I woke up this morning to a budgetary quote from Chromalox, an electric immersion elements manufacturer. Yesterday I spoke with them regarding our needs for some heating elements and a control panel, and they engineered a solution for us. A $50,000 solution!! Those elements better brew the beer themselves for that price. I know Brewmation.com has a complete setup for $20,000, but even that is 3 times what I plan to spend.
These prices are crazy when I only need a handful of heating elements that cost no more than $600 for the best ones. Needless to say I'm going to keep searching for alternate suppliers.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Monday, July 29, 2013
Electric City Brewery Coming to Murrieta!
Since we will be an electrically powered brewery in an old auto electric shop, we thought the name Electric City Brewery would be quite appropriate--also, the name looks really good in writing!
Cheers from Electric City Brewery!
Cheers from Electric City Brewery!
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Thales Pale Ale?
Since I'm going to be brewing with an electric system I figured I should learn a bit more on the subject. There are lots of interesting people related to the history of electricity, including guys like Pliny the Elder, Benjamin Franklin, Michael Faraday, Malcom and Angus Young, and so on. But the one who caught my eye the most was Thales of Miletus. Born in 624BC, Thales was a 7th century thinker like Cicero and Aristotle, he was a business man, a scholar, and (Read more here if you actually want to know).
Most relevant to an electric brewery, however, is two key points: 1) Thales was the earliest know researcher into electricity. 2) Thales hypothesized about the nature of matter – that all of the world's objects are composed of a single element substance: water (aka, everything is created from water).
To me, this was very intriguing. Our brewery, if nothing else, is two things: Its electric; and, it turns water into beer. We considered (very heavily) naming our brewery Thales Ales, but, we feel that the concept may be a bit too obscure of a reference, and sort of hard to remember. With certainty, however, Thales Ales will be worked into the brewery in some degree; perhaps Thales Pale Ale?
Here is a statue of Thales at Union Station in Washington D.C. (notice the electric bolts in his arms)
Most relevant to an electric brewery, however, is two key points: 1) Thales was the earliest know researcher into electricity. 2) Thales hypothesized about the nature of matter – that all of the world's objects are composed of a single element substance: water (aka, everything is created from water).
To me, this was very intriguing. Our brewery, if nothing else, is two things: Its electric; and, it turns water into beer. We considered (very heavily) naming our brewery Thales Ales, but, we feel that the concept may be a bit too obscure of a reference, and sort of hard to remember. With certainty, however, Thales Ales will be worked into the brewery in some degree; perhaps Thales Pale Ale?
Here is a statue of Thales at Union Station in Washington D.C. (notice the electric bolts in his arms)
Friday, July 26, 2013
Electric brewhouse it is and update on the tanks
We have decided to power our brewhouse using electric immersion heaters, and we are quite excited about it for two reasons.
One, because the building we are looking at is already setup to handle a system like ours. Being an old electrical shop, it comes prewired with the correct amperage, voltage, and gigawatt needs we should require.
Second, being in Southern California, we have 362.5 days of sun a year. By installing a solar panel, that is 362.5 days of brewing energy we can use to turn water into beer. If only your Prius could do that!
*Update on the tanks:
I talked with the guys from Schier Equipment and Ager Tanks and they said the tanks are set to arrive next week. They will be going directly to the welders to be modified. I don't have an exact date of arrival yet but stay posted, I will definitely include the customary picture of the brewer in the brew tank....
One, because the building we are looking at is already setup to handle a system like ours. Being an old electrical shop, it comes prewired with the correct amperage, voltage, and gigawatt needs we should require.
Second, being in Southern California, we have 362.5 days of sun a year. By installing a solar panel, that is 362.5 days of brewing energy we can use to turn water into beer. If only your Prius could do that!
*Update on the tanks:
I talked with the guys from Schier Equipment and Ager Tanks and they said the tanks are set to arrive next week. They will be going directly to the welders to be modified. I don't have an exact date of arrival yet but stay posted, I will definitely include the customary picture of the brewer in the brew tank....
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Found a building and negotiating for a lease!
After looking at a few possible locations that all turned out to be way to small or had insufficient parking (read: two spots total), I moved onto the last building on my list: 41537 Cherry Street in Murrieta. The unit is 4500 square feet, has two roll-up doors, very high ceilings, and used to be an Automotive Electrical Shop. This is perfect because the have hundreds of electrical outlets, including quite a few 220V outlets will be precisely what we need for brewing with electric.
At 4500 sqft, parked with 2 parking spots every 1000 square feet, we would have around 9 spots. The amount of parking spots we are allotted directly correlates to the size of our tasting room as per the city's conditional use permit (CUP). What this means to us is, the more parking, the larger our tasting room can be!
Temecula is similar, but rather allow a percentage of the buildings square foot, something like 10 or 15%, to dictate the size of the tasting room. This is why Wiens has a huge tasting room, and Aftershock and Iron Fire have smaller tasting rooms--it all boils down to a formula. For now, though, Murrieta is a little more flexible in that they look at every possible factor, including things like peak hours and location.
