MICROBREWERY TAP ROOM CONTAINER

Stainless steel interior, insulated for refrigeration, reefer removed and opening sealed, equipped with a T-grate floor, on wheels

While the refrigeration unit was removed from the front end of the container, so additional insulation will be required there. High cubes are 9' 6" tall so you have a lot of headroom.

This shows the container somewhere outside a properly permitted site on a suitable foundation.

The side door, awning window, plumbing and electrical system are additions I added to suggest a concept - a very large food truck.

State of the art invertor type HVAC can be added to meet your requirements. The blue wood screen shown serves to hide the mini-split system, propane tanks, and incoming plumbing and electrical feeds.

I added the raised patio just to dress up the plan.

It is not pretty, but I have seen worse. It appears to have been painted over with white paint, and suffered normal abuse. It’s been in the Butler for ten years. No intruders. Tight. There is a bit of rust at some of the moving parts (hinges) . The doors lock air tight.

It was like opening a time box with lots of reminders of the plans that were made. A faint scent of coffee beans and a couple bottle of Jaegermister that oozed with freeze thaw. The dust on the kegs was no more than there was so long ago.

Brewing, sanitizing and drinking beer can get messy. The grated floor allows for drainage. A linear floor drain could be added to make clean up easier. And a power washer.

This photo shows ¼ inch stainless, of course, plates 5 inches in diameter (check this dimension) to bridge the gap to for the shelves.

The sketch I prepared shows a wood slat runner to make it easier to move things around, including your boots.

The container is lined with food safe stainless steel sheeting, walls and ceiling.

The space is laid out based on my vague idea of the processes involved in producing a batch of beer.

There are so many variables - what you are making, how much you are making, what kind of equipment you have. Basically the scale of the whole operation can vary widely.

The size of the container is the limiting factor and how rapidly you expect to turn over the beverages you brew. That is, if that is how you are running this.

Maybe you already have microbrewery and need overflow storage. Maybe you have dreamt up something completely different. In any case, I can help you visualize how it might fit.

This scheme takes advantage of the front end of the container built out as a cold room to keep those brews from overheating while fermenting.

I show four repurposed Biojects as fermenters. Now these are not going to move around, so you will want to develop a plan for plumbing them. That gets a tad complicated, because you might as well automate cleaning them while you are at it.

I do not venture to size the HVAC - go back to that whole bit about scale - but I throw in a couple mini-splits, one for the cold room, and one for the work/storage area.

This starts on the lower right with a prep area - using one of my wood tables for grinding, measuring, and testing samples. There is plenty of storage space for the kettles and ladles and thermometers and everything else you need.

Next to that is the brew area - you will devise a stove or burner to boil and sieve and transfer the wort to a keg or fermenter. This makes tons of heat and humidity, so I have a hood for you and a couple very large blower fans.

Finally, I have you covered with a stainless steel double bowl sink and a drying rack, because you will be hand washing something, no matter how much you plumb.

I show the tap work area right next to the door (you have to add the door and the awning window).

I am showing a solid wood table for serving, glassware, supplies and cashier. There are shelves just on the other side for more supplies.

The tap can come from specialty kegs in the commercial refrigerator (you have to provide this) or you could plumb insulated lines directly from the cold room.

Safety gear and electrical panel are opposite the tap area and central to the plan.

Imagine the container placed on a lot with a back alley, doors facing the alley for bringing in all the ingredients and disposing of waste.

It is loaded up with plenty of Seville storage shelving and lots of kegs - some of them on standby for the next brew - some of them storing ingredients. And of course plenty of storage boxes for supplies and non-durable goods.

The shelves you see pictured are all in the container, as are the kegs, kettles, pumps. The fermenters, burners, propane tanks, sink ,hood, track lighting, wood tables are just outside.

The shelves are all Seville wire shelve units, purchased with wheels, but are on glides on 6” diameter 1/4” thick steel pads to bridge the grated floor. You can pick and choose the components you want to get your system up and running.

Shelving, containers, and plywood boxes give you lots of options for organizing all the gadgets that come with a serious brewing operation.

And the patio just dresses up the drawings.

What you do very much depends on where it lands, how it integrates into your location and your business plan.

You may just want space to overflow an operation you already have. You may have a restaurant that could expand with an adjacent taproom.

The container is on wheels, which will help your trucker guys get it out of the Butler building. They will let you know whether the wheels will be useful when you drop it on your footings.

You can tap into a generous inventory pewags, and tie-downs to secure your load. There are also pallets - plastic, standard wood and DIY plywood.

What you brew is up to you.

They say the American Revolution began in the pubs. Sam Adams was among the brewers who united the revolutionaries.

Beer is beer - it’s been around for all time. But this does not have to be about beer.

It has to be about what makes life a little more lively.