Originally Posted at The Beer Nut.
We have a lot going on this week at Jack’s Abby Brewing as we are getting closer and closer to the first brew day. We recently received our fermentation vessels along with our hot and cold liquor tanks.
The tank delivery was an exciting day. Three trucks arrived early in the morning with the tanks strapped in to the trailers. The tanks were lying down on their sides in a cradle with wheels on the bottom. With a strong push, they rolled right off the trucks and into the brewery. We attached a large sling from our fork lift to the top of the tanks. We then used the forklift to slowly stand them upright. We documented the whole process in our photo album.
At this point, the tanks were ready to install. We carefully moved them across the brewery with a pallet jack. Getting them in place was only half the job though; there is a lot of plumbing and electrical work that needs to be done to finish the install.
We will be opening with five 40 barrel fermentation vessels. In the case of beer, a barrel is equal to 31 gallons. This means that at our peak capacity we can have 6,200 gallons of beer in the fermentation vessels. Anyone starting to get thirsty? The five fermenters give us the flexibility we need to make all of our different beers while also leaving us with enough room to make multiple batches of certain brews.
Fueling the process is a beast of a boiler. Clocking in at 850,000 BTU’s, it will provide the low pressure steam necessary to create a nice rolling boil in the kettle, and to keep the hot liquor tank hot. Liquor, in brewing terms, simply refers to brewer’s water, not alcohol. The cold and hot liquor tanks are holding vessels for our brewery’s water needs. During fermentation it will be important to keep the fermenters cold. We will have a 14 horsepower chiller keeping our fermenters cold to maintain optimal temperatures for our lagers.
After the brewing process, we will be kegging into our recently acquired, refurbished kegs (who said Budweiser is good for nothing?). The kegs will be stored in our new 418 square foot refrigerator to keep the beer fresh right up until it hits the taps.
