Cheap 200L Plastic Garage Brewery with Potential to go Pro

[floydmeddler]

I'm toying with the idea of building a 200L garage brewery on the cheap for a circle of ale loving friends and I. Idea is that every month or so, we hook up, brew beer and split it. However, I like to hope that maybe one day I could go legal and sell to pubs or maybe even bottle it for farmers markets etc. This won't be for a few years down the line. In between then, we can just have fun with it.

So... with that in mind, I'd like to build something that will be deemed acceptable/safe by the authorities IF I decide to start selling beer legally some day.

I like the look of these barrels: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 1431286630

I'd like to buy 4 and make a HLT, mash tun, boiler and fermenter. The guy has assured me that they are food grade and have only held food stuffs to date. Obviously I'll ensure that they didn't store anything oil based or pungent before purchasing!

Will these suffice in the eyes of the authorities? Bear in mind wort will be boiling in one of these things... would they worry about leeching etc?

Cheers!

[floydmeddler]

120 views and no one knows... anyone know how I might be able to find out?

Cheers

[DaveyT]

Floyd
Excellent idea. Have you read The Microbrewers' Handbook by Ted Bruning? I think it's that one, there are loads of contacts and a few are guys who will design a brewery to your spec. Now, they might be able to give you a quick yes or no about this.
Obviously, I don't know and I'd hate to add to their workload, as I'm sure they're busy fellas. But they're the only people I can think of.
Thebook's great, btw, for this kind of thing, if you haven't read it. Takes you through the nuts-and-bolts of running a brewery. I lent my copy to a mate's now ex-boyfriend. Now I'll need to ask her if she minds me contacting him to get it back. Think I'll just buy a new copy!
Hope this helps.

David

[floydmeddler]

Cheers David. I did buy a copy of it some years back and didn't read it. God knows where it is... I may need to buy a copy now!

[DaveyT]

I've just put 'brewery design uk' into the search engine and got a fair few names there. Like I say, they might not mind a quick chat. Bloody ought not to, anyway!
Let us know what you find out.

EDIT: I'm looking at those now, but only one or two might be of use. Some of these companies look quite posh. You've got balls, though, eh, Floyd! Give them some patter and they'll be like putty in yer hands!

[darkonnis]

They'd be ok for fermenters and probably a HLT/MT, after that you need to be careful as they probably aren't PP. Though if you build supports round the bases and around any tap openings I don't think there would be a problem.

That said, you could build a 1 barrel system fairly cheaply as all you really need is a stainless boiler (and that is something I would definitely do)

[killer]

I'm definitely no expert but I would agree with darkonnis. It's marked as HDPE... so should be fine for everything except the boiler. I know people do use HDPE fermenting buckets as boilers.... The HDPE does soften at higher temperatures and personally I would not want 150 odd Litres of boiling beer in a vessel of reduced structural capacity anywhere near me. That said HDPE is supposed to be able to tolerate up to 110°C even for long periods. I personally still wouldn't use it, rather I would suggest looking up some PP buckets(which are supposed to be able to survive repeated autoclave conditions) or better still SS... There was a thread with some links to a Chinese company selling vessels up to 400L - even single units.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/61628 ... rable.html

I appreciate that this may cost more than 10 quid but it should last forever and give you some peace of mind...

[Horatio]

Apart from what has already been said, they look like they might be a real pain to reach into to clean or fit taps to etc?

[Blackaddler]

I use a 200L HDPE barrel for my HLT. HDPE tends not to get tainted if strong flavoured foodstuff has been stored in it. Those barrels on ebay have only had olives, so I'd have thought that they'd be fine. Mine came from a sausage factory, and had been used to ship in pigmeat in brine.

The one on the left is the HDPE one that I converted. The one on the right is MDPE, and I've used a couple of those as water butts, to store the water that I use for chilling boiled wort.

[floydmeddler]

Cheers lads. Yep... maybe a bit dangerous for boiling. Just thinking about costs.

Cleaning is going to be a wanker too... but brewery cleaning always is!