Let’s high five.

Brewery owner/brewer from SF here.

My gf is attending a conference in Seattle the weekend of Oct 19th & 20th & she invited me to tag along. It’s been 20-ish years since I’ve visited there so I’m sure the brewery landscape has changed significantly. She has tasked me to find the best area to stay to optimize proximity to breweries. We may or may not be renting a car so we’ll probably have to hoof it and/or Uber everywhere. So I’m ask you my fine brewing brethren/sistren, where would be the best area to stay? Also, what are the must-visit breweries that aren’t overly IPA-centric? If any of you up there will be around that weekend (including Monday), I’d love to say hi and enjoy a beer with you.

Cheers, Aron

We recently just opened a taproom and searching for ways to keep the people coming into the brewery during the winter months. We have a great beer garden but as the weather has started to turn, we’ve already noticed a drop in customers. We already have a pub quiz, game night and concert every month. I’m wondering what other events you guys do to bring people?

Hey y’all,

So I’m thinking about my CIP process on my brewhouse and trying to understand what exactly I’m trying to tackle so I can better discuss it with a chem rep

So we normally do caustic CIP, rinse, acid CIP rinse, and end up with a spotless kettle that takes almost 1.5 hours to come up to boil on the first clean turn.

I read about the acid to caustic CIP process and want to try that. We’re currently running a chemical CIP once a week. If I understand correctly the yellow scale that builds up during the week is beerscale, and the white scaling underneath that is limescale. Typically our caustic CIP with a booster is enough to get the beerscale off and then the acid CIP takes out the limescale

Does the limescale have to go? We have such better boil times when there’s a little scale on the kettle. Do we need to run an acid cycle at all if we’re using boosted caustic?

I’ve got more questions than answers right now so I appreciate any help in thinking this through before I go to our chem people. Thanks!

I’ve seen a lot about high gravity brewing where people added DAW after fermentation, but my question is, any pros/cons to adding water pre-boil? Reason I’m asking is, I want to make a light clean lager and feel my last runnings of the mash are “harsh/grainy” and at 6.0pH+. Not doing this for volume purposes.

I have a 5 bbl system and was thinking of adding 2 BBLs RO water to kettle and mash 3 BBLs with a starting gravity of 1.066. Mash out to fill kettle with 5 BBLs and gravity of 1.039.

Thanks all!

For any former employees who can help me with the development of a bottling machine, or anyone else interested who has this expertise including existing operators with good ideas as to improve a machine, I'm willing to pay $50/hour just to chat over the phone with any design work contracted to be considerably more per hour. I'm NOT asking for relinquishing former employer secrets or for you to send me their proprietary drawings. I just need some help on a couple standard industry processes and I'll pay for it.

I am a commercial winemaker but I figured y’all would know a little more about this. I just got a 25bbl brite tank for a carbonated line up of wines and I’m not sure how big of a tank of CO2 would be best for me. We’ll likely be carbonating a couple times a week at 20bbls a batch. 15-30psi range and I can consistently get the brite down to 28 degrees. Any help would be appreciated!

For any MI ppl, or midwest, who are you using for CO2? I'm currently using Leonards (not my call unfortunately), and while I love their service, they only have beverage grade CO2 and have been unable to tell me what the O2 breakdown of the remaining gas (99.9% is beverage grade). I want to start pricing out a switch to 99.99% but I know there are some contractual nightmares out there with some suppliers.

Nut rolls? Funny meme? Here is the place to share it.

Hey all,

Does anyone have a lab they could recommend that can be sent both wort and finished beer for both mineral or metal concentration analysis? I’m on the east coast and any pricing information you’ve experienced would be helpful if available.

Some folks are sending their analyses with nitric acid for stability. Are there any tips I need to know for sending wort off like that?

Hey all,

I am new to this group, but I share a love for beer and making a quick buck on the weekends. I currently work at a taphouse and have been toying with the idea of converting an enclosed trailer into a tap trailer that could be taken to events and such.

Ideally I would like to run 5-6 taps out the side of in an alcove that could be covered and locked when not in use. The aspect that I am looking into is how to cool the inside of the trailer and how to run lines for C02 and the kegs in general. If anyone has experience with this I would love to learn who they went through for parts and if it seems like something that would be worth the money.

I am currently based in Oregon.

Cheers!

So we had a break in brewing for a while, and the 4 Uni-tanks I filled around the same time are completely processed ready for packaging, but they are all more hazy than usual.

My gut feel is that it's something to do with our base malt batch changing, but I'd like to know whether anyone has experienced this, and what the root cause was.

My concern is something like bacterial infection, but currently everything is tasting really good. My only comment would be that there is less hop aroma impact that I would normally have, but my experience is that happens some times. (nothing seems to be exhibiting oxidation visually)

Hey! Does anyone know of any LN2 dosing equipment besides CHART ? (Personally think they are over priced)

Anyone out there using Nisin to help with lactobacillus? We just got lab results back from White Labs that our most popular beer tested positive for LAB. We knew it was a bad batch and dumped it before it made it to tap. I’ve been doing a lot of research on LAB and have found time and time again Nisin can be used to inhibit the growth of LAB by up to 92%.

Anyone had success using this or a product like it?

