Re: Bought the Farm, I Mean Brewery

Well, we finally buckled down and did it.  After months of searching for used brewing systems and driving all over creation to look at them.  After negotiating with folks who think their 1980′s  well used system is worth 75% of what it cost brand new (“well it is a JVNW and there are no barn finds any more these days”).  We did the analysis and finally decided that after a system were decommissioned, shipped, retrofitted and then recommissioned  the brewery would have to have a sales price at a maximum of 50% of the cost of new.  That just was not to be found as we were getting closer and closer to starting the construction of  Mad Fox and had to have a system in place.  As it is we have been making conservative assumptions on what would be installed into our location and we were getting to the point with the architectural drawings where a real brew house, tanks and serving vessels needed to be specified. 

So what did we put the down payment on?  After price quotes from four of the best manufacturer’s in the industry we chose Premier Stainless Systems based in San Marcos, California.  The owner, Rob Soltys, has been a pleasure to negotiate with and came in at a very affordable price for our budget.  We will have a 15 BBL direct fired Brewhouse with an infusion type Mashtun and stacked Hot Liquor combi tank with on demand heated water for double batching.  There will be six 30 BBL Fermenters that will allow for a minimum annual production capacity of 3120 BBl’s or 6240 kegs per year, well able to supply our location and maybe others.  We will have a 15 BBL Brite tank for kegging beer production and conditioning root beer and there will be an automatic keg washer for cleaning all those  kegs.  There will also be six 15 BBL Serving Vessel that will be prominently on display as folks come in the main entrance of Mad Fox Brewing Company.

Now we have our Brewery!

More to come, Cheers, Bill

~ by billmadden on December 11, 2009.