My new brewery...

[Jon474]

Here it is...

Installed on Monday and Tuesday this week.

First brew is in the second vessel from the left. I tweaked the recipe for the beer I entered into the Ordinary Bitter class at the recent Spring Thing competition to make this one. 560 litres of pure happiness...and quite a bit of hoppiness too - there are a fair few late hops in that beer.

The floor is wet because I had just washed it, not because anything is leaking (which is what my wife asked me when she saw the photo).

It's going into some nines on Sunday.

I am still brewing at home though - my beer producer certificate only covers the brewery - so I am still a home brewer.

Absolutely knackered now.
Take care
Jon

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Nice One :thumb:
Good Luck with the new brewery. :clap: :clap:

BB

 

[Cyclops]

looks great :)

which pubs can we sample this from if you dont mind me asking :)

 

[graysalchemy]

Well done Jon :thumb: :thumb:

The brewery looks very good clean and tidy, now I know what I can do with my workshop when I'm not framing pictures. :lol: :lol:

 

[leedsbrew]

That looks cracking Jon! Well done

 

[home brewer]

Wowzers, what a beauty, is it one of David Porters ? You're living the dream, total envy, how long have you had this in the pipeline, and whererabouts are you ?
cheers
fraz

 

[EskiBrew]

:party: :clap:

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

Green with envy here in Dronfield. The best of luck with it, after hearing how good your brews are with the little kit, the beer will be brilliant with the big kit.

I have been offered the use a local microbrewery kit for Dronfield Best Bitter, to go into local pubs here in Dronfield. I just wish I had the bottle and the finances to let go and make the leap.

All the micro breweries around here (16 within 10 miles) are busy and expanding. 2 opened up within the last 2 months

 

[unclepumble]

Looking good, hope it takes off for you.
Have you any temp control on those fermenters?

UP

 

[tazuk]

wow one big nice setup :thumb: :drink:

 

[Titch]

now i wonder where my credit card is :lol: :lol: :lol:


bravo :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[Jon474]

Thanks to all.

Sorry not to have replied before now...to be honest I have never been so knackered as I was on Tuesday evening.

Anyway, OG was 1.0409 and had dropped to 1.0128 last night. Yeast is WLP002 imported direct from White Labs. I am expecting a racking gravity of 1.010-ish with a small amount of secondary fermentation in the casks.

To answer some questions:
Cyclops: I am hoping to sell this into pubs within twenty miles of Leeming. The business plan is set up in such a way that I don't yet HAVE to sell all the beer I make; I can spend a little time practising and getting stuff wrong. However, I hope that I can sell 60% of this 12 x 9-gal brew into very local pubs on novelty value and the newness of the brewery.

Home Brewer: yes, this is one of Mr Porter's breweries. I have been planning this in outline since October last year and in fine detail, let's call it, obsessive, detail since February 2011.

Robbarwell: I sat down on Tuesday night and thought "WTF have I done?" It has taken me until today to recover my wits and strength and start to feel very, VERY excited about the whole project once again. I am going to cask twelve barrels of my own beer tomorrow. How exciting is that?

UP: yes, there is crude temperature control on the FVs - just a S/S cooling coil that I need to hook up to a chiller unit. The unit is a food grade unit and the temperature self-regulates and holds at roughly 19C. The beer started at 21.7C and the lowest it has been is 20.3C. The FVs will soon have a room built around them as well to enable me to further regulate the environment.

Thanks again, Gents, for all the positive thoughts.
Take care
Jon.

 

[Moley]

Now come on, don't tease, give us the full guided tour with more (and bigger) photos.

What are your capacities, how often should you be brewing, and are the coloured bands on those nines your personal identifier?

It all looks pretty awesome to me :

 

[dennisking]

Very impressed Jon. I know I tried your winning beers at the spring thing but not sure if I tried the bitter. I remember talking to you st the SP about WLP002 as we both love this yeast, what sort of quantities are you buying it and are you reusing it.

 

[leedsbrew]

I am hoping to sell this into pubs within twenty miles of Leeming.

