to craft brewers. Today, it’s one of the best known manufacturers of craft brewing bottle filling and labeling equipment around the world. Why is this important? Bottling your beverage gets your product into the hands of more customers and is the ultimate step in growing your business. Meheen filling and labeling technologies are engineered to make premium beverage bottling possible and profitable. Meheen’s industry-leading expertise in bottling and labeling ensures the quality and consistency of each batch you create from tank to bottle. The product’s unique features include touch screen controls for easy operation, pneumatic power for long-term reliability, space-saving size (5 feet x 10 feet — mobile) with big productivity (up to 2,300-plus bpm), and no motors, gears or bearings to maintain. For more info: Visit www.meheen.com. Cost: Depending on configuration, prices can range from $55,000 to $85,000.
Yep. T-Rex is the perfect name for this wicked mill.
Sometimes you just want to mill raw barley, and that’s not easy — unless you use a cracking mill like the T-Rex from Ziemann Holvrieka. With the awesomely named T-Rex, craft brewers have a very attractive alternative for milling diverse raw materials. With the T-Rex, various raw materials can be processed with different milling methods and capacities, without changing the basic construction of the mill. For the lauter tun, the T-Rex is available as a steep conditioning mill with simultaneous mashing. The single-stage dry milling is the process of choice for the mash filter. Two of these cracking mills can also be positioned on top of each other. This configuration is required especially for raw barley, which is much harder than malt. Various raw materials can also be successively ground with the same T-Rex. By means of recipe specifications, the mill parameters (such as the milling gap or the rotational speed) can be adapted automatically by the control system to the respective raw material. Compared with conventional mills, the cracking mill T-Rex reduces maintenance costs by up to 70 percent. Plus, it has a compact design, gentle milling, simple maintenance and low investment costs. For more info: Visit www.ziemann-holvrieka.com. Cost: The T-Rex steep conditioning mill for 10 t/h costs approximately $125,000 to $160,000.
Pipe dreams can come true
This Blue Pipe knows how to chill.
Breweries transport lots of unique liquids besides beer. Glycol, for instance, can be used to chill jackets on a fermenter or lines in commercial keg operations. What pipe doesn’t react to the chill of glycol? Aquatherm Blue Pipe, which is a polypropylene-random (PP-R) piping system specifically designed for hydronics (including glycol), chilled water, condensing water and industrial applications. Sized from ½ to 24 inches, Blue Pipe can handle operating temperatures up to 180°F at 100 psi, is rust-proof and scale-resistant and comes with a 10-year multimillion-dollar warranty. Also cool, Aquatherm systems are connected via heat fusion, which bonds pipes and fittings at the molecular level, quickly creating long-lasting connections without using toxic materials, glues and resins and open flames. In addition to glycol, Blue Pipe can be used for heating and cooling distribution and compressed air, while Aquatherm Green Pipe can be used on potable and even food-grade applications. For more info: Visit www.aquatherm.com/get-local-support. Cost: Aquatherm typically costs less than copper and more than CPVC.
Click Next below or you’ll never see the future of growler filling or diaphragm pumps that also double as industrial art.
Micro-canning game changer
Ten CO2 pre-purge heads, 10 fill heads and two cam-driven can seamers, oh my.
Cans are a cost-effective solution for upstart breweries and growing breweries. For that brewery in between, Cask Brewing Systems — the inventors of micro-canning equipment for craft brewers — has just released a pretty rad automatic canning line that dramatically expands the capabilities of Cask’s already pioneering gear. Excited? Well, get there, because the new ACS X2 features 10 CO2 pre-purge heads, 10 fill heads and two cam-driven can seamers. That’s twice the pre-purge, filling and seaming features of Cask’s popular ACS machine, which debuted in 2005 (a grand year for canning). The ACS X2 fills and seams 75-plus cans per minute and 190-plus cases per hour — a speed increase of over 100 percent from the ACS — and requires just two operators. The machine has a tiny 2-ft x 14-ft footprint and produces filled cans with extremely low dissolved oxygen levels (15 to 20 parts per billion) for optimum beer flavor and extended shelf life. For more info: Visit www.cask.com. Cost: Around $170,000, and it’s available with an array of pre- and post-fill options.
Custom chemical dispensing equipment
Works so well you won’t even need boosters.
Cleanliness is the key to repeatable quality for craft brewers, so we suggest you sit down with the clean freaks at Zep. The company has discovered a better way to dispense cleaning and sanitation chemistry other than drum pumps. Zep will explain. These beverage cleaning experts offer the right chemistry along with the best means to dispense it through automation and custom dispensing equipment. Dispensing equipment reduces the touch points for your employees to be exposed to harsh chemicals such as caustics and acids. In addition, Zep’s high-performance products, such as FS CIP Cleaner, work so well there is no need for boosters and its local Zep Food & Beverage Safety Consultants are readily available to serve you with in-plant service visits, training on sanitation procedures and maintenance services. Need more convincing? For more info: Visit www.zepbrew.com or www.zepequipment.com. Cost: E-mail fooddivision@zep.com and a local Zep rep will work with you to develop a cleaning and sanitation program.
