How to Choose a Brewhouse Structure

Consistently producing high quality craft beer must be the first goal of any craft brewer, and the brewery equipment you purchase has to be able to provide that. Before you decide which type of brewhouse you really need , you should attempt to define who you want to be. Does your goal is distributing packaged beer, or you want to be a neighborhood brewery? To be competitive in the packaged beer market, investing in brewery equipment that maximizes daily production (brews per day) and decreases labor is well worth increased up front cost.

There are six basic parts in a complete beer brewing equipment. Including Miller, Brewhouse, Fermenter, Glycol cooling system, Control unit and CIP cart. And the brewhouse is the heart and engine of a brewing equipment. There are different types of combination of the mash tun, lauter tun, brew kettle, whirlpool tun and hot liquor tank actually, but how to choose suitable brewhouse structure for your own brewery equipment?

Several main brewhouse structures being popularly used:

• Compact brewhouse

• 2 Vessel brewhouse;

• 3 Vessel brewhouse;

• 4 Vessel brewhouse;

Compact brewhouse

It is also called all-in-one brewhouse or combined brewhouse with multifunctional tanks in different combinations, it is more popularly used in small or medium brewery equipment. The most popular combinations are:

• Mash/lauter/Hot liquor tank(stacked) + Kettle/whirlpool tun;

• Mash/kettle/Whirlpool tun(stacked) + Lauter tun;

These combination tanks can be a more affordable way to start a brewery. Its biggest pros is saving installation space, so if you have limited installation space, you can consider it for your brewery equipment. As now two tanks are stacked, but please note your ceiling height is enough. Depending on your production goals, the combined system might be able to last your business a very long time.

Two vessel brewhouse

It is the most hot sale brewhouse structure in beer brewing industry, it is widely used in brewery equipment ranges from small 100L to bigger 2000L. For most people who wanna start new beer brewing business, you can hardly go wrong with it under blind choice!

The two vessel brewhouse is suitable for infusion mashing and suitable for brewing 1~2 batches per day. The most popular combination is:

• Mash/lauter tun + Kettle/whirlpool tun + Hot liquor tank;

If you have plan to brew 2 batches per day, now the HLT capacity better be double batch capacity, as a bigger HLT could help to supply enough hot water for mashing, sparging and tanks cleaning. It can also help to recycle more hot water from heat exchanger during wort cooling.

Three vessel brewhouse

The three vessel vessel is quite popular used in brewery equipment exceed 1500L. The bigger capacity of the brewhouse, usually corresponding with the bigger beer production. Now the brewers may prefer to brew 1~ 3 batches per day. Three-vessel brewery systems don’t have the same output and versatility as four-vessel systems, but they will still out perform a two-vessel system and provide increased efficiency.

The most popular combination is:

• Mash Tun + Lauter tun + Kettle/whirlpool tun + Hot liquor tank;

• Mash/lauter tun + Brew kettle + Whirlpool tun + Hot liquor tank;

The pros of solution 1 is the separated mash tun and lauter tun, it makes Decoction mashing realizable; And someone focusing on lagers or feeding a distilling operation might go with this solution.

The pros of solution 2 is separated whirlpool tun, it suits for someone who pursue a better whirlpooling result, especially when having inner calandria inside the boil kettle, the separated WT appear to be particularly important.

Four vessel brewhouse

A typical four-vessel brewhouse will include a Mash tun, Lauter Tun, Kettle and Whirlpool. Each of these tanks is dedicated to performing a single process, and is designed differently than similar vessel used for performing multiple processes:

• Mash tun + Lauter tun + Brew kettle + Whirlpool tun + Hot liquor tank;

The four vessel brewhouse is more flexibly on brewing multi batches per day (more brew per day). it fits for someone who pursue higher beer production, as well as higher investment at beginning. It usually work together with automatic brewing control and some auto sensor for saving operation labour.