Frequently Asked Questions

The cost of a brewery depends on a range of factors, including size, style, heat source, cellar tanks, and the level of automation. For more info, see our blog post that outlines the cost for three example brew house & cellar systems (3BBL, 7BBL, and 10BBL).

The power requirements for an electric brewery depend on the size and system setup. For more info, see our blog post that outlines the power requirements for several example brew house & cellar systems.

We offer electric, steam and direct/indirect fire brew houses. The best heat source for your brewery will depend on the size of your system, the utilities you have available, and (to a degree) your preference. More information is available on our Turnkey Brewing Systems pages. Also check out our webinar on Selecting Your Heat Source, presented at the Virtual Brewers Conference 2020, which presents the options and considerations to help you determine what will best fit your requirements.

When you’re ready to discuss the details, our Brewery Systems Specialists will work with you to review the options and help you determine which heat source is the best for you.

A Turnkey Brewing System is a system that includes all of the equipment that you need to complete your brewery. While this is different for everyone, the components that it generally includes are the following:

• Grain milling and handling
• Brew house tanks (HLT, mash tun, boil kettle, whirlpool, wort grant, etc.)
• Brew house controls, cords, and cables
• Brew house heating (electric elements, steam boiler, direct fire burner)
• Brew house pumps, racks, valves, and piping
• Brew house platform and/or frame (skid)
• Cellar tanks
• Cellar controls
• Glycol system & heat exchanger
• A supply of fittings, tri-clamps, ferrules, and brewer’s hose

However, a Brewmation Turnkey System goes well beyond the hardware that you’re buying. When working with Brewmation, you’ll have at your disposal our 20 years of experience building breweries. Sure, you could spec out and buy all of the parts and pieces yourself, and if you’re a hardcore DIY-er with lots of time on your hands, this might be a fun project. But if your primary concern is getting your brewery up and running with as little frustration, wasted parts, and unexpected surprises as possible so you can get to brewing beer, read on…

Brewmation’s expertise will save you time and money. We’ve made mistakes, and we’ve learned from them. We know you don’t want your pumps on your brewery floor, so we’ve designed and fabricated custom racks included with our Turnkey package. We’ve purchased the wrong adapters, and have cut (and re-cut!) more hard-piping than we care to admit. We’ve built a network of suppliers for grain augers, steam boilers, glycol chillers and solenoids, tanks, variable frequency drives, plate heat exchangers, water and wort pumps, and just about anything else needed in the brewery. We’ve done the work of sizing all of the equipment to work together, saving you the headaches of finding out the hard way that your pump is undersized or plate chiller won’t get you down to pitch temps.

But a Turnkey package from Brewmation includes a lot more than a parts list. Drawing from our 1,000+ brewery installations, our team of pro-brewers and engineers will work with you and your contractors to design the best brewery layout for your space. We’ll consult with your electricians to optimize the power draw, and provide real-time support during installation. We’ll provide all the equipment specifications and setup instructions, as well as remote and on-site support. We’ll walk you through setting up your equipment, water test, and first brew day.

As a Brewmation Turnkey Brewery, you’ll have access to ongoing support for your brewery. Whether it’s troubleshooting a stuck mash or balancing flow through your RIMS tube, our Technical Support Manager (former brewery owner and head-brewer) is on call to help you out when it’s needed most.

If you still prefer to take a DIY approach, we’re happy to simply provide you with all of the high-quality equipment that we supply.

Our Turnkey package includes all of the piping, hoses, and fittings needed to connect your equipment, and because our systems are custom built, we don’t have a parts list that we can provide for you to source these components, so you’ll have to do some leg work to figure out what’s needed to complete the system. You’ll also want to build in some accommodations for making the final electrical connections to your pumps, as well as determining where and how the pumps will be mounted. Each system will come with instructions on the controls and operations, but since we won’t know how you’ll be setting up the equipment, we won’t be able to provide installation instructions.

Of course, we will always back all of our products and provide the highest level of customer service for every piece of equipment that we sell. Each component will be backed by its manufacturer’s warranty, and we’ll always stand by our equipment.

We understand that budgets are tight, and you’re looking to save money everywhere you can, and we’ve built our Turnkey package to help you do that. No brewery build out is without hiccups — it’s unavoidable — but with a Brewmation Turnkey Brewery, you can rest assured that we’ll be there to guide you through it, saving you valuable time and money in the long run.

Support requests related to your brewery layout, contractor support, and troubleshooting your brew day issues will be invoiced based on the time incurred. Most customers require many hours of support throughout the installation and commissioning process and we don’t want them to hesitate to give us a call. So we’ve designed our Turnkey services to avoid having to process excessive paperwork and provide you with the fastest, easiest support we can offer. However, for customers who forgo our advanced support, we’re happy to invoice on an as-needed basis.

A troubleshooting procedure is coming soon. Call our Technical Support at 845-765-8395 (service@brewmation.com) for help.

We can provide you with a starting point based on your system, as well as a procedure for determining some of the variables. After a batch or two, you’ll start correcting the variables (Boil Off, Deadspace Losses, loss to Trub and Chiller, etc.) based on your measurements until you dial in the parameters to your setup. For suggested starting points, call our Technical Support at 845-765-8395 (service@brewmation.com) for help.

Yes, your system should be cleaned and passivated before brewing on them. A procedure for this process is coming soon. Call our Technical Support at 845-765-8395 (service@brewmation.com) for help.

We recommend using hot water and PBW for cleaning your elements. A procedure for this process is coming soon. Call our Technical Support at 845-765-8395 (service@brewmation.com) for help.

The temperature probe needed is based on whether you have a Basic Panel (with individual controllers and switches) or an Advanced Panel (with touchscreen). If the probe is for your brew house tanks, you will require a Tank Controls temperature probe. If the probe is for your cellar tank, you will require a Jacket Panel temperature probe.

Selecting the correct replacement heating element will depend on three factors: system size, system voltage, and connection type. Typically, Brewmation systems 7BBL and above will use 15,000W elements. You will need to determine whether you have 208V or 240V power from your electrician, control panel, or the element that you are replacing.

Systems smaller than 7BBL will utilize either 5,500W or 6,000W elements. If you have 208V power, 5.5kW elements will be used. If you have 240V power, 6kW elements will be used. Consult your electrician, control panel, or the element you are replacing to determine your voltage.

Most Brewmation systems include tri-clamp fittings on our heating elements. We also offer threaded elements if you are replacing a threaded element.

For assistance determining the correct probes or elements for your system, call our Technical Support at 845-765-8395 (service@brewmation.com) for help.