Leeming as in Leeming bar North Yorks?

 

[rickthebrew]

Great looking setup - good luck with the brewery, i`m very envious

 

[Jon474]

With apologies, again, for the delay in replying, here are some pictures of the new brewery.

I must be honest and say August was a hard month. I had MASSIVELY overspent on the brewery - not mortgage-threateningly massive but SWMBO-massive enough. Money was a bit tight until the VAT repayment came in. I have kept my day-job (can't afford not to to be honest) and the long-planned for easy summer at work was replaced by the summer from hell so I just haven't had the time either.

But a new month brings a new dawn...money is now sorted and work looks like it is sorting itself out. I can get on with beer-making again.

I don't want to fall foul of the Mods/Admin team by doing publicity so all I will say is that I have two beers going into three beer festivals in the next few weeks. Looking forward to getting some serious feedback. I am desperate for feedback. To demonstrate just how desperate I went to the unit next to mine this afternoon (Meals on Wheels!) and asked a chap in the most orange tee -shirt I have ever seen if he wanted to try some beer. Happily, he did and downed two pints in about ten minutes.

Christmas/Winter beer going on next weekend. I am looking to do a strong pale ale - I am not too keen on roast barley as a flavour so want to avoid that. 6% should keep people warm.

Spending this week stepping up yeast starters from a WL vial to a 3bbl pitchable amount. Lots of care and sterility needed. 1L to 2L to 20L to 100L is the plan...but I may just move from 1L to 20L and then up to the 100L. I was going to use 7bbl pitchable amounts direct from White Labs in CA and crop the yeast, but it is horribly expensive to do it this way if you are not going to re-use the yeast immediately for the next batch of beer...which I am not doing, yet.

So, as Moley requested, some piccies:

Cold liquor tank...this is too warm at the minute...I need to put a chiller unit in to the process somewhere. I use a water pressure booster pump to supply my own internal "ring main" for the brewery.

Hot liquor tank. This is an 8bbl HLT to allow me to do two brews in a day...yeah, right!

Mash tun

I am using malt from Warminster at the minute. Am going to try Thos Fawcett next.

The copper - 6bbl

Don't know if you can tell from this picture but I wanted a slight mod to the standard design - PBC usually just do a long air drop from the top of the copper into the vessel...I am a bit of an HSA worrier so I asked for a long pipe to take the beer to as close to the base of the copper as was sensible. This is the result - s/s tubing all the way down.

Serious elements - three phase power supply

Hot wort comes out and passes through the hop stopper and into the paraflow

Close-up of the hop stopper...that is condensation droplets on the s/s, not dirt! I was boiling 50L of water to sterilise the old comedy-IC ready for Monday. That is concrete dust on the floor though...the breeze blocks I used for the FV plinths are a bloody nightmare. I am getting a fabrication shop to make me some s/s plinths as I type.

Paraflow...always remember to turn on the cold water supply before you open the hot wort tap...don't know why that is important...it just is., all right :whistle:

MDPE FVs...will upgrade to s/s when funds allow but these are fine for now...they do a job and are a cinch to keep clean.

Lots and lots of hydrometers...there's more in the cupboard. Note the Youngs 15L bucket...I won't cast my HB roots aside.

See, still using the HB gear. Getting stuff ready for boiling up 20L of wort on Monday for the stage 2 yeast starter.

Beer then moves into the chiller to condition. This is kept at 10C...which is too warm for those opened bags of hops, I know. I need to buy a chest freezer...it's next on the list, after the dirty water pump, some 1" flexible hose, a load of 100L buckets and a CLT chiller unit.

Spare barrel supply...

Cask washing machine...

More junk than I can shake a stick at...

Right, that will do for now. Happy for forum members to come and have a look round or come and if you want help brew some beer.

Take care
Jon

 

[Peapodmaster]

This looks immense. very good!! i think you should start sending out free samples :whistle:

When are you expected to be able to sell this ?

 

[Bru4u]

Wow,
I'm about 6 months behind you, lookin good :thumb:

 

[Wendy1971]

Looks amazing would you like a partner :lol: