Hey Trent, great video! I'm currently in the process of going 'pro' at Four Priests Brewery in the UK, actually more part-time and focusing on my local rural area. I agree with some of the comments already made below about a saturated market and I agree - but at a small scale (2 or 3 BBL), with great local relationships at pubs and bars we can quickly pivot to new styles and adapt to changing customer tastes. OK so we won't be millionaires from this without the scale. I don't care about that. We can cover all of our costs with a single weekly production, keep our day jobs, and return a small profit to reinvest in better equipment. And if we want to really push later and grow something bigger, we have the basics all in place to do that. Keep up the great work Trent, love your work :)
I loved this video! Maybe we'll get to see more of you brewing on the big system? These are really interesting comparisons Trent, keep up the awesome content!
Fantastic video TheBruSho, very accurate. In April 2020 when the UK was in peak lockdown I began homebrewing, and it became an obsession to say the least! Nearly 2 years later I've passed my professional brewers certification (IBD GCB) and I've landed a job as head brewer at a local brewpub, which I start in a couple weeks! If anyone seeing this comment is after advice on homebrewing, and the transition to going pro, feel free to hit me up. Cheers!
Great Video Trent! I'm not ready to go pro yet, but in a few years I'll be there. However, I'm working with a local brewery to brew one of my batches on their system, so that's pretty cool. BTW, SouthO Rocks! The boys are killing it over there.
I always thought another big difference between the two is water. I think we may have the advantage there as home brewers just because it’s easier to match certain water profiles. Great video! Hopefully I’ll get a chance to swing by Southo this summer!
Really enjoyed the video. My friends and I have been brewing and filming for our chanel lately. We sometimes fantasize of making a brewing, but for now we're just going to keep filming and having fun.
Depending on local laws, it can make sense to make a nano-brewery first to see if you want to put in the effort and if there really is a market for your brews before seeing about scaling up to a microbrewery.
I’ve been a home brewer for years and two years ago a buddy and got the chance to brew on a 1bbl system for a small local brewery and now we’ve spent the last year working on opening a brewery with 3 1/2bbl system.
That is some pro level footage and B-roll! Tied together like a genuine documentary tv-type footage! No way I’d go pro, I hate cleaning up enough as it is, can’t imagine that on a commercial level!
after touring a few breweries, and helping at a brewday once, I would say you can find as much variation in the smaller pro breweries as you will at the homebrew scale. A farm based brewery in my town, I've pretty sure they have an electric 1 or 2 barrel BIAB brewhouse. I was at another brewery that basically had an insulated mash tun from an old dairy vessel, to an electric boil kettle. Another was a fully automated 4 vessel brewhouse where most everything was managed from a touch screen. But pro brewers have to work about a lot more than us homebrewers.. making a good beer is just a small piece.
I am both a homebrewer (how I started) and work at a large commersial brewery with a 25 m3 brew kettle. Size. As you said it is alot of ingrediences. No place for errororfailedexperiments. But you use the hops more efficient. Everything takes more time. To heat up, to transfer, to lauter. Mash out are important to stop the mash at the right time every time. Automation and repeatability. Very important. We measure and document alot. Collecting data and analyzing it, to know if anything goes wrong or start to change. I can go back years. Microbiology control and tougher cleaning detergents you can buy for home use. Tracing ingrediences. All batchnumbers are documented. If needed we can find out exactly what batches went into one can of beer. We know when everything was cleaned before. We clean in place CIP. A "dishwasher" that work automatically sending out cold water, reused warm water, caustic solution (circulation), warm water, cold water. When coming back and when changing phases they are sorted bu konductivity. We use enzymes and other stuff that homebrewers cannot buy. Better cellar control and chilling capacity. But with an old fridge and a thermostat you come along way at home. Brewhouse capacity is expensive to invest in. Tanks are "cheap". Thats why we have up to 4-5 boils in one tank. The drewhouse shall work all week. If you you brew your weekly amount in two days, you have to large and expensive brewhouse. Or capacity to grow alot. Only buy tanks for growing. High gravity brewing and diluting with deaerated water. Increase your tank capacity and nail the alcohol every time. Crossflow filters and separators to get that clear beer without waiting for weeks. Coldcrash and lager just to get the haze complex form and flockulate. 3-5 days. Then seperator and filter. A stabilizer to get out polyphenols, preventing chill haze after a half year shelf time. The speed of bottling/caning. About 800-1000 a minute. It is just crazy how fast it is. So if you plan to make a small brewery and try to compete by filling by hand or small filler, forget it. Thats some of the things we have in a large scale macro brewery.
No chance would I go Pro. The odds of a brewery making it today are very low due to the saturated market. Let's face it, people like trying different beers and when they've had enough of yours they move on to the next "best thing". I give props to those who have the gonads to go big scale. Great video Trent!
Or find a brewers job and work for another established brewery, get the experience and see how it really is, then you can make an educated decision if launching your own is a good option! :)
Awesome job capturing what it’s like to brew on a MUCH bigger scale! One thing I’ve always been curious about is how they prepare and store their yeast. Is there an area where they constantly building starters? Are they constantly harvesting yeast from each batch once fermentation is complete? What’s the trick?!?
At south o they just harvest a TON of yeast near end of fermentation and then store it in their cool box until the next brew. No starters. Another interesting difference
It depends on if the brewery has the equipment and space to do so. Some harvest yeast from previous batches and use them directly in their next brew (typically maximum a couple days later), harvest yeast and store it a low temps and propgrate it later to create a starter before pitching (if you're not re-pitching soon, as above), or if the brewery lacks the equipment and ability then using new dry yeast is a very viable method too!
And how do you know that your yeast didn't mutate, after a couple of fermentations? Wouldn't it suck, if you finished your 141 gallon batch, just to realize that your Weizen yeast doesn't produce the same flavour aroma.
@@TheExplorder most breweries have lab equipment to do cell counting & viability testing. Bigger breweries or breweries with bigger budgets for QA/QC do platting to test slurries with microorganisms such as wild yeast and bacteria.
Something I've noticed from going pro is that the basic ideas and science are the same, though the process is much different on larger equipment. In some respects the scale is easier, as in taking daily samples is a negligible impact to your final yield, and it is easier to be consistent and fine tune things. One nice carry-over from home brewing is a familiarity with the various ingredients and the ability to do dumb experiments on the homebrew scale so I can apply that knowledge to our 10BBL batches.
I loved this video, but I'm really curious about what a pro brewery does with such huge amount of grain after brewing. As a home brewer it is easy to deal with it, maybe you can make some bread or cookies but I would like to know in a larger scale case. I'll subscribe!
Fantastic video and content. I would LOVE to brew professionally, but I realize that the brewing part is the icing on the cake...I don't want to deal with the troubles associated with the public. I have considered building a contract brewing facility. Cheers!
LOVE the video, definitely a dream of mine to open a brewery at some point. We will see. One thing I wanted to ask is about yeast, do they buy new yeast each time? Do they have yeast propagation systems?
At least as South O they collect a huge batch of it near the end of fermentation to repitch for next batch. No yeast starters for them ha. And that was US-05 in those clips btw
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Only third of craft breweries that I visited repitch their own yeast. Only one that I know does it because the master brewers main job is in a microbiology lab so they can check for yeast vitality. The largest craft brewery in this area do not repitch and buy new yeast for each batch simply because the infected batch is too high of a risk. To drain away full FV of beer would mean a loss similar to the yearly paycheck of two people. To package and sell infected beer would be a nightmare to recall and deal with. Repitching can be done with a cone to cone transfer with a peristaltic pump.
Some types of beer are fermented under pressure. However, in my experience, beers that depend fully on the flavour of the yeast, so no dryhopping or fruits or whatever, have the best result when they are fermented at regular pressure.
