Casey's Beer

This morning we went to Blackheath growers’ market. For me it was the first time – poor old Cindarella who until recently has had to work Sundays for years on end while everyone else went to off to enjoy themselves . . .

There was a man from a very small winery selling wine. Seemed to be rather slow for him. I watched him for about 15 or 20 minutes and he made only one sale. In NSW with a wine producer’s licence you can sell at growers’ markets. If you have a brewer’s licence you can only sell at growers’ markets if you are a non-metropolitan brewery.

But came home and brewed the pale beer again, same grain bill of pilsner, Vienna, Carapils and a touch of wheat but today it was Perle and Hallertau rather than Perle and Saaz. The big difference was not that I was more appropriately clad than last week, but rather I used a different yeast.

I’ve received the invoices for the freight from the USA for the brewhouse, fermenters and associated equipment. It is coming in two containers. One is scheduled to arrive at Port Botany on March 29, the other a week later on April 5. Apparently space was short on the first ship. I am not sure whether them arriving separately is good thing or not. It could (?will probably) mean extra charges here. But, it could be a lot easier to take delivery of the equipment in two bites.

This morning I got up, put water on to boil for coffee, and water to heat for brewing.

Today’s beer was another variation of the intended pale beer. The grain bill and hopping are fairly well established, I’ve been brewing a similar beer for quite some time. I am still playing around with the yeast.

The yeast I used today is a new one for me. Excuse me for being coy about which strain.

After making the coffee and drinking it, the brewing water was hot enough to mash in. I had crushed the grain yesterday afternoon in the shop. During the mash I heated more water for mashing out and sparging, and got the kettle and burner ready along with several other things.

All the time I had just been wearing a yukata, a light cotton kimono. I had got as far as hoiking the sparge bucket onto two milk crates placed on a bench when my wife yelled out “You can’t brew in a yukata!” I though I had done fairly well. Apart from the clean up at the end, the only thing I thought I couldn’t really do wearing a yukata was to lift the kettle on to the bench at the end of the boil before running the wort through the heat exchanger.

Yukata and gum boots, now there’s an attractive look for an owner-brewer.

On Monday inspected a couple of industrial units in a small complex on the south side of Penrith.

Previous units I have investigated have not been suitable because of inadequte utilities. And in some of them the floor space has been very choppy – stairs to a mezzanine here, a toilet block there, an office over there etc.

The ones I saw on Monday are about 260 square metres of clear floor space about 10 metres wide and 26 metres deep. There’s a bit of extra space at the front around the roller shutter, and also with toilets, shower, entranceway and small mezzanine office.

The power is right with 3 phase at 100 amps per phase. Gas has been connected to one of the units in the past, I am just checking with AGL that it will be available in adequate quantity and pressure. There should not be any problems, but you know famous last words . . The steam boiler uses 675 megajoules an hour and needs a pressure of about 5kPa.

The sewer in the street is 225 mm diameter and will easily handle the brewery discharge. Still need to check on the location and diameter of internal drains and the load bearing ability of the floor.

It is an older style unit, masonry construction throughout. It has good truck access and on-site parking. And the rent is pretty reasonable.

Have just received a message that the brewing plant, in two forty foot containers, sailed last week from Chicago. Have yet to receive an estimated arrival date. How long it takes will depend on how many stops before Sydney.

Over the Australia Day weekend I went to Mudgee because the Mudgee Brewing Company have just recently received their new 6 head Meheen bottle filler. I was able to catch up with Andrew Larsen, see the Meheen filler in action, and get some experience working on a bottling line.

The Meheen Merlin is an impressive piece of machinery. Mechanically it is fairly simple, even crude. However the ideas behind the mechanical design, and the sophistication of its touch screen controls make it stand out. One limitation of the machine is that bottle sizes cannot really be changed. There are six transverse filling tubes mounted in line on a block which is lifted and lowered with compressed air. Although the height can be adjusted with shims, bottle diameter is pretty well fixed. A difference of 2 mm diameter will mean that the last bottle in line will be 12 mm out of line – crunch goes the filling tube.

The six head Meheen can do 2,400 small bottles per hour, 40 bottles per minute. We had it running at that for about 10 minutes but had to change bins for the full bottles. It was quite easy running at 30 bottles per minute. The running speed is controlled by how fast the evacuation and counter pressure carbon dioxide is released from the bottles. A 1,500 bottles per hour rotary filler is four to five times the price with no reduction in labour to run it.

A neat accessory for the Meheen is the tank manager. Again a touch screen and PLCs to control the temperature, carbonation pressure, and supply of carbon dioxide in the fermenter or bright beer tank from which the beer is being bottled.

All very nifty.

The search for brewery premises is now on in earnest. The search so far has been tedious because I need to make sure the utilities will be adequate.