We are quite found of this Cherry Street location. Cherry street is the last street on Jefferson before you leave Murrieta and enter Temecula. This means we would be easily accessible to both city's. And best of all, we will have direct freeway access once the Date Freeway ramp is done in a few months. Directions will go like this: take the 15 freeway to the Date exit, go across Jefferson and turn right into the second driveway (The first driveway is the Off-road warehouse). Easy as that. Downside is we are in the building in the back, but that's nothing a few signs wont direct you to.
We put in an offer and are asking for a few concessions. If the owner is quick to respond, and if all goes well, we will be in this unit in the next couple of weeks. Cross your fingers!
A few pics:
At 4500 sqft, parked with 2 parking spots every 1000 square feet, we would have around 9 spots. The amount of parking spots we are allotted directly correlates to the size of our tasting room as per the city's conditional use permit (CUP). What this means to us is, the more parking, the larger our tasting room can be!
Temecula is similar, but rather allow a percentage of the buildings square foot, something like 10 or 15%, to dictate the size of the tasting room. This is why Wiens has a huge tasting room, and Aftershock and Iron Fire have smaller tasting rooms--it all boils down to a formula. For now, though, Murrieta is a little more flexible in that they look at every possible factor, including things like peak hours and location.
We are quite found of this Cherry Street location. Cherry street is the last street on Jefferson before you leave Murrieta and enter Temecula. This means we would be easily accessible to both city's. And best of all, we will have direct freeway access once the Date Freeway ramp is done in a few months. Directions will go like this: take the 15 freeway to the Date exit, go across Jefferson and turn right into the second driveway (The first driveway is the Off-road warehouse). Easy as that. Downside is we are in the building in the back, but that's nothing a few signs wont direct you to.
We put in an offer and are asking for a few concessions. If the owner is quick to respond, and if all goes well, we will be in this unit in the next couple of weeks. Cross your fingers!
A few pics:
Natural Gas Heating Vs. Electric Heating
After scouring the commercial real estate in Murrieta I've come to decide that finding a building with natural gas in the unit is going to be a few-and-far-between scenario. Not that I am saying its impossible, but its improbable. A simple solution is to open in Temecula instead--they seem to have natural gas stubbed to every building (cited using no particular source). But, Murrieta is my hometown, I love it here, and natural gas or not, this is where I plan to set up shop.
In brewing, you have a few options for heating your brewing liquors. You can heat through jacketed tanks or calandria using steam, which is heated through a steam boiler, which is usually heated with natural gas. You can heat with direct fire, which is fueled from either propane or natural gas. Or, you can use heating elements inside the kettle powered via good ol' electricity.
After a little research, I found that brewing with electric, while expensive when compared to natural gas, is also very efficient. Every bit of every thermal unit is being used to heat the brewing water or wort; and, with solar panels, this type of heat can be made affordable and can be easily renewed. Additionally, while brewing in summer, the heat is directly immersed in the brewing liquors, rather than heating up the room. When I was working at the brewery last winter, I would warm up the warehouse by boiling some water. The inefficient heat of a direct fired kettle was more than enough to bring a 45F warehouse up to a comfortable 75F in an hour!
Another plus is I can put an electrically heated brewery anywhere I choose. With this information in hand it looks like I'm going back to the drawing board on some of the buildings I originally crossed of my list.
In brewing, you have a few options for heating your brewing liquors. You can heat through jacketed tanks or calandria using steam, which is heated through a steam boiler, which is usually heated with natural gas. You can heat with direct fire, which is fueled from either propane or natural gas. Or, you can use heating elements inside the kettle powered via good ol' electricity.
After a little research, I found that brewing with electric, while expensive when compared to natural gas, is also very efficient. Every bit of every thermal unit is being used to heat the brewing water or wort; and, with solar panels, this type of heat can be made affordable and can be easily renewed. Additionally, while brewing in summer, the heat is directly immersed in the brewing liquors, rather than heating up the room. When I was working at the brewery last winter, I would warm up the warehouse by boiling some water. The inefficient heat of a direct fired kettle was more than enough to bring a 45F warehouse up to a comfortable 75F in an hour!
Another plus is I can put an electrically heated brewery anywhere I choose. With this information in hand it looks like I'm going back to the drawing board on some of the buildings I originally crossed of my list.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Location, tanks, and silly things like a name.
As to date, we are three weeks into looking for a building in Murrieta to lease. Lots of things come into play, like: Is there gas? Is there sufficient parking? Is it zoned properly? Does the landlord want a brewery/tasting room? Does it have a roll-up door so we can get our tanks into the building? Lastly, is the price and overall location a good fit?
By far, the hardest part has been finding a building with natural gas. I talked with the gas company and it can cost upwards of $30,000 to run gas 40' from the street--that 30K would buy a handful of really shiny fermenters!
Anyways, after scouring the city, we have narrowed it down to a few buildings on Jefferson Avenue (all without gas of course). Jefferson avenue seems like it would provide easy access, it's a good landmark road, it's close to Bulldog Brewery (and another not-yet-to-be-announced-other-new-brewery-in-Murrieta). Plus, it's just a 5 minute tour bus ride from any of the Temecula Breweries which is a huge perk. Here's a sneak peak at one of the units we are considering:
For now, everything is in the agents hand. Offers are out, calls have been made, and now, we wait....