Realize your retail execution using this mobile app
Smartphone and hand required to operate.
Craft brewing is a labor of love and for better or worse the ultimate barometer of success is how the end product performs in market. With the rigors of brewing, bottling, distributing and more, it is nearly impossible to visit all of the on- and off-premise locations where your brews are served to check on merchandising, displays and overall retail execution. Enter GoSpotCheck — a mobile app that empowers your internal and independent field marketing and sales reps to collect retail information, snap photos and instantly send that data back to the brewhouse. Armed with this real-time information in an easy-to-digest dashboard, breweries can quickly disseminate the data to improve the brand’s in-market presence. With instant data from the field regarding pricing, shelf placement, case counts and competitive intel, the possibilities to improve retail execution are endless. For more info: Visit www.gospotcheck.com. Cost: Price varies upon size of field team, but it starts at $62.50 per user.
Badass branding and package design
Adding creature wings or a wizard beard usually makes most things badass.
What’s special about your beer? What do you stand for? Why does your brewery matter? Whether you’re a brewery in planning or have been in the game for several years, if you can’t easily answer these questions, you need to invest in branding sometime in the near future. Whether you like it or not, the way you tell your brewery’s story, the way your packaging looks on a shelf, the way your responsive website (hopefully) works — these things are almost as important as the beer itself. On a functional level, branding is an easy way to stand out from everyone else. On a deeper level, branding is an opportunity to reach out and connect with people in a powerful way that will keep them engaged with your brewery for years. How do you even start? Well, the market and branding experts at CODO Design can help to get to the heart of your story. For more info: Visit www.cododesign.com. Cost: It will depend on the overall scope of the project.
Also the opening scene to our noir brewing crime film.
Brewhouses get hot. They produce interesting odors. Basically, they need better-than-average air circulation. That’s why we suggest a setup using Hunter Industrial Titan fans. These are high-volume, low-speed fans designed to improve a brewery’s ventilation and energy efficiency. Not only is Hunter Industrial reinventing big fans for brewery warehouses, it is dedicated to delivering the lowest total cost of ownership in the business. These massive fans feature wingspans of 14 to 24 feet, so breweries can get the perfect size fan to fit their warehouse size. Hunter says its Titan Industrial Fan offers a competitive edge in terms of efficiency (CFM/watt), installation cost, weight and maintenance. And why do we trust them? Well, Hunter actually invented the first ceiling fan, so we’re giving them the benefit of the doubt. For more info: Visit industrial.hunterfan.com. Cost: TBD — this product is brand new.
Futurstic growler filler
This design alone will attract customers.
The problem with growlers is that they only stay good for a few days. Well, we guess that’s not exactly true. You see, the Pegas CrafTap is changing that rule of thumb using pressurized growler-filling technology. It is uniquely designed to serve your customer fresh craft beer straight from the tap and, at the same time, eliminate all oxygen prior to the beer fill by pressurizing the growler with CO2. This in turn creates a better tasting growler, with little to no waste involved, and a shelf life of 30 to 45 days, where standard equipment will only see a shelf life of two to three days. In addition, the company’s Growler Station offers full digital menu services that can sync your beer list with Pegas to display your full beer menu on a TV screen in your brewery. The menu screen templates also include space for promotional advertising if desired, with all options being completely customizable and interchangeable. For more info: Visit www.gsdistributorgroup.com. Cost: Not available.
Forecasting optimizes efficiencies
It’s as simple to use as this screen appears.
You don’t need a crystal ball. It helps, but if you’re working with GP Analytics you should be covered. GP-designed software specializes in accurate forecasting for the craft beer industry. Breweries get access to a customized cloud-based portal that delivers brewing schedules, packaging schedules, shipping schedules and recommended orders for each one of their distributor partners. This is generated by GP Analytics’ proprietary forecast algorithm and decision engine, which is currently running at a 95 percent accuracy rate. We hope that’s good enough because it virtually eliminates out of stocks or excessive ordering and helps with raw materials purchasing, brewery expansion planning, meeting financial goals and finding efficiencies not realized at current brewing facilities. The system is 100 percent customized to each brewery’s floor plan, recipes and goals. It uses meta data from around the country, internal historic data and leading and lagging indicators to generate the most accurate view of each individual brewery’s world. For more info: Visit www.gp-analytics.com. Cost: Pricing includes a one-time licensing and setup fee (broken into payments that fit the financial situation each brewery is in) and a monthly maintenance and consulting fee starting at $2,500 minimum and going up depending on the complexity of the brewery.
The perfect pour requires the perfect regulator
Maximize profits and minimize beer waste. Sound like a plan?
It’s not just technique that ensures a perfect pint pour at a tap. Sometimes you need the help of technology — like the just-introduced Dispense Regulator available from Foxx Equipment Co. — which is the first truly innovative secondary regulator we’ve seen. It’s ideal for short draws, long draws and kegs in a series. It appears to provide perfectly poured beers every time. This maximizes profits by minimizing beer waste. The ITW Dispense Regulator (its technical name) greatly reduces leaks and can be leak-tested under water. It provides high precision and lasting durability and is compatible with CO2, N2, gas blends, argon, O2 and N2O. Preset output pressure is 12 psi, which can be easily adjusted to any psi from 4 to 55. It attaches directly to the gas port of any keg coupler style, dramatically decreasing installation time compared to other secondary regulators. For more info: Visit www.foxxequipment.com. Cost: $25.95 (wholesale only).
