Your equipment shapes your beer quality, labour costs and capacity for years. Yet many founders choose a brewhouse from a brochure. Here is a more reliable way to decide.
Start from sales, not from batch size
Estimate how much beer you will sell per week at maturity, then work backwards:
- Fermentation and conditioning time for each style (lagers occupy tanks far longer than ales).
- Number of fermenters needed to keep the tap list full.
- Brewhouse batch size that lets you fill those tanks with a sensible number of brew days.
Very often, adding fermenters gives you more flexibility than buying a larger brewhouse.
Key specifications to compare
- Brewhouse configuration: two-vessel, three-vessel or four-vessel, which affects speed, efficiency and the styles you can brew well.
- Heating method: steam, direct-fired or electric, depending on your site and utilities.
- Steel grade, weld quality and internal finish, which directly affect cleaning and hygiene.
- Instrumentation: thermometers, flow meters, pressure gauges and sampling valves.
- Glycol chiller capacity, sized for the hottest month of the year, not the average.
- Cleaning-in-place (CIP) design and spray coverage.
Domestic or imported?
Indian fabricators have improved greatly and offer shorter lead times and easier service. Imported systems may offer higher automation or specific designs, but bring longer lead times, import duties and dependence on remote support. The right choice depends on your budget, your team's skills and how fast you need to open.
Questions to ask every vendor
- Can I visit an installation of this exact model and talk to the brewer?
- What is included: commissioning, training, spares and documentation?
- What warranty applies, and who services it locally?
- Which acceptance tests happen before the final payment?
Layout principles
- Keep the brewhouse, fermentation and serving areas in a logical flow.
- Leave space around vessels for cleaning and maintenance.
- Plan drainage, hose routing and chemical storage from day one.
- Make the brewhouse visible to guests in a brewpub, because it sells the experience, but keep guests safely away from hot vessels.
Independent advice pays for itself
We help clients across India, from our base in Bangalore, compare vendors and specifications without any commission from manufacturers. Learn about our brewery setup service or talk to us.