Category: Production
Reverse Osmosis & Nanofiltration
Reverse Osmosis and Nanofiltration are water membrane filtration processes designed to lower your parts per million (PPM) or total dissolved solids (TDS) in your brewing water. Both of these processes will deliver consistent water quality and both work the same way. The filtration function is achieved by forcing water through a semi permeable membrane. The water passes through the outer wall and into the center of the membrane where small pores allow most of the water molecules to pass. However, some of the ions in the water cannot pass through these pores. As a result of this process you have water with very low TDS levels when using RO membranes and higher TDS levels when using Nano membranes. RO or Nano – What’s the Difference?
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Expert Topic The Importance of and How to Read your Water Report
The make-up of water will vary, over time, with any municipal water system. To ensure good consistent brewing water that will produce a better product and a consistent product, knowing what is in your water is essential. Today, knowing that you can control the water make-up, right before brewing, allows you to control the taste and look of your brews.
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Brewery Floors – Flooring materials
Tile: A new aged tile floor is a great option. These are not your typical bathroom tiles. Most tiles in the industry these days are hexagon German tiles (many options) Although expensive to install, tile offers great service life and floor protection. A tile floor, properly installed using epoxy grouting should essentially never wear out, but will require periodic regrouting, especially around floor drain areas. The tile’s grout lines are where you will have issues and there are a lot of grout lines to keep track of. Some tile designs offer an engineered texture or slip resistant pattern cast into the ceramic. Homeowner-grade tiles are a nonstarter because they are light duty, slippery when wet, and can’t hold up to the severe loading, chemicals, and heat of the brewery environment.
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Brewery Floors – Drainage
Drainage Slope – Sloped Floors should be poured with a minimum slope of at least 1/4 inch per foot drop to the drains. This will assure thorough drainage of the floor. During the design phase, laying out the tanks and equipment placements is recommended to determine the optimum positioning of floor drains and drainage slope, always plan ahead for future expansion and growth.
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Brewery Floors Introduction
Brewery floors often rank pretty low on the expenditure list when setting up a brewery. To the uninformed, a floor is a floor, but to those who have lived and struggled with the additional expense and workload brought on by a bad floor, creating a good brewery floor system is, to put it simply, setting up your business on a good foundation.
Concrete is very porous and will eventually break down if left unprotected from the elements, chemicals, and pressures of a busy growing brewery. Good coatings and companies can be very hard to find, but it’s worth the extra effort to do a little homework and seek out an experienced concrete and coating provider that knows the ins and outs and dos and don’ts for a brewery environment.
Contents
Introduction
New Brew Floor
Drainage
Flooring Materials
Maintenance & Repair
Brewery Floor Q&A
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Malt storage
Storage of malt on-site:
Malt has a low moisture content of around 3.5% – 5% and is therefore a relatively stable product. Typically regular 2-row malt can last 4 to 6 month (or even longer), darker malts or caramel malts are more sensitive especially as far as aroma thereof is concerned. The shelf life for the latter malts should be less than 3 months between 6 – 8 weeks would be optimal. In general malt needs to be stored dry without the possibility of moisture or water uptake; additional aeration, particular cooling or heating for malt (storage) should not be necessary.
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Malt handling introduction
Every brewery should have a plan for what they’d like their malt handling flow to look like. There are many aspects to consider and a perfect solution isn’t always easy to come by. Malt handling and all that it entails is often times underestimated and often problems arise due to lack of proper planning and consideration. It is in the best interest of a brewery to find an optimal solution for their malt handling needs.
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Turnkey – Miscellaneous equipment
Pumps – A portable centrifugal pump is needed for the cleaning tanks. It can also be used to transfer the beer from one tank to another, or to turn a brew over on itself in situations such as dry hopping. Two portable pumps are much better than just one. And ask for spare seals.
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Turnkey – System Installation
Installation assistance and customer support are critical components of a turnkey purchase. Installation assistance can vary greatly in scope. Make sure you understand, preferably in writing, what the seller plans to offer in assistance. What is the additional fee, and what will you need to reach out for additional outside help to accomplish. The list can be a short as a few electrical and plumbing needs. On systems larger than 20-bbl, many suppliers send a representative or team out to make sure the brewhouse is put together correctly and functionally. It’s not uncommon for a representative to expect a labor force to be provided to work under their supervision. This is an important area to go over closely with the supplier of a turnkey system to prevent as many expensive surprises as possible.
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Turnkey – Hot side
Hot Water Source – A lot of hot water is needed to make beer. 170 degree water is much hotter than what comes out of your home hot water heater and requires special considerations to be used safely. The water can be heated via electrical heating elements in small to medium systems but steam or occasionally direct flame is needed for larger volumes of water.
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Turnkey – Cold side
Fermenters – There are many choices regarding fermenters. They can be horizontal or vertical, dish or cone bottomed, jacketed or single wall. Doors can be on the top or on the side. The main requirements are that the tank can be safely cleaned and sterilized, that the tank be made of material that will not taint the beer, and that proper fermentation temperatures can be maintained. The most commonly accepted standard for craft breweries is an insulated vertical stainless steel tank with a cone bottom, a manhole on the side, glycol cooling jackets on both the cone and sides, CIP attachments, and an adjustable racking port. The cone bottoms allow for the efficient removal of yeast from the beer after fermentation. The glycol jackets and insulation make it possible to install the tanks almost anywhere.
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Keg Washers – Build your own Part 2 – Keg cleaning agent reservoir
Do not assume that the keg is not pressurized just because it is damaged. Unless it has a hole in it that you can easily see, always assume it is under pressure and your first step should be to depressurize the keg by installing and actuating a keg connector with a blow-off hose attached to the liquid (top) port on the connector. Once this is done you can safely turn the keg over to your welder and have him/her cut the top out of the keg, leaving the chine (the part with the handles) attached. All cut edges should be ground smooth so there are no irregularities, burrs, or sharp edges.
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Expert Topic Electric Brewing – The other heat source
When planning a brew system, the big decision used to be direct fire or steam. But, for brewers with systems up to 10 barrels, there is a third viable option for firing a brewhouse. Increasingly, brewers are using electric elements to heat their strike, sparge water, and boil their wort.
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