New 'Commercial' 200l brewery

[dloper]

For a 200 litre brew, I'll start off by heating around 125 litres of water and use 80 litres to mash with. My boiler will be heating the water. While mashing, I'll heat a further 125 litres to sparge with, which should give me around 220 litres of pre-boil wort after losses. After doing the sums I'll still have to experiment to get the timing correct so that the water is at the right temperature to sparge with as soon as the mash is finished, perhaps heating more water before mashing and less during the mash. It's not ideal, but I'll do a dummy run or two, without grain, to check for leaks, temperature drops etc. before I brew for real.

Had a couple of local ales tonight too. Draught Windswept APA and bottle of Spey Valleys. Not So Bitter.

[MarkA]

Windswept's APA is a nice beer, what did you think of David's Not So Bitter?

I only realised last Saturday morning that Windswept were part of the Lossiemouth open house day and it was too late to get a brewery tour as they were booked up

[dloper]

I haven't tried Spey Valley on draught yet, although I have tried Windswepts APA both on draught and bottled. I prefer draught beer so I'll reserve judgement on Spey Valleys brews until I've had a few proper pints! Suffice to say, it's something I'd happily drink again. My own draught recipe is similar to Windswepts APA, but not as citrus hoppy and with a maltier flavour. If I can match the full body I'll be pleased.

[Jonnyconga]

I'm following this thread with a lot of interest. Dloper - the best of luck with this - I'm one of hundreds (or thousands....) of home brews dreaming about brewing for a living....! Great to hear you are giving it a go.
One thing that stops me (apart from time, space and money...!) is the idea that if I brew from my shed I'd have to pay tax on any home brew i make for myself. How are you getting round that (or shouldn't I ask?!)
Seems like you've sorted most things without too much bother. People always seem to say the setup effort is pretty full-on.

[dloper]

The duty works out at around 19p per 500ml bottle at 4% and with ingredients the total cost of the beer will be 32p. I reckon I can live with that.

Setting up has taken me nearly a year, mainly because I don't like spending money and I've done all the work myself, apart from the welding. Scrounging and liberating stuff takes time!

The only people I won't be strictly legal with are the Planning Department. I'd need change of use planning permission but I'll wait until they find out what I'm doing before worrying them. I don't think they could slap a Stop Notice on me as they'd have to have real concerns about loss of amenity to my neighbours - all of whom are supportive of my little venture. I reckon, at worst, I'd have to apply for retrospective permission and by the time that's all sorted out, I'll know whether my venture was a success and if it's time to move to proper premises.

[darkonnis]

I'm following this thread with a lot of interest. Dloper - the best of luck with this - I'm one of hundreds (or thousands....) of home brews dreaming about brewing for a living....! Great to hear you are giving it a go.
One thing that stops me (apart from time, space and money...!) is the idea that if I brew from my shed I'd have to pay tax on any home brew i make for myself. How are you getting round that (or shouldn't I ask?!)
Seems like you've sorted most things without too much bother. People always seem to say the setup effort is pretty full-on.

You don't pay duty on beer which is for "test" purposes. If you aren't selling (that includes giving away, trading, swapping etc) the beer then there is no duty to pay, think of it like that. Duty is paid at the time the beer is sold (on the premises, under the conditions mentioned before) or when it leaves the premises, unless it is going to a duty hold area (like if you had a central warehouse which you sold from). If it's for your own consumption you don't pay duty on it as it is "testing" for quality purposes, after all you'd be upset if you bought beer that didn't get you drunk when it was supposed to.

[Horatio]

The only people I won't be strictly legal with are the Planning Department. I'd need change of use planning permission but I'll wait until they find out what I'm doing before worrying them. I don't think they could slap a Stop Notice on me as they'd have to have real concerns about loss of amenity to my neighbours - all of whom are supportive of my little venture. I reckon, at worst, I'd have to apply for retrospective permission and by the time that's all sorted out, I'll know whether my venture was a success and if it's time to move to proper premises.

