Estimate Total Energy Usage of a Brewpub or Production Brewery

[BeerPixel]

We are gathering facts for planning a brewery in a rural area, aiming to make 2500 to 5000bbl at the start (subject to change!) We may or may not have a brewpub. We'll be able to decide when we have more facts. This business will be "green" and use innovative and clean energy sources where possible.

One big unknown is energy consumption. Is there a rule of thumb or empirical data on how much electrical and thermal energy it takes to operate a brewhouse? Something like X kilowatt-hours or megajoules per 1000bbl per year, plus some constant baseline per year. How does energy usage scale with brewhouse size? As a physicist, i can guess ways it wouldn't be linear. When is the peak energy usage - boiling?

Thanks,
D.

[BrewDog]

You probably want to bring this question over to http://www.probrewer.com

Best of luck, though!

FWIW, judging by the way I (and many others) use propane burners in homebrewing, I'd guess that heating mash and sparge water up to temp from the faucet takes a lot more energy than maintaining a rolling boil.

HTH-

[BeerPixel]

I visit probrewer.com, registered for an account, but apparently someone has to activate it. still waiting....

I hadn't thought of sparging as using a ton of energy. Just watched the old Frankenbrew video - made me realize how much cooling has to be done, too. Cleaning all the equipment may chew up some nontrivial power too.

I guess my plan to run a 50,000bbl brewing company on four AA batteries isn't going to fly! 8P

[brewmonkey]

It would also depend on the type of brewery as some use steam while others are direct fired and yet others use an electric coil/immersion heater and still others use a combination. The brewhouse I was running used a steam jacketed tun and hot liquor tank while the kettle was a combination of steam and immersion heater.

I would love to give you a formula but having moved just a few months back most of my books are packed up. I will see if I can get something on this from a few of my buddies.