Manage pressure with the right pump
It’s like industrial art. This FDA-compliant pump might also work as decoration on your office walls.
There is many a pump in the beverage market, so what are some differentiators? Let us take the ARO FDA-compliant pump as an example. Compared to the competition, it allows breweries to manage pressure more effectively to match other variables, like temperature and dissolved carbon dioxide in the beer. Designed to transfer fluid in the beverage industry, the ARO FDA pump treats every ounce of beer gently and extends its shelf life while maintaining the carefully crafted flavor of each brew. These air-operated diaphragm pumps typically yield 20 to 30 percent better flow rates than other products available on the market (says ARO), ensuring the brew is transferred carefully — a high priority for brewers who can and bottle their beer. The company’s new SD line of pumps features the quick knock down (QKD) compression clamp system to facilitate easier cleaning, service and maintenance, which promotes reliability and long product life. For more info: Visit www.arozone.com. Cost: Price is dependent on configuration, with the manufacturer’s price starting at $3,300.
This box turns wastewater back into water
I guess we can quit calling it wastewater.
Unfortunately, waste is an enormous byproduct of the brewing process — especially wastewater. Wastewater pre-treatment is an important investment for green-conscious craft breweries, reducing BOD and TSS from the waste stream leaving the brewery. That’s what makes products like the EcoVolt Mini from Cambrian Innovation so attractive. Basically, the EcoVolt Mini converts high-strength wastewater into reusable quality water in one simple container. Compressing the renowned, bio-electrically enhanced EcoVolt Reactor and the EcoVolt Membrane Bioreactor into one, the EcoVolt Mini rapidly removes over 99.9 percent of pollutants and solids for breweries generating under 15,000 to 20,000 gallons of wastewater a day. The system can be easily scaled onsite, and adding capacity without taking more space is no problem. And let’s not forget that this is a piece of equipment that can help brand your brewery as a progressive, eco-friendly corporate citizen. Make beer and save the earth at the same time. For more info: Visit www.cambrianinnovation.com. Cost: Pricing is site-specific but the average payback period is two to three years, says Cambrian.
Objective brewhouse planning
We approve any product willing to take a chance on a Bobby McFerrin reference.
The difference is in the details and the approach — that’s how BeerBev explains its brewery planning services. This group of independent engineers, integrators and objective advisers applies a neutral and customer-centric project approach that covers the modernization and expansion of existing breweries, as well as new Greenfield breweries. The BeerBev holistic brewery planning method embraces systematic planning of production facilities, production plant, transport and logistic facilities, as well as the organization and layout, covering all areas from formulation of targets to ramp-up of production. The BeerBev team can guide you through all phases of the complex brewery planning process — choosing a location, preliminary and detailed engineering, architectural design, tender development and evaluation. BeerBev has comprehensive project management for each phase and will oversee the planning of your production including related logistics appropriate for your production flows. For more info: Visit www.beerbev.net. Cost: Prices are customized and vary based on scope.
Proprietary uncoated wet strength labels
Add a little Oak Heritage to your marketing and packaging.
The first thing you have to do is get their attention. That’s marketing 101, and that’s getting harder and harder in today’s craft beer marketplace. That’s why we like the “Oak Heritage” uncoated label paper being offered by Oak Printing out of Cleveland (our home town). Oak Printing is a craft beer label expert, and its Oak Heritage label paper is a proprietary uncoated wet strength sheet available in multiple shades, textures and weights to suit your label needs. Oak Heritage will give your packaging a unique look and feel to deliver that impact on the shelf and set your brand apart. Just as important is the improved productivity it will bring to your labeling line due to its outstanding run-ability. Just like most of you, Oak Printing is committed to remaining a successful family business, specializing in providing the highest quality labels. For more info: Visit www.oakprintingco.com. Cost: Oak Heritage will add about one third of a cent to the cost of your standard paper label.
Or, just let Siemens automate everything
By Ed Montgomery, Brewing Industry Manager
I just stand here and watch.
In today’s craft brewing marketplace, it’s important to utilize automation in order to stay competitive. The SIMATIC portfolio from Siemens allows craft breweries to automate labor-intensive tasks and interact manually with the system to create great tasting and economical craft beer time after time. As trusted partners with a long-term presence in the brewing industry, Siemens can supply solutions to suit any brewing scenario. With the fully scalable architecture of the SIMATIC portfolio, craft brewers can create the same high quality, consistent product as industrial brewers. Smaller craft brewers are able to increase supply to meet growing demands without the need for reengineering the solution from scratch. The SIMATIC portfolio contains everything from instrumentation, drives, I/O devices and process automation for control of the brewhouse and cellars, to factory automation products for control of packaging lines and ancillary equipment, and on up to a world-class MES product portfolio with complete tracking and tracing, raw material management and production management. For more info: Visit www.usa.siemens.com/brewery.
