When Fullsteam Brewery opened 13 years ago, the production model was an expected way to grow, so with three 60-barrel brite tanks used for packaging the Durham company’s core brands and more, getting big batches of beer to a distributor is important.
“It’s not like you can just extract yourself from that model for a brewery our size,” said Head Brewer Jon Simpson. “If you’ve got beer that is signed to a distributor that’s in a store on a shelf, that shelf’s gotta be filled.
“The quickest way to lose placements is to not have product on a shelf. So by adding in a centrifuge, we’re ensuring we’ve got product when it needs to be there, so the distributor can stock the shelf.”
The biggest bottleneck in production had become timing things out to get those batches done. For Fullsteam, Simpson said the issue they saw even before he became Head Brewer more than two years ago was they would transfer a beer into a brite tank and would have to wait for it to condition.
“It would sometimes take days or even a week,” Simpson said. “The whole time that that brite tank was being occupied by the beer that was being difficult, we couldn’t transfer another beer into it, which meant we had no fermenter to brew into. So it’s a whole chain reaction. Backing up in one place backs everything up.”
In early 2023 the brewery installed an Alfa Laval BREW 80 centrifuge with a ProCarb inline carbonation addition, which has helped eliminate that bottleneck while also helping with beer clarity.
“Packaging can actually package it the next day, rather than waiting a week,” Simpson said. “That was our huge bottleneck, and it’s definitely solved that problem for us.”
For Birdsong Brewing, co-owner Chris Goulet said the Charlotte brewery saw improved yields, in the range of 2-3% more packaged beer, along with better consistency through the packaging run.
“We experienced better shelf life and reduced cost per barrel,” he told Brewer. “However, the transfer process definitely became much more technical and time-consuming.”
Fullsteam could have solved this problem had they had more space, but being maxed out meant this was the best solution.
“That’s why the centrifuge works so great for us, because we did have room for that, and it allows us to use the brite tanks way more efficiently than we have,” Simpson said. “I think we were bumping the ceiling of what we could do prior to the centrifuge. We’re doing 7,500-8,000 barrels now, or somewhere around there. We could do more than that now if we needed to because we can move beer through so much faster.”
The process of determining the best fit for Birdsong meant taking in bids from three different brands, also setting on the same Alfa Laval BREW 80 centrifuge. Goulet did note that no matter what brand you decide on, they can be costly, ranging from $90,000 to $130,000 for a brewery like Birdsong or Fullsteam, which average around 6-7,000 barrels of production per year.
“Be sure that you really want to commit to not only that upfront cost but also very expensive ongoing maintenance,” Goulet said. “I’d suggest you budget 15-20% of the purchase price in annual maintenance.”
Simpson echoed that sentiment, adding that the upfront cost is just a part of the decision process as well.
“They aren’t cheap. It’s a pretty complicated piece of machinery that, if it’s serviced incorrectly, it can hurt someone,” he said. “Service contracts are definitely something to realize that you’re probably going to be entering into to have maintenance done by the manufacturer, at least until you have someone trained.
“Our feeling here is that this instrument is too expensive for us to mess around with, and mess it up. You hear stories about centrifuges just going wrong because they’ve been serviced wrong or haven’t been serviced at all, so that’s a costly component.”
Simpson also said anyone who’s considering getting a centrifuge is to know intimately what utilities you’re going to need for it in the brewery, he said.
“Ours had specific water pressure levels and specific power requirements,” he said, noting that manufacturers can provide this documentation or by asking.
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“A big part of the project was getting that infrastructure in place before the centrifuge even got here,” Simpson said. “It’s a lot easier to fix that stuff ahead of time, know what you’re doing, and have it set up so it’s perfect when it comes in than to try to fix it when the installer is on site. They’re here for only like three days and they’re ready to go. So that’s one caveat I would put out, have the infrastructure in place.”
So what specific indicators suggest that your brewery is ready to invest in a centrifuge?
Goulet gave a list of questions to ask yourself.
- Is more than 50% of your distribution in a package?
- Are you covering multiple states?
- Do you have a need for better yields?
- Are you working with chains providing you with room-temperature shelf space?
“A centrifuge has been great for us,” Simpson said. “I don’t know that it’s something for every brewery because if you’re smaller then it’s a huge expense. But for us, not having to pray that a tank clears and carbs in time to package is nice. And knowing it’s going to be ready the next day is huge.
“We feel a lot less stressed and scrambling.”
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