I'm about to re-do the insulation on my glycol manifold in the brewery. This is a temporary fix before we move equipment around in the next 6-9 months and do it over again.

My understanding is that I want closed cell, rubber foam insulation that has a 1 inch wall

The problem - My manifold is 3/4" copper and I can't find closed cell insulation that is 3/4" x 1" wall thickness

I've heard Armaflex and KFlex are the brands to use, but I'm striking out there. Home Depot/Lowes carries those brands, but not with that wall thickness. Grainger seems to have what I want, but the lead time is about 2 weeks and I need it quicker. I was about to cold call local plumbing supply warehouses but hope you all have a better alternative

I was also considering going to a smaller wall, like 3/4" wall, or something more available - like I said, this is a temporary solution, so maybe going 1" wall is overkill? That being said, the cost difference is minimal, and my main concern is downtown waiting for materials to arrive.

Any advice would be awesome, thank you!

Hello all, I've about had it with one of our suppliers. I'm looking for new Juice Concentrate suppliers. We use high quality ingredients and are looking for a well run, trustworthy and timely supplier. Any recommendations would be awesome! Thanks!

Got a head scratching problem that you can't get to the bottom of? Just solved something that took a while to figure out? Teach us Obi-wan!

So we're currently Grain to Glass on a dryhopped 4.something% Pale in about 4 weeks. However, we've spoke to other breweries and they're doing it in half that time. Are we missing something? Looking a week to confirm terminal grav, dryhop for 3-5 days depending on amount, cold crash for about a week or so to drop as much trub as poss, transfer to secondary and carb for around 3 days via head pressure, before finding a day to package. Just wondering what you guys get a session hopped beer done in, as a comparison.

Brewery is a 10BBL if that helps.

I’m in the process of setting a small scale contract brewing arrangement (I am contracting the brewery to produce the beer to my specifications).

I am keen to have paperwork in place, it surprises me how much of this kind of work takes place in good faith!

Does anyone have a template of a contract I could take a look at as a starting point? I will employ a lawyer to review it but would prefer to draft something myself in the first instance.

Cheers

Is there anyone here that can speak to the pros and cons of Arryved Pay? Looking mostly at merchant processing fees compared to TSYS. I can't get an apples to apples comparison on fees. The tap to pay card readers are a real nice to have, but not necessarily at the expense of the rental PLUS a possible rise in fees.

Word is they are requiring everyone to switch in next 2 months or lose swiper support and get maintenance fees.

They say 500 breweries are already using Arryved Pay and are really liking it... Hoping someone here may be in the know and can share experience?

(We are a little Jaded. Switched to Arryved Brewery Management for hot minute and realized we were sold an beta product at Best.)

And since I have your attention.... What POS should we consider if we decide to pull the plug? Toast? GoTab? Square? What else? (Table QR ordering and online ordering are musts).

hey! anyone using a automatic cell counter like Oculyze, Nexelom, or the countless ll ?

Hey all,

I know there is a ton of variability, and this is a vague question.

How much would one expect to pay for an established brewery with a kitchen?

It brews 20 barrels a week, recipes are proven, reviews are solid? Land and building are owned. In a suburb of a large city.

Just looking for a general idea?

Thanks in advance!

For the past 8 years, I have operated a nanobrewery, fully licensed, on my home premises. My insurance company is pulling the plug and I'm asking if anyone here operates or knows any nanobrewers operating from a home facility I could get in touch with to explore options.

On the surface is seems pretty (like, it's literally shiny), and pretty well featured. They don't have a ton of customers near me, so I'm lacking any opportunity to get candid feedback.

Anyone using them? If so, how's it going?

Has anyone made one?

https://preview.redd.it/ki17dk7twcsd1.png?width=2424&format=png&auto=webp&s=87e990ef62541d5a05431ce8491e1e3bac8e9280

I have used this Vacuum Sealer in other breweries before and it works great. Looking into getting one and this is a steep price. I'm Having a hard time finding a good alternative, any advice for one that's not quite this expensive? Thanks.

I'm looking into equipment from 2 different italian manufacturers, Enobeer and Polsinelli, so I thought to post it here to hear your opinions.

I'm looking to start small brewery in the future and these 2 brands seem like a cost friendly options to venture into this.

Polsinelli equipment: polsinelli.it/en/beer-brewing-system-junior-500-extra-P1427.htm

Enobeer equipment: enobeer.it/en/prodotto/enobrau-500-insulated/

I'm still in the researching phase so every comment is helpfull, I'm currently homebrewing and coming from a wine making region, so I have experience in producing wine(on a smaller scale) since I own vineyard.

Hey guys I wanted to reach out and see if this is common with other when they clean their beer lines. So the quick and dirty of it ( pun intended) every other week I will push some caustic fallowed by and acid then ending with a sanitizer. Put beer back in the lines and we are good to go.( Birko chems Cir-Q-Late then Ultra-Niter, then 5 star sani clean) This prosses has worked for us to get our lines nice a squeaky clean. The problem is that for about half the day after the lines have been cleaned the beer comes out fine for half a pint then will get foamy, every pour. The loss of beer is annoying but after that half day everything goes back to normal. FOH has just leaned to deal with it for that time. All of our lines are on fobs. I just want to see if this is common with other people. Any good information is appreciated.