But, there is good news!! We have purchased the brewing system (Pictures Below). It is going to be a bit of frankenbrew set up, but once we get it to the welders it will be solid. The Hot Liquor Tank and Mash Tun are both 15 barrels open top tanks that came out of a Rockbottom Brewery in Nashville. They are insulated and jacketed, and will hold heat very nice. The Boil Kettle is a 7 barrel domed top dairy tank coming over from Bad Axe, Michigan (BTW, Bad Axe would be a cool name for the brewery). Its a 300 gallon single wall tank on stainless steel legs.
You may be wondering why we have two 15 barrel tanks and one 7 barrel tank? Well, we got a good deal on the large tanks (made by Specific Mechanical). By having these larger tanks we will be able to double our future capacity by only replacing one tank, our boil kettle. But for now we can brew 7 barrels (1 barrel equals 31 gallons) at a time which will insure that we are only selling the freshest of beer.
The system is being shipped directly to the welders--Steel Nuts Fabrication in Murrieta--to be fitted with some manways, stainless steel legs on the HLT and Mash Tun, a whirlpool port, a wedge wire false bottom, and since these tanks will be 6 feet tall, a platform. Steel Nuts built my homebrew system and does the best work I have ever seen. They have a welder who is certified to work on stainless steel, and these guys always go above and beyond where quality is concerned.
That brings us to the name. Every brewery will tell you, this is by-and-large the most difficult part of the process. Well, some people just name there brewery anything crazy, but we want something that fits who we are, and who our target audience is. Problem is, there are thousands of breweries in the world and only so many names. All of my favorite names seem to be taken. People say I have a very large head, so, I though Fat Heads would be a great name! Apparently so did someone else, and they did a wonderful job with the branding. So I consulted a thesaurus, and tried Big Head; also taken. I mixed it up with Nodding Head; taken... and so it went. I tried other names (Shipwreck, Sledgehammer, Red Horse) and they were names of beers themselves.
So you see, each brewery out there owns a bag full of names, and this is why we have brewery names like Monkey-footed Mouse or Ninja Horse. Both of which I actually kinda like, hmm.....
Anyways, off to look at some more buildings, cheers!!
Justen Foust
By far, the hardest part has been finding a building with natural gas. I talked with the gas company and it can cost upwards of $30,000 to run gas 40' from the street--that 30K would buy a handful of really shiny fermenters!
Anyways, after scouring the city, we have narrowed it down to a few buildings on Jefferson Avenue (all without gas of course). Jefferson avenue seems like it would provide easy access, it's a good landmark road, it's close to Bulldog Brewery (and another not-yet-to-be-announced-other-new-brewery-in-Murrieta). Plus, it's just a 5 minute tour bus ride from any of the Temecula Breweries which is a huge perk. Here's a sneak peak at one of the units we are considering:
For now, everything is in the agents hand. Offers are out, calls have been made, and now, we wait....
But, there is good news!! We have purchased the brewing system (Pictures Below). It is going to be a bit of frankenbrew set up, but once we get it to the welders it will be solid. The Hot Liquor Tank and Mash Tun are both 15 barrels open top tanks that came out of a Rockbottom Brewery in Nashville. They are insulated and jacketed, and will hold heat very nice. The Boil Kettle is a 7 barrel domed top dairy tank coming over from Bad Axe, Michigan (BTW, Bad Axe would be a cool name for the brewery). Its a 300 gallon single wall tank on stainless steel legs.
You may be wondering why we have two 15 barrel tanks and one 7 barrel tank? Well, we got a good deal on the large tanks (made by Specific Mechanical). By having these larger tanks we will be able to double our future capacity by only replacing one tank, our boil kettle. But for now we can brew 7 barrels (1 barrel equals 31 gallons) at a time which will insure that we are only selling the freshest of beer.
The system is being shipped directly to the welders--Steel Nuts Fabrication in Murrieta--to be fitted with some manways, stainless steel legs on the HLT and Mash Tun, a whirlpool port, a wedge wire false bottom, and since these tanks will be 6 feet tall, a platform. Steel Nuts built my homebrew system and does the best work I have ever seen. They have a welder who is certified to work on stainless steel, and these guys always go above and beyond where quality is concerned.
That brings us to the name. Every brewery will tell you, this is by-and-large the most difficult part of the process. Well, some people just name there brewery anything crazy, but we want something that fits who we are, and who our target audience is. Problem is, there are thousands of breweries in the world and only so many names. All of my favorite names seem to be taken. People say I have a very large head, so, I though Fat Heads would be a great name! Apparently so did someone else, and they did a wonderful job with the branding. So I consulted a thesaurus, and tried Big Head; also taken. I mixed it up with Nodding Head; taken... and so it went. I tried other names (Shipwreck, Sledgehammer, Red Horse) and they were names of beers themselves.
So you see, each brewery out there owns a bag full of names, and this is why we have brewery names like Monkey-footed Mouse or Ninja Horse. Both of which I actually kinda like, hmm.....
Anyways, off to look at some more buildings, cheers!!
Justen Foust
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