Depends on the beer but I think sometimes they do a bit of both, use fermentation to help get carbonation started then force co2 to dial in the right amount per style
Funnily, myself and most of the older brewers I know had never home brewed before. And many still don't even now. I think it's like, why would I want to take my work home with me? Personally I look at them as two separate activities. But I do sometimes make a batch of something new at home just to see how it would go over before trying it at scale. Usually we'll just do a 1bbl brew if it's something really different for us.
Cool video. I'm one of those "idiots" who brew on a pro basis. I retired from my corporate job early to do this and fortunately, I had the money to do it and not go into debt. I'll throw in some additional personal experience. For me, I use fewer malts in a brew. In homebrewing, you may add in a little bit of 6 different things. But on the pro basis, you just don't do that or at least I don't. When it comes to hops, I've never used more than 4 different hops in a brew and it's usually just three. Mainly because I can blend them to get the bitterness, aroma and flavor I'm looking for. Plus, hops get expensive really fast. Especially when you dump in a heavy dose of whirlpool hops followed by another heavy load of dry hops. I hate dry hopping, but it is so necessary. Again, hops are expensive and they soak up a LOT of beer. We've started using Hopzoil between the fermenters and the brite tanks. Just like in homebrewing, hops can clog your heat exchanger. My BK has a hop dam plus I whirlpool really well and then run the wort through an inline strainer before the heat exchanger. It's not just a few oz of hops either. It can be pounds per barrel. As the pro brewer said in the video, scale up is surprisingly linear. Except for hops. I believe my hop utiliazion is about 120% meaning I would not simply scale up the hops. You definitely would be over hopped if you just scaled it. Quantities as you noted for most small breweries are done in 50 or 55lb sacks of malt. Hops are purchased in 11lb increments. At least ours are packaged that way. But think about buying 88lbs of Citra at $16 per pound. The amount of cleanup is just back breaking some days. Homebrewing spills are very small usually. In the commercial brewery, you could remove the wrong triclamp and release a torrent of 35-degree beer and get hypothermia and it's under pressure. Been there...just once. The same goes for opening the wrong valve and it also applies to the hot side. Pressure. If you open a valve on a blowoff arm, you could blow out your ear drums and also be overcome by CO2 or simply get a large metal valve blown off into your skull. Cleanup: again, open the wrong valve or remove the wrong clamp and you could be cleaning up a lot of hot or cold beer. Then there is the sheer amount of spent grain. It has to go somewhere and for me it goes to a pig farmer. The real big one is water. You have a lot of it and a lot of it is wasted. Then there are the chemicals like PBW and caustic and acid #5 and acid #6 and PAA as well as all the salts and acids used to pre-treat your brewing water. The time you spend cleaning is insane. It is every single stinkin day. Wiping down tanks and mopping the floors is daily for me. Emptying a MT with several hundred pounds of hot grains can be a messy and strenuous job. Cleaning kegs is pure hell. We use Petainer sixtel kegs just to avoid cleaning. They don't require a deposit from customers and once they leave, I don't have to worry about them finding their way home. Yeast can be complicated or fairly simple. For us, we just pitch a new 500g brick of yeast from Fermentis. Usually US-05 or S-04 and sometimes K-97 or S-33. With the recent price increases for everything, a brick is now at least $55 and if I recall correctly most are over $60 per brick. All our grains went up 15% a couple of months ago and I only raised keg prices by $10. That is less profit. Hazards: Tripping, falling, muscle strains, scalds, beer showers, CO2, electricity and on and on. I have literally fallen off my brew deck twice. I fell backwards down the steps both times and managed to get up and walk away. Once with a pretty good headache. It's only about 3ft but everything is made of stainless steel and if you hit the wrong part, you could injure yourself badly. Even during the installation of the tanks an empty unitank tried to kill me. Blah, blah, blah.........
It's videos like this one that might take you from the brewing scene to the producer director scene, if you already aren't producing directing professionally. Very well comprised. Auf das Glück.
Craft brewers have larger pots and pans than a home brewer has, except for selling the product there is no difference, both use the same brewing method that moonshiners used during Prohibition, and both produce the same American, home brew style, moonshiners beer.