The biggest issue has been energy supply. The initial plan was to go with an electric steam boiler of 120 kilowatts or 12 boiler horsepower. The power requirements would be 3 phases of 167 amps each. Plus there is refrigeration, pumps, mash tun and kettle stirrers and other equipment to run. Typically the power supply for smaller industrial units is only 100 amps per phase. Upgrading the power is, I have found out, a major exercise. Estimates have ranged from $12,000 to $40,000 depending, depending. Part of the problem is that without specific it is hard to get an accurate quote, but I need a quote to decide about premises.

The alternative is to run a gas powered boiler. They are generally more expensive than an electric boiler of similar size and the installation costs more. Hence the initial idea of going electric.

Checking for the availability of gas has been tedious because without a specific address AGL have not been able to tell me too much. Gas mains might be in the street, but they might not run the full length. So depending on availability of gas, one plan was to start with bottled gas if connecting to natural gas were too expensive and then connect later and have the burner changed when the volume of brewing made it economical. Currently looking at a 15 hp gas boiler with a consumption of 675 megajoules an hour (on a side note, Mr Joule was a brewer who wanted to work out the cost of running the kettle in the family brewery). On bottled propane the cost would be about $22.50 and hour, with natural gas about $10.75.

But sometimes things can just come together. I have found some prospective premises. There are three vacant units in a small complex of ten. The size and layout are right, there is good truck access, and when I rang AGL with the address Asheby was able to tell me that not only was gas in the street, but Unit 1 in the complex had been connected to the gas in the past. The connection should be cheap and straightforward.

Asheby also wanted to know about equipment and consumption rates so AGL could check whether the gas supply would be sufficient – I will hear from them in a week or so about that. She asked what sort of business I was planning and I told her. She very quickly asked what sort of beers I would be brewing and would they be available in Melbourne.

Yes the beer will be available home delivered pretty much anywhere in Australia – although postal costs to WA, the Territory and the distant parts of Queensland will take a shine off of things. The anticipated cost delivered in the Sydney metro region will be about $57 – $58 a carton, a couple of dollars more for Victoria and SE Queensland.

Thank you Asheby.

The brewing plant has been dismantled and loaded into two 40 foot containers. It will be trucked from Hayward in north western Wisconsin to Chicago. From there it will be shipped out through the Great Lakes and the St Lawrence River to the Atlantic and then round through the Panama Canal. Accurately charting the St Lawrence River brought James Cook to the notice of the Admiralty. His charts enabled General Wolfe to attack and capture Quebec from the French in 1759.

This is the mash tun with the hot liquor tank below. The yellow sign on the left is the front of the brewpub’s former premises. They have upgraded their brewing plant and moved to bigger premises.

This photo shows inside the same container. In the foreground is the heat exchanger and brewer’s platform, then the kettle. It is a monbloc with the mash tun, kettle, heat exchanger and associated plumbing all mounted on a skid. The yellow thing behind the kettle is the mill. Then at the back are several fermenters.

There are quite a few things to report.

1. The brewing plant has been paid for in full. Dismantling will start on January 15. It is in Wisconnsin and will be shipped out of Chicago.

2. A six head Meheen Merlin bottle filler has been ordered and paid for. It has been built and is waiting to be freighted to Oregon. It is the one in the foreground, and ready to be shipped.

3. A labeller to match the filler has been ordered and a deposit paid. It is a pressure sensitive labeller for adhesive labels. It includes an air-knife to dry the bottles before labelling. Filling cold beer into warmish bottles creates condensation. There is also an ink-jet printer for applying best before dates to the bottles.

4. Both the filler and labeller will be freighted to Oregon where they’ll be put in a 20 foot container for shipping to Sydney along with a diatomaceous earth filter and a clean-in-place cart.

5. The brewery was supplied with a packaged steam boiler (generator), but it could not be converted for use in Australia. This was expected, appartently it is unusual to find a boiler that can be. A Simons VS 610 120 kWatt packaged boiler has been ordered and a deposit paid. The Simons boilers are manufactured locally.

The last week or so have been quite busy. With the new equipment the rush has been to have everything ordered and firm by December 31st to qualify for the Federal government’s 50% investment allowance.

There is still new equipment to buy, but the filler, labeller and boiler are the most costly ones. Other equipment to buy includes a carton sealer, possibly a carton erector, conveyors, and an air compressor or two – the brewhouses valves are pneumatically operated, and both the filler and carton sealer will need compressed air. Some of this equipment can be had second hand.

There’s no point trying to buy the rest of packaging equipment now to qualify for the allowance. I still need to work out how the packaging line will actually run. It will be a matter of suck it and see. I hope to lease some euipment first to play around with.

Have also been prowling around for premises, but of course all the real estate agents are off until the eleventh.

It’s off to do another day with Matt Donelan at the St Peters brewery tomorrow. It has settled into a routine of every second Monday, although we will drop a week with the Christmas and New Year break. I am indebted to Matt for taking me on like this. I am learning a lot, both directly and indirectly by absorption. The experience will be invaluable.

I am still waiting on the final invoice for the equipment, plus a few other bits and pieces which will come in the containers. Final transport details need to be arranged. The brewey is in the backblocks of northern Wisconsin. It seems likely that it will not be until the new year when the gear ships. It will sail out of Chicago.