Brewery Tour Photos

[iandh]

I'm beginning to think seriously about opening a small production. While still several years away from opening, I thought it was time to start "researching" (a.k.a. BREWERY TOURS! ). Its been a great experience talking with the owners/brewers, and its really helped shape my plans.

I've posted the photos of three breweries we visited: Uncommon Brewers, Thirsty Bear, and Social Kitchen. Let me know what you think!
http://euphemiaales.com

Here are the common themes I kept hearing.
- Don't go smaller than 15 BBL system.
- Try to avoid kegs and keg cleaning. They are too much work to clean and require a large capital investment.
- Get your time and volunteer/work to learn the business.
- Get a great attorney and great accountant.

 

[mattd2]

- Try to avoid kegs and keg cleaning. They are too much work to clean and require a large capital investment.

Really? I would have thought kegging would be cheaper than a bottling line. Either way both would be a substancial investment!

 

[iandh]

Really? I would have thought kegging would be cheaper than a bottling line. Either way both would be a substancial investment!

Yeah, I was a surprised too. The two brewpubs only keg for festivals or to special drift accounts that are more about publicity than profit. Think speciality beer bars.

The production brewery Uncommon Brewers actually uses the disposable kegs from KeyKeg. The disposable kegs have opened their beer to new markets overseas where shipping a keg back is cost prohibitive.

The general response was the cost of replacing lost/stolen kegs, labor of cleaning, and distribution costs for the low profit margin just does make sense until you make up for it in volume. Another local brewery uses mircostar who delivers the kegs cleaned to the brewery, so they only need to fill them.

 

[WilliamWS]

That does sound a bit odd to me (though I'm no pro). I know there are some local breweries here that only keg (Sixpoint comes to mind as one of the most popular).

 

[JJL]

The production brewery Uncommon Brewers actually uses the disposable kegs from KeyKeg. The disposable kegs have opened their beer to new markets overseas where shipping a keg back is cost prohibitive.

I saw one of these disposable kegs the other day on brewery tour. Don't know if it was from keykeg, but I thought it was pretty cool. I'm kind of surprised that something like this didn't come along sooner. They're just a variation on the bag in a box technology that the soda industry has been using for a number of years now.

 

[wedge421]

Yeah ive heard that about kegs as well. I think the issue though is that at some point if you want to grow it becomes a necessary evil.

 

[hillhousesawdustco]

Anybody know about what those keykegs or a variant run per keg?

 

[DrawTap88]

That Cask canner is pretty cool.

 

[JasonInBTR]

You guys don't remember the "party ball" BMC used to come in? Looks like the same thing to me....

Jason

 

[iandh]

Anybody know about what those keykegs or a variant run per keg?

I didn't get an exact number but it was about $20ish a piece. I'm unsure what purchase volume that is.

 

[iandh]

I saw one of these disposable kegs the other day on brewery tour. Don't know if it was from keykeg, but I thought it was pretty cool. I'm kind of surprised that something like this didn't come along sooner. They're just a variation on the bag in a box technology that the soda industry has been using for a number of years now.

Totally agree, I wish i had pictures of the keg. It was a simple design of cardboard octagon tube around an over-sized 2 liter soda bottle. Inside of the plastic bottle was a bladder which looked like an ice bag. The beer goes in the bladder and gas is pushed between the bladder and bottle to dispense beer.

All recyclable and compressed air could be used to dispense since it never touches the beer.

 

[iandh]

That Cask canner is pretty cool.

Alec had only great things to say about the Cask canner. It definitely got me thinking about canning instead of glass.

Just got to figure out where to store 12/18 pallets of cans :cross:

Here a video of Uncommon Brewers' older manual Cask canner

 

[DrawTap88]

It definitely got me thinking about canning instead of glass.

Me too. Especially if there is a big price difference between a canning line and bottling line...or even between cans and bottles.

 

[JJL]

Totally agree, I wish i had pictures of the keg. It was a simple design of cardboard octagon tube around an over-sized 2 liter soda bottle. Inside of the plastic bottle was a bladder which looked like an ice bag. The beer goes in the bladder and gas is pushed between the bladder and bottle to dispense beer.

All recyclable and compressed air could be used to dispense since it never touches the beer.

That 's basically what the one I saw looked like. It also weighs a lot less than stainless. The only drawback I saw was that they had to have a special filling station for them. I think the issue was that the fittings aren't compatible with a standard keg filler. Although, there could have been more to it than that.