Scrubbed more than my fair share of kettles while working at a brewery. Most of the work in a brewery is grunt work like cleaning, shoveling and hauling. Only a small fraction is actual brewing. And don't forget all the rules, regulations, permits and taxes that come with going pro.
I've always thought about it. I enjoy brewing and feel like I would hate it if it became an income. They say if you want to make a million bucks out of brewing you invest 2 million.
@@TheBruSho well I remember years ago when I lived in NY in Staten Islad we had a small brewery there and they were out of Germany and they served their beer at room temperature I like mine at room temperature as well,
Been toying with the idea of starting a meadery, but there's a good five or so years before I'd even be ready to start, much less getting financials settled
That would be very cool, but yes it takes a LOT of planning, no rushing that
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Is anyone here brewing commercially on a smaller scale? So not for retail or distribution, more like hotel/restaurant/beerpub stuff, on equipment mostly meant for pilot batches let's say 1 to 3 bbl, mostly for seasonal beers, and contracting regulars to other breweries, would that make any sense commercially?
I will still go pro cuz of open fermentation beer can be amazing and I want to give the people that walk in my pub/brewery then end up saying holy shit why is this so damn good
![Home Brewer GOES PRO!! [Brewing Beer at a Brewery]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ai0R0ZmRTOM/mqdefault.jpg)
![Home Brewer GOES PRO!! [Brewing Beer at a Brewery]](/img/tr.png)
Hey Trent, great video! I'm currently in the process of going 'pro' at Four Priests Brewery in the UK, actually more part-time and focusing on my local rural area. I agree with some of the comments already made below about a saturated market and I agree - but at a small scale (2 or 3 BBL), with great local relationships at pubs and bars we can quickly pivot to new styles and adapt to changing customer tastes. OK so we won't be millionaires from this without the scale. I don't care about that. We can cover all of our costs with a single weekly production, keep our day jobs, and return a small profit to reinvest in better equipment. And if we want to really push later and grow something bigger, we have the basics all in place to do that. Keep up the great work Trent, love your work :)
Excited for you to get brewing and see how things go!
Fancy seeing you here Four Priests! Your comment was spot on too, and I love your videos!
@@SuperRS2008 I am omnipresent dude :)
Trent probably has documentary or videography pro skills right?? This is the best stuff on UA-cam.
So cool to see you brewing on that commercial system. That looked like more hops than I’d use in 3 months.
Haha right!? And that was just a blonde ale we were making
I loved this video! Maybe we'll get to see more of you brewing on the big system? These are really interesting comparisons Trent, keep up the awesome content!
It was a lot of fun. If you ever get the chance, give it a try!
Solid video Trent! Really did a great job describing pro brewing vs home brewing
That means a lot coming from a man who has his hands in both worlds!
Love this! Can't wait to visit South O, save me a pint Trev!
Haha come on over man would love to hang
Fantastic video TheBruSho, very accurate. In April 2020 when the UK was in peak lockdown I began homebrewing, and it became an obsession to say the least! Nearly 2 years later I've passed my professional brewers certification (IBD GCB) and I've landed a job as head brewer at a local brewpub, which I start in a couple weeks! If anyone seeing this comment is after advice on homebrewing, and the transition to going pro, feel free to hit me up. Cheers!
Thanks man, that’s a great resource for people looking to go pro, appreciate that!
Best of luck with the new job!
@@jauld360 thanks mate!
Nice one Elliott, from a fellow Brit homebrewer who'd like to do what you did!
@@davidnash4393 thanks David. Good luck and if you ever need any help then please reach out!
Great Video Trent! I'm not ready to go pro yet, but in a few years I'll be there. However, I'm working with a local brewery to brew one of my batches on their system, so that's pretty cool. BTW, SouthO Rocks! The boys are killing it over there.
That’s awesome man, that’s gotta be some great experience!
Great upload mate. I'm at the stage of going pro now, it's quite daunting but exciting at the same time. Cheers
Awesome to hear that, where are you located?
@@TheBruSho Country South Australia, will only be a nano brewery but expect to grow it much larger in due time.
@@davidthreechinsbrewing6193 very cool best of luck!
