Checking out the gear and premises
On Wednesday morning Andrew Larsen and I met at Johnstons at Smithfield. Together we went over the gear to check that everything was there, and for any damage. There was no damage so no need to lodge any insurance claims. There were however several things missing. These include a couple of post-mix kegs, a stainless trolley, some lab instruments, possibly a regulator or two and some other small bits and pieces. Andrew is trying to find out what happened.
Most of the small stuff had been placed inside several of the conditioning tanks. There were all the tri-clover clamps and fittings, hoses, instrument stand/rack (grrrrr no instruments), blades for the mash mixer, grist hydrator, internals of the malt conveyor, and the manual for the conveyer etc. The conveyor is a Cablevey drag conveyor.
Overall it is quite a nice system. There will be no lugging crushed malt from the mill up to the brewer’s platform to pour it into the top of the mash tun to then mix it by hand. Instead the crushed malt is taken from the bottom of the mill, a two roller Peerless, through the conveyort to a chute of top of the mash tun. It then passes through the grist hydrator and into the tun. The grist hydrator is essentially a short length of tube with water sprays. The grist is sprayed with hot water as it passes through. It reduces the possibility of clumping. As well, a lot of the valves on the brewhouse are operated using compressed air. Push button brewing.
From Johnstons we then went over to Penrith to check out a couple of premises. The first one I had looked at several times previously. It’s an older style industrial unit, about 10 metres wide and about 27 – 28 metres deep. The second place was just around the corner and about 250 square metres. Although the unit itself was OK, it looks like there is no separate metering for water and with motor repair shops on both sides not the most suitable neighbours. I had only seen this place on-line. Truck access would be a bit tight.
The main attractions of the first place are generous parking and access, it has a back door, and the availability of town gas. One unit in the complex has had the gas connected in the past. This is a major factor.
The brewhouse is steam driven and requires a steam boiler of about 120 kilowatts or 12 boiler horsepower. An electric boiler of that size needs 3 phase power of 168 amps per phase. Typical power supplies to industrial units are 3 phases of 100 amps each. Upgrading the power can be an expensive exercise – I had estimates ranging from $7,000 to $40,000 depending on what the mains supply in the street is like. Although a gas powered boiler is more expensive to buy and install, the running costs are significantly less.
The hourly running costs (no GST) for a 10 horsepower boiler are $7.15 for town gas, $15.50 for LPG, and $16.50 for electricity. I will need about 12 horsepower. A 12 hp electric boiler costs about $19.80 an hour to run. Gas boilers are either 10 or 15 hp, a 15 hp unit costs about $10.75 an hour on town gas and $22.45 on LPG.
You can see there are considerable differences. For a single brew the boiler will be running for about 4 hours, the difference between town gas and electricity is about $36.
As Andrew said both premisies lack the “wow” factor, but you can see why I am leaning to the first place.