You may be pleasantly surprised by your local planning dept. I know all councils are very different but mine gave me full permission to brew commercially without any application. I did have to write them a letter stating the size, expected deliveries etc. they then sent my a letter back saying I could brew with their consent . I spoke to them again recently and they only want a change of use application if I go up to 2.5bbl in my current location (outbuilding). Hopefully yours will have the same attitude? Good luck.

[Jonnyconga]

You don't pay duty on beer which is for "test" purposes. If you aren't selling (that includes giving away, trading, swapping etc) the beer then there is no duty to pay, think of it like that. Duty is paid at the time the beer is sold (on the premises, under the conditions mentioned before) or when it leaves the premises, unless it is going to a duty hold area (like if you had a central warehouse which you sold from). If it's for your own consumption you don't pay duty on it as it is "testing" for quality purposes, after all you'd be upset if you bought beer that didn't get you drunk when it was supposed to.

That's very encouraging darkonnis. Thanks for your reply. (Sorry not meaning to crash the thread). If that's the case it makes things a lot easier!! I guess there must be some sort of limit in terms of percentage of total amount brewed that can be deemed "testing!"....
Seems (and from the above post) that perhaps setting up ones own small nano brewery might not actually be crazy in terms of paper work and red tape.

[darkonnis]

I spoke to planning about doing it my garage and their response was that as long as there was no smell and no increase in traffic (ie no articulated trucks rocking up to collect/deliver) they wherent too bothered. It does however all depend on who you get.

Jonny, there is no way you could define a limit. if you brewed a beer then it was bad/not tasting as that style hsould you could toss it. Most of it is an honesty policy.

[dloper]

You're fortunate to have flexible planning people. Mine insist on change of use permission, but I'm going to ignore that on the basis that all my neighbours support me and the planning department would have to have a compelling reason to issue a stop notice. I'll start anyway and if they get to hear about it, they can take whatever action they want, which will most likely mean I have to apply for retrospective permission, but the wheels grind slowly...

Meantime, I've made some progress. I've installed a mains drain which I'll connect to a 'hand washing facility' and a shower tray which I'll use to clean fermenters etc. I bought some 50mm Celotex insulation sheets which I've used to construct a fermenting room and a cold room. I installed an upright freezer in both rooms and I'll put in a couple of greenhouse heaters, using a pair of STC1000's to set the temperature in each room.



Celotex rooms on the right, and a shelf for my HLT in the left hand corner. I may have gone overboard with the bracing but my kettle will sit in the corner underneath and the thought of all that hot water overhead makes me a little nervous! The HLT won't have it's own elements but I'll pump hot water up from the kettle.



Freezer installation. The brewhouse still looks like a building site, but really, not far to go now!

[dloper]

HLT (210 litre blue barrel) insulated with 4 camping mats covered in radiator reflective sheeting and plumbed in. It was a nervous wait, filling it with 200 litres of water to test my plumbing. There were a few creaks as the supports took the weight, but it's fine. My plumbing has a few minor weeps to fix, but all in all, it works well. The kettle was filled too, to test for leaks before I insulate it, and as can be seen from the floor, a couple of welds need going over. Glad I didn't clean them up first! Mash tun, on the right, is a 156 litre cool box which comes with a handy threaded outlet. That's a shower tray on the left which I'll use as a wash bay for fermenters etc. I need to build it up on a plinth to connect to my drains. Not much to do now, apart from vent the kettle to the outside world, wire up the elements and find a few hose connectors. Then it'll be time for a dry run to make sure all runs smoothly and to work out my timings for heating liquor, pumping and draining etc.

[darkonnis]

Looking really good mate, well impressed! Giving me ideas though

[dloper]

Looking really good mate, well impressed! Giving me ideas though

Cheers! Here's hoping the Environmental Health man thinks the same!

[Aaron]

That's a beast of a cooler. What kind of sparge arm are you using for that? Copper pipe?

[dloper]

Aye, it's not heavy, but it's a stretch to reach both handles. I'll make up a copper manifold, and try to sparge over the whole surface area. There's a pipe and valve from the HLT on the top left of the cooler ready to connect up.