I always thought another big difference between the two is water. I think we may have the advantage there as home brewers just because it’s easier to match certain water profiles. Great video! Hopefully I’ll get a chance to swing by Southo this summer!
For sure, they had a big filter system at south o but I’ve heard of breweries doing nothing to their water. If your down this way hit me up!
Awesome show man. Love the homebrew channel and love your channel too. I absolutely want to start a brewery one day.
Love to hear it, glad you are enjoying the content
Really enjoyed the video. My friends and I have been brewing and filming for our chanel lately. We sometimes fantasize of making a brewing, but for now we're just going to keep filming and having fun.
Nice just subbed. Excited to see what you guys make
Great info! It’s cool to see some of the behind the scenes stuff that they don’t show you on most brewery tours.
Yeah it was cool to hang and actually talk to a head brewer, most tours are very watered down sadly.
Depending on local laws, it can make sense to make a nano-brewery first to see if you want to put in the effort and if there really is a market for your brews before seeing about scaling up to a microbrewery.
I like the nano idea, a good size IMO
This is a great video for comparison! I’m sure most of us who are homebrewer‘s have daydreamed about going pro.
I certainly have, and always wondered the differences myself
Awesome content, as always. Thanks for the work you put in Trent, and cheers from France!
Thank you and Cheers!!
Awesome to learn about these differences! 🍺 Great vid!
Thank you! 🍻
I’ve been a home brewer for years and two years ago a buddy and got the chance to brew on a 1bbl system for a small local brewery and now we’ve spent the last year working on opening a brewery with 3 1/2bbl system.
Awesome, where are you at?
@@TheBruSho eastern Ohio
That is some pro level footage and B-roll! Tied together like a genuine documentary tv-type footage!
No way I’d go pro, I hate cleaning up enough as it is, can’t imagine that on a commercial level!
Thanks Nikita, and I agree on that, would be hiring interns quickly lol
This is my favorite show! (I'm fermenting a saison right now, Belle Saison and on Sunday a West Coast IPA with Citra)
Yumm! Love belle saison!
I love beer but down here in Brazil the costs are prohibitive. Nice video
Hopefully that changes some day!
after touring a few breweries, and helping at a brewday once, I would say you can find as much variation in the smaller pro breweries as you will at the homebrew scale. A farm based brewery in my town, I've pretty sure they have an electric 1 or 2 barrel BIAB brewhouse. I was at another brewery that basically had an insulated mash tun from an old dairy vessel, to an electric boil kettle. Another was a fully automated 4 vessel brewhouse where most everything was managed from a touch screen. But pro brewers have to work about a lot more than us homebrewers.. making a good beer is just a small piece.
That is all very true! No two breweries are exactly the same
I am both a homebrewer (how I started) and work at a large commersial brewery with a 25 m3 brew kettle.
Size. As you said it is alot of ingrediences. No place for errororfailedexperiments. But you use the hops more efficient. Everything takes more time. To heat up, to transfer, to lauter. Mash out are important to stop the mash at the right time every time.
Automation and repeatability. Very important.
We measure and document alot. Collecting data and analyzing it, to know if anything goes wrong or start to change. I can go back years.
Microbiology control and tougher cleaning detergents you can buy for home use.
Tracing ingrediences. All batchnumbers are documented. If needed we can find out exactly what batches went into one can of beer. We know when everything was cleaned before.
We clean in place CIP. A "dishwasher" that work automatically sending out cold water, reused warm water, caustic solution (circulation), warm water, cold water. When coming back and when changing phases they are sorted bu konductivity.
We use enzymes and other stuff that homebrewers cannot buy.
Better cellar control and chilling capacity. But with an old fridge and a thermostat you come along way at home.
Brewhouse capacity is expensive to invest in. Tanks are "cheap". Thats why we have up to 4-5 boils in one tank. The drewhouse shall work all week. If you you brew your weekly amount in two days, you have to large and expensive brewhouse. Or capacity to grow alot. Only buy tanks for growing.
