[phillamb168]

Hey guys, what would you say is the average amount of space needed for a 10 BBL system including an average-sized packaging/canning system + fermenters + product storage? I was thinking 1500 - 2000 sqft. Realistic?

[tschmidlin]

I don't know about packaging lines, but the guys I know who are opening breweries have ~4000 sqft for a 15 bbl system plus a tasting room, and ~4000 sqft for a 7-10 bbl system and a restaurant.  Obviously it depends on the packaging line, number of fermenters, etc., but I think you could do it in the 1500-2000 sqft range.  You'll wish you had more space though, everyone does.

[bluesman]

As a starter, I would layout your equipment on google sketchup or on paper, incorporating all of the necessary footprints with some room to maneuver around everything and a good process flow, then calculate some additional room for expansion.

JV Northwest recommends for a Complete Brewery .5 - 1 sq. ft./bbl of yearly capacity.

[a10t2]

Storage is the biggest question mark. In terms of actually laying out the equipment, you'd only need ~100 sqft for a three-vessel brewhouse, and ~50 sqft per fermenter to have a walkway on one side. In that size range, I'd assume you're looking at something like a semi-automated four head packaging line; that's another 150 sqft or so when it's set up. Call it 250 to allow for moving pallets around during packaging. So if you have 10 fermenters and two brights (1800-2600 bbl/yr capacity) you need ~1000 sqft for the brewhouse.

I don't know what the standard stacking height is over there, but it looks like a EUR pallet is about 10.3 sqft. Assuming 72 US cases per pallet, that's 0.5 bbl/sqft. So with 500 sqft of cold storage, you could hold about one month's production - two months if you can double-stack. That only leaves 500 sqft of dry storage, which isn't a whole lot but should let you keep at least 3-4 weeks of consumables in inventory, depending on what else you need to use it for.

In that production range, I'd say 2000 sqft is about the minimum. For what it's worth, we're looking at 1100 sqft for a 7 bbl system with no packaging, and I suspect we're still going to have to rent a storage unit.

[Thirsty_Monk]

What is the minimum for cans? (How many pallets you have to buy).
500 sf cooler is a good start up. Office space, Lab space...
I would say realistic at least 3,000 sf but 5,000 sf would not be out of question.

[phillamb168]

Wow. So how much do you guys pay for your spaces? Around here, 3,000 square feet of space is going to cost me about $3,000 a month. Is that in line with what you've seen?

[nateo]

In Denver proper (city and county of) the kind of commercial property you'd want to put a production brewery in ran about $1 per ft^2 last I checked, which was a year or two ago. By that I mean close to downtown but not a good location for a brewpub. Spaces were a bit cheaper in the suburbs, and much more expensive downtown.

[tschmidlin]

There is a huge range of prices here, but $12/sqft/yr + NNN would be on the high end of normal for industrial space in Redmond.  Retail or office space is 2-3 times that.  I think the market is somewhat down right now though.

[Thirsty_Monk]

Here is it from $4.50 sf/year for warehouse space up to $12 sf/year for retail space.
You also have to take into consideration population density.
More people per Square Mile more customers and more expensive rent.
Another thing. Are utilities (water, heat, electricity, AC) included.

[phillamb168]

Nope, nothing's included in that price, so there would still be insurance, water, elec, heating to pay.

[phillamb168]

Another question... is 150k for a 7 BBL direct-fired system reasonable? Price includes 4 7 BBL brites, 4 7 BBL conicals, refrigeration group, malt auger, pumps & hard-piped stainless throughout. Made in USA and Shanghai.

[nateo]

Were the pumps made in the US or China? I've read it's better to go with western pumps because they'll be easier to service and get parts for than the Chinese pumps. I'm not sure why you'd need an equal number of brites and conicals, unless you're serving out of your brites.

[phillamb168]

Were the pumps made in the US or China? I've read it's better to go with western pumps because they'll be easier to service and get parts for than the Chinese pumps. I'm not sure why you'd need an equal number of brites and conicals, unless you're serving out of your brites.

Dunno. It's part of the package deal, you get 4 of each. Would you suggest 2 conicals and 4 brites, or the other way around?

[nateo]

You'll bottleneck in your fermentors way before you bottleneck in your brites. You'll need like 14 days in the primary, and two or three in the brites.

[phillamb168]

So, related to this somewhat, how do you estimate sales for something like this? I can easily estimate how much beer I can make, but how much can I sell? Should I be talking to distributors even this early?