• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • About Craft Brewing Business

Craft Brewing Business

Professional Insight, Unfiltered

Craft Brewing Business Craft Brewing Business
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment & Systems
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • COVID-19

How to choose the right boiler for your brewery

June 18, 2015Doug MacMaster

Brewery steam requirements can double or triple in as little as a few seconds, so you better have the right solution.
Brewery steam requirements can double or triple in as little as a few seconds, so you better have the right solution.

A boiler purchase is one of the most important investments for a craft brewery. Breweries rely on steam heating for a number of reasons — primarily for the kettle and to produce hot water for sanitization. Steam is also required to keep solutions at the right temperatures and is used in pasteurization heating for bottling. Choosing the right boiler is crucial to ensuring that you can meet production demands without wasting time or energy.

As for the criteria you should look for when purchasing a boiler, the following are important:

1. Ability to meet steam demand at production.

Steam demand in breweries can vary widely based on the exact need in that moment. Traditionally, a large single boiler is used so that it will be ready with steam at any moment. However, it is expensive to keep a large oversized boiler ready at all times.

“We have irregular needs for hot water for cleaning our tanks and our lines,” explained Jaime Jurado, director of brewing operations at The Gambrinus Company Breweries, owner of Spoetzl and BridgePort Brewing Co. “However, with the two modular, on-demand boilers we installed from Miura, we can choose between having them both fully fired or having one off and completely cold to the touch — instead of being on all the time, like our old fire-tube boiler. That tells you right there that we’re saving about half the natural gas we were using before. We can get full steam from our second Miura boiler in about five minutes, whereas the old boiler would take hours before it could provide steam.”

2. Ability to do multiple processes at the same time.

Those processes can include brewing (hot liquor and mash tun), CIP, sanitization, sterilization, kegging, canning and bottling. Again, applications and processes can vary from brewery to brewery. A precisely designed steam system, particularly utilizing a modular boiler approach, will help ensure that the right amount of steam is ready at any time — not too much and not too little.

3. Ability to adjust steam supply to fluctuations on demand.

Brewery steam requirements can double or triple in as little as a few seconds. Large fire tube boilers need a long time to react to these demand swings. To overcome that problem, firetube boilers will remain hot. The costs to do this are tremendous. Modular, on-demand boilers can generate steam within seconds when in standby mode. This saves an average of 20 percent in fuel costs.

A recent bulletin on commercial boilers from the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) states, “If building loads are highly variable, as is common in commercial buildings, designers should consider installing multiple small (modular) boilers … Modular systems are more efficient because they allow each boiler to operate at or close to full rated load most of the time, with reduced standby losses.”

Pages: Page 1 Page 2
Oregon State’s new research brewery allows students to learn on an automated system similar to major regional brewhouses
John Maier Santa clause Rogue holiday cbb crop
A holiday special: Craft beer professionals pick their favorite pieces of equipment
On the show floor: Interview with the boiler makers at Miura #CBC2015
Deep-Liquid-Brewers1
How Deep Liquid’s AI improves beer recipes and engages customers

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. craftbangkok says

    June 18, 2015 at 1:29 pm

    How to choose the right boiler for your brewery http://t.co/kYvPP0WcB0

    Log in to Reply
  2. Nathan Semsch says

    June 18, 2015 at 1:22 pm

    Nathan Semsch liked this on Facebook.

    Log in to Reply
  3. csvanorden says

    June 18, 2015 at 12:31 pm

    RT @CraftBrewingBiz: How to choose the right boiler for your brewery. @bridgeportbrew @ShinerBeer http://t.co/YxwPf3NeVq

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • Breweries that host RV travelers via Harvest Hosts can earn some extra cash
  • Joyride Brewing’s anniversary block party is going to be pretty rad, includes friendly collab competition
  • The wheeled Perlick Mobile Tap is a cool new roving beer station
  • A behind the scenes look at branding a startup brewery

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • A behind the scenes look at branding a startup brewery
    June 28, 2022
  • robot beer salesThe future of retail beer sales is here
    June 27, 2022
  • Sapporo to acquire Stone Brewing, that one brewery that kept saying it wasn’t interested in selling out
    June 24, 2022
  • Reebok-x-Rec-2Harpoon collaborates with Reebok, Elysian reveals new tarot labels and more beers to know this week
    June 23, 2022
  • Carlsberg announces largest test trial of its fully recyclable Fiber Bottles (Mads Mikkelsen’s a fan)
    June 22, 2022
  • Strategic Partnership HandshakeHarpoon parent company buys Long Trail Brewing brands
    June 21, 2022

Footer

  • Email Newsletter Sign Up
  • About Craft Brewing Business
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise on Craft Brewing Business
  • Media Kit Download
  • Privacy and Terms

© 2022 · CBB Media LLC

Posting....