High gravity brewing and diluting with deaerated water. Increase your tank capacity and nail the alcohol every time.
Crossflow filters and separators to get that clear beer without waiting for weeks. Coldcrash and lager just to get the haze complex form and flockulate. 3-5 days. Then seperator and filter.
A stabilizer to get out polyphenols, preventing chill haze after a half year shelf time.
The speed of bottling/caning. About 800-1000 a minute. It is just crazy how fast it is. So if you plan to make a small brewery and try to compete by filling by hand or small filler, forget it.
Thats some of the things we have in a large scale macro brewery.
No chance would I go Pro. The odds of a brewery making it today are very low due to the saturated market. Let's face it, people like trying different beers and when they've had enough of yours they move on to the next "best thing". I give props to those who have the gonads to go big scale. Great video Trent!
Hear hear. Now if only we could sell home brew to friends…
@@TheBruSho But then they would subject us to all the same laws and taxes that hinder the big brewery! But... if you can do it under the table🤣
Or find a brewers job and work for another established brewery, get the experience and see how it really is, then you can make an educated decision if launching your own is a good option! :)
Depends on where you are. We only have one small brewery in my area.
Great video Trent!
Awesome vid! Really enjoyed the insight. And I would love to brew small scale (1bbl or less) commercial, I'd get to brew more!
That’s a nice size man, maybe some day!
Awesome job capturing what it’s like to brew on a MUCH bigger scale! One thing I’ve always been curious about is how they prepare and store their yeast. Is there an area where they constantly building starters? Are they constantly harvesting yeast from each batch once fermentation is complete? What’s the trick?!?
At south o they just harvest a TON of yeast near end of fermentation and then store it in their cool box until the next brew. No starters. Another interesting difference
It depends on if the brewery has the equipment and space to do so. Some harvest yeast from previous batches and use them directly in their next brew (typically maximum a couple days later), harvest yeast and store it a low temps and propgrate it later to create a starter before pitching (if you're not re-pitching soon, as above), or if the brewery lacks the equipment and ability then using new dry yeast is a very viable method too!
And how do you know that your yeast didn't mutate, after a couple of fermentations? Wouldn't it suck, if you finished your 141 gallon batch, just to realize that your Weizen yeast doesn't produce the same flavour aroma.
@@TheExplorder guess they trust the process and if they can tell it’s mutating they can start fresh
@@TheExplorder most breweries have lab equipment to do cell counting & viability testing. Bigger breweries or breweries with bigger budgets for QA/QC do platting to test slurries with microorganisms such as wild yeast and bacteria.
I would love to open my own brewery but the market in NJ getting way to over serrated with brewery’s. So I’ll enjoy home brewing
Yeah at least that way you can always have your favorite beers on tap at home
Currently working on a Fermentation Science degree, and personally, I can't wait to get brewing!
That’s super exciting, good luck!
Something I've noticed from going pro is that the basic ideas and science are the same, though the process is much different on larger equipment. In some respects the scale is easier, as in taking daily samples is a negligible impact to your final yield, and it is easier to be consistent and fine tune things. One nice carry-over from home brewing is a familiarity with the various ingredients and the ability to do dumb experiments on the homebrew scale so I can apply that knowledge to our 10BBL batches.
Great video thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
I loved this video, but I'm really curious about what a pro brewery does with such huge amount of grain after brewing.
As a home brewer it is easy to deal with it, maybe you can make some bread or cookies but I would like to know in a larger scale case.
I'll subscribe!
Hey! So at South O they donate it all to a local animal sanctuary/farm to help feed the animals. Thanks for watching
Fantastic video and content. I would LOVE to brew professionally, but I realize that the brewing part is the icing on the cake...I don't want to deal with the troubles associated with the public. I have considered building a contract brewing facility. Cheers!
Oh thats interesting I hadn't thought about that, I guess then you just get to focus on brewing beer
Super interesting video, thanks and good job!
Thank you! 🍻
Nice! Really interesting, most of the breweries here in Mexico comes from US brewers I think cuz it might be cheaper than CA.
