Local brewery has a homebrew setup in the middle of their warehouse!?!

[Chello]

At the Atlanta Brewing Company, my wife and I went for the "tour" and tasting tonight for some good cheap beers before dinner. We were able to basically wonder around the premises and they have a Sabco Brew Magic system in there. Around it they have Ale Pails, carboys, an IC, propane tanks, and random homebrew stuff. What would they need this for?


As far as i know they don't do any brewing demonstrations. The only thing i could think of is that they use it for doing test batches before doing full scale ones.

I'v never seen this at any of the other breweries i'v toured. Anyone else seen this?

 

[mattmcl]

Test batches is right. I know several pro brewers who use Sabco or Pico systems for trying out new recipes.

 

[-Dan-]

Florida Brewing in Melbourne has a 7gal pot and burner sitting in the corner next to some of the grain and hot liquor tank. Not the only place I have seen it

 

[Revvy]

The "proper" term would be a pilot brewery....but yeah they make test batches and tweak recipes.

 

[david_42]

Pilot systems vary in size. The Widmer pilot system is 40 barrels.

 

[Homercidal]

A nearby brewery uses some of theirs to teach about homebrew. I really wish I lived closer to them! They also house the laboratory for Michigan State University's biodiesel projects. In return, they get to use the biodiesel to run the brewery. Win-Win.

Oh, and they sell homebrew stuff there, and they give tours and they sell on premises, and everything.

 

[BierMuncher]

Our local Micro has homebrew scale equipment laying around. Just a big kettle, some buckets and carboys. Typical HB setup.

That's indeed what they use to try out a new recipe, or to brew themselves something radical that they want to drink while cranking out the mass-produced stuff.