Brewery Questions


Yannis - If your unloading track was alongside the main building, the pipe could come out of the third or fourth story and angle downward over the unloading track to a parallel track where the hopper or gondola was parked. That parallel track could also be used for unloading fuel (oil or propane) if there is room. The fuel doesn't have to be real close as it is piped into the building (usually underground) anyway. I like your painted as beer cans idea. Adding the silos would negate the need for an unloading track alongside the main building and the spent grain track could be there.
Willie
 
As Willie said, an auger system would carry the spent grain to its loading area. The same is true for the grain unloading. Earlier and smaller breweries had the grain delivered in box cars and would hand off load the grain onto/into a hopper attached to a conveyor or auger for transfer into the brewery. Later and larger breweries received the grain in hoppers which would be emptied through a grate under the rails into the conveyor/auger hopper. This area would be weather protected similar to the unloading area of a grain elevator. You could tell if the brewery used conveyors or augers by the housings. Conveyors were in square or rectangular housings while augers were round. Since the grain was transferred up, the unloading location didn't matter and was placed in the most convenient location determined by the trackage.

Gravity was (is) the brewery's friend. The malting room(s) were on the upper floors, with the drying room below them. Depending on the cost of land versus construction, the brew floor would either be on the same level as the drying room or one floor below it. The bottle/kegging line was usually on the same level as the brew floor.

Most breweries had their own power plant. Depending on the region, the could be fired by coal (the least preferred), fuel oil, or natural gas. In the winter, many breweries would have to switch over from natural gas to fuel oil due to the high demand, and therefore higher price, of natural gas.

Corn syrup is used only in the cheapest of beers. Rice is the preferred adjunct if anything other than barley is used.

I grew up in the Midwest and visited a lot of breweries, from small local breweries (Kingsbury) to mid-sized (at the time) Coors to the giant Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis.
 
Kevin, a million thanks! You are really giving me the exact information that i could not figure out in understanding the "where goes what" inside the brewery building. I know have a good understanding of where to place what and how to structure my design.

Luckily it falls into place with how i had in mind of building it. Upper (3rd and 2nd floor) of the champion building will be the malting rooms (10" x 6" floor area). Intrigued to have metal malting tanks inside showing through the windows!!! 1st floor below malting will be the drying. Ground floor the brewing room (10"x6") and the rest of the ground floor (26" x 6") the bottling plant. Adjacent to the main building i am thinking about attaching 4 silos (covered unloading for grain), with some sort of auger to get the grain to the 3/2nd floor of the main building (that would be grain and not malted grain right?).

Spotting cars, Willie, i will do exactly as you say and spot the car for spent grain in front of the brewing building since no loading of beer will be there and the spent grain will be piped towards it from the upper floors. I might even spot the fuel-tank car in the parallel track in order to pipe oil towards the tanks on the back of the brewery where the power plant and fuel-tanks will be (and not have an extra spur for the fueling).

With respect to spent grain and rail-cars involved, based on my references i make it that boxcars were/are used for it (some (?) with modified roofs), if i read it correctly. I guess a 1-1 ratio between incoming grain and outgoing spent grain give or take. So 2-spots for grain, 2 spots for spent grain lets say?

Will keep you posted soon with a plan. Thinking of 2 long parallel tracks in front of the buildings for spotting in front of the brewery and the bottling plant and 1 shorter parallel in front of the gain silos (overkill to have third track maybe...)

PS. My favorite (but difficult to find) beer is US made by the way :)
 
Just a couple more things: there are no "malting tanks". The grain is spread in a thick layer, 6 to 12 inches deep, directly on the floor. The grain is watered, turned, and allowed to sprout. The biological process of sprouting converts much of the starch stored in the endosperm to sugar. The grain is then dried to stop the growth process and prevent the sprout from consuming the newly made sugar.
The finished malt is delivered to the brew floor, where it is cracked and measured into tanks. Water is added and heated (or hot water is added) and circulated to extract the sugars. This process, know as mashing and sparging, takes place in mashing tanks, also know as lauter tuns. In older breweries these were very large copper pots. The sugar water (wort) is transferred into a fermentation tank when yeast and other items of the recipe are added and allowed to ferment.
The spent grain was pressed and could be loaded into gondola or hopper cars as "wet". After pressing, the grain was also dried and loaded into box cars. They could be either standard "grain loading" box cars or special "spent grain" box cars, having roof hatches installed. Usually, smaller brewers sent spend grain out wet. Larger breweries sent it out dry. Either choice would allow you to operate a variety of rolling stock.
 
Kevin, thanks for clearing this up, it is the mashing tanks that i had in mind (the copper ones). Very interesting points for the loading of spent grain! Hoppers or gondolas for wet spent grain sound would result in a nice variety of rolling stock (reefers, boxcars, insulated boxcars, covered hoppers (or grain boxcars), hoppers, tank cars...). I just ordered some extra tracks/turnouts for the sidings i needed and i hope to have some progress in the next few days. I ll keep you posted!

Many thanks again.
Yannis
 
I missed all of this while I was AWOL. It has been very informative and entertaining read, thanks Everybody.
 
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