I could totally see that. everything is expensive in CA ha
LOVE the video, definitely a dream of mine to open a brewery at some point. We will see. One thing I wanted to ask is about yeast, do they buy new yeast each time? Do they have yeast propagation systems?
At least as South O they collect a huge batch of it near the end of fermentation to repitch for next batch. No yeast starters for them ha. And that was US-05 in those clips btw
Only third of craft breweries that I visited repitch their own yeast. Only one that I know does it because the master brewers main job is in a microbiology lab so they can check for yeast vitality. The largest craft brewery in this area do not repitch and buy new yeast for each batch simply because the infected batch is too high of a risk. To drain away full FV of beer would mean a loss similar to the yearly paycheck of two people. To package and sell infected beer would be a nightmare to recall and deal with. Repitching can be done with a cone to cone transfer with a peristaltic pump.
Have an interview @ a Brewery today!
Good luck!
Hi! Nice insight.
A bit more detail please: Is fermentation done under pressure?
Is carbonation natural or forced?
Some types of beer are fermented under pressure. However, in my experience, beers that depend fully on the flavour of the yeast, so no dryhopping or fruits or whatever, have the best result when they are fermented at regular pressure.
Depends on the beer but I think sometimes they do a bit of both, use fermentation to help get carbonation started then force co2 to dial in the right amount per style
As a home brewer who went pro I can say it is as glorious as you think, only thing is it’s a lot more hard work then you think
Funnily, myself and most of the older brewers I know had never home brewed before. And many still don't even now. I think it's like, why would I want to take my work home with me? Personally I look at them as two separate activities. But I do sometimes make a batch of something new at home just to see how it would go over before trying it at scale. Usually we'll just do a 1bbl brew if it's something really different for us.
Really appreciate your insight! Cheers
And where do you get your grain for a home brewing beer?
It’s way to much fun to make it a JOB I’d be afraid I’d get burnt out on it so I like keeping it as a hobby
I hear you on that, I will stick to home brew for now
The organization I have down. I am really am OVD when it comes to keeping organized
That’s good. I need more organization in my life.
Great video! 🍻🍻🤙🏼
Thanks Brajito
Cool video. I'm one of those "idiots" who brew on a pro basis. I retired from my corporate job early to do this and fortunately, I had the money to do it and not go into debt. I'll throw in some additional personal experience.
For me, I use fewer malts in a brew. In homebrewing, you may add in a little bit of 6 different things. But on the pro basis, you just don't do that or at least I don't.
When it comes to hops, I've never used more than 4 different hops in a brew and it's usually just three. Mainly because I can blend them to get the bitterness, aroma and flavor I'm looking for. Plus, hops get expensive really fast. Especially when you dump in a heavy dose of whirlpool hops followed by another heavy load of dry hops. I hate dry hopping, but it is so necessary. Again, hops are expensive and they soak up a LOT of beer. We've started using Hopzoil between the fermenters and the brite tanks.
Just like in homebrewing, hops can clog your heat exchanger. My BK has a hop dam plus I whirlpool really well and then run the wort through an inline strainer before the heat exchanger. It's not just a few oz of hops either. It can be pounds per barrel.
As the pro brewer said in the video, scale up is surprisingly linear. Except for hops. I believe my hop utiliazion is about 120% meaning I would not simply scale up the hops. You definitely would be over hopped if you just scaled it.
Quantities as you noted for most small breweries are done in 50 or 55lb sacks of malt. Hops are purchased in 11lb increments. At least ours are packaged that way. But think about buying 88lbs of Citra at $16 per pound.
The amount of cleanup is just back breaking some days. Homebrewing spills are very small usually. In the commercial brewery, you could remove the wrong triclamp and release a torrent of 35-degree beer and get hypothermia and it's under pressure. Been there...just once. The same goes for opening the wrong valve and it also applies to the hot side.
Pressure. If you open a valve on a blowoff arm, you could blow out your ear drums and also be overcome by CO2 or simply get a large metal valve blown off into your skull.
Cleanup: again, open the wrong valve or remove the wrong clamp and you could be cleaning up a lot of hot or cold beer. Then there is the sheer amount of spent grain. It has to go somewhere and for me it goes to a pig farmer. The real big one is water. You have a lot of it and a lot of it is wasted. Then there are the chemicals like PBW and caustic and acid #5 and acid #6 and PAA as well as all the salts and acids used to pre-treat your brewing water.
The time you spend cleaning is insane. It is every single stinkin day. Wiping down tanks and mopping the floors is daily for me. Emptying a MT with several hundred pounds of hot grains can be a messy and strenuous job. Cleaning kegs is pure hell. We use Petainer sixtel kegs just to avoid cleaning. They don't require a deposit from customers and once they leave, I don't have to worry about them finding their way home.
Yeast can be complicated or fairly simple. For us, we just pitch a new 500g brick of yeast from Fermentis. Usually US-05 or S-04 and sometimes K-97 or S-33. With the recent price increases for everything, a brick is now at least $55 and if I recall correctly most are over $60 per brick. All our grains went up 15% a couple of months ago and I only raised keg prices by $10. That is less profit.
Hazards: Tripping, falling, muscle strains, scalds, beer showers, CO2, electricity and on and on. I have literally fallen off my brew deck twice. I fell backwards down the steps both times and managed to get up and walk away. Once with a pretty good headache. It's only about 3ft but everything is made of stainless steel and if you hit the wrong part, you could injure yourself badly. Even during the installation of the tanks an empty unitank tried to kill me.
Blah, blah, blah.........
Excellent insight, thank you for sharing your experience! Cheers!
It seems like it would be fun to brew GIANT batches of cider.
I would love to go to a cidery next!
It's videos like this one that might take you from the brewing scene to the producer director scene, if you already aren't producing directing professionally. Very well comprised. Auf das Glück.
Haha actually I started producing and making videos before brewing beer, so I'm trying to catch up my brewing skills lol
@@TheBruSho It shows. With chops like that you could pick any content to provide and it would get hits. Zum Wohl.
Craft brewers have larger pots and pans than a home brewer has, except for selling the product there is no difference, both use the same brewing method that moonshiners used during Prohibition, and both produce the same American, home brew style, moonshiners beer.
Scrubbed more than my fair share of kettles while working at a brewery.
Most of the work in a brewery is grunt work like cleaning, shoveling and hauling. Only a small fraction is actual brewing.
And don't forget all the rules, regulations, permits and taxes that come with going pro.
I've always thought about it. I enjoy brewing and feel like I would hate it if it became an income. They say if you want to make a million bucks out of brewing you invest 2 million.
Definitely. A bit stressful to think about that ha. But could be fun if you find success
@@TheBruSho indeed
Do they drink the beer at room temperature like they do in Germany
Not in the US. Most beer is served cold. Although there are some exceptions
@@TheBruSho well I remember years ago when I lived in NY in Staten Islad we had a small brewery there and they were out of Germany and they served their beer at room temperature I like mine at room temperature as well,
FREE MAUREY!!!
Hahah now we know what he’s been up to
Been toying with the idea of starting a meadery, but there's a good five or so years before I'd even be ready to start, much less getting financials settled
That would be very cool, but yes it takes a LOT of planning, no rushing that
Is anyone here brewing commercially on a smaller scale? So not for retail or distribution, more like hotel/restaurant/beerpub stuff, on equipment mostly meant for pilot batches let's say 1 to 3 bbl, mostly for seasonal beers, and contracting regulars to other breweries, would that make any sense commercially?
I don’t have any experience with that but I’ve certainly heard of people doing that. Having connections and knowing the right people is key
I will still go pro cuz of open fermentation beer can be amazing and I want to give the people that walk in my pub/brewery then end up saying holy shit why is this so damn good
Maury!!!!!
He lives!
MBC
Let’s go!
🤘🤘🇦🇺🇦🇺🍺🍺
I'll be coming back to South O again real soon!
@@TheBruSho look forward to seeing BruSho magic
Never!
Ever?
@@TheBruSho Maybe