Plan your complete brewery

Supporting Equipment for Your BIAC® Brewery

The BIAC system includes everything needed to brew excellent beer. This guide covers the additional equipment that can help you cool, lift, mill, package and operate efficiently.

See what is included with BIAC

Before you brew

A practical equipment checklist

BREWHA’s all-in-one design is simple to install, helping save time, space and money. Depending on your building, water temperature, production plan and packaging needs, you may also need some of the supporting equipment below.

Some items—such as a brewery chiller—may already be included on your BREWHA quote. Where BREWHA does not carry an item, we have included established third-party sources to make your planning easier.

Temperature control

Chiller

Municipal or tap water is generally the lowest-cost way to remove most of the heat from freshly boiled wort. If your water is not cold enough to reach pitching temperature—or you want to conserve water—first chill as far as practical with tap water through the fermentor jacket or a plate chiller, then finish with a BREWHA brewery chiller.

For Small through Large systems, switching around 30°C / 90°F is typical. Larger systems can often switch around 20°C / 70°F. The first warm-water runnings can be recovered for cleaning or the next hot-water requirement.

Complete BREWHA microbrewery system at James Calley Brewing

If the final temperature drop is too large for the chiller alone—as may happen with 1.5 BBL and larger systems—or tap water is above 10°C / 50°F, use a cold liquor tank to finish the job. On larger commercial systems, some brewers also circulate wort from the fermentor through a plate chiller and back in a closed loop to reduce knockdown time.

Technical note Cooling load in BTU is approximately the pounds of wort multiplied by the required temperature change in °F. Five barrels is roughly 1,300 lb of wort. Cooling it from 212°F to 70°F requires about 185,000 BTU, plus 10–20% for losses. This is why tap water is a cost-effective first cooling stage.

Where to purchase

Safety note When using a glycol system, install pressure control before the jacket and pressure relief after it. Jacket pressure must remain below 7 psi. Thermal expansion in a sealed glycol system can otherwise create enough pressure to damage the vessel.

Safe, efficient lifting

Gantry & hoist

If you do not have an overhead load-bearing structure, you will need a gantry, compatible trolley and hoist to lift the Mash Colander from the fermentor and empty the grain. This eliminates much of the manual raking and shoveling associated with traditional systems.

A slow lift improves lauter control. A maximum speed of 4 seconds per foot is recommended; slower is better. Always have a qualified engineer confirm the structure and attachment method.

Kito electric chain hoist and trolley for lifting a BREWHA Mash Colander

Recommended options

  • BREWHA supplies industrial Kito hoists, including SER 115/230V electric chain hoists with geared trolleys and SHB ultra-low-headroom manual hoists. Explore Kito hoists and trolleys.
  • BREWHA can supply a standard steel gantry up to 14 ft wide by 14 ft tall. A wider gantry improves working room; three times the fermentor width is the suggested minimum.
  • For custom or aluminum gantries, Global Industrial carries a broad selection. Confirm whether listed measurements are inside or outside dimensions before ordering.
  • When ceiling height is limited, a Kito SHB low-profile trolley and hoist reduces added height by roughly 14 in compared with a standard Kito hoist. Review lift-beam clearance requirements and confirm your selection with BREWHA.
Minimum lifting capacity The gantry, beam, trolley, attachment points and hoist must all safely exceed the maximum lifted load. Suggested minimum allowances: 7 BBL—1,100 kg / 2,425 lb; 5 BBL—900 kg / 2,000 lb; 3 BBL—550 kg / 1,200 lb; 1.5 BBL—320 kg / 700 lb; Large—100 kg / 220 lb; Medium—70 kg / 150 lb; Small—40 kg / 90 lb. Consult a structural engineer.

Prepare your malt

Grain mill

Brewers buying malt in bulk will usually need a mill to open the grain for mashing. Homebrewers can ask a local homebrew shop to mill their grain, but should confirm that the crush is appropriate. See BREWHA’s guide to choosing a good malt crush size.

Home brewery

Monster Mill offers several 2 × 6 in options rated around 500 lb/hr. A three-roller mill is preferred over a two-roller model. Assembly is required.

Home + commercial

Crankandstein 328G is a 2.5 × 8 in, three-roller, fully geared mill rated around 1,000 lb/hr. See how BREWHA assembled a complete mill.

Commercial brewery

RMS offers a 6 × 6 single-pair mill rated around 1,200 lb/hr. Apollo Mills offers the 4 × 11 Sven mill rated around 3,000 lb/hr.

Serve, package & clean

Kegs, canning, keg washing & gas

BREWHA chiller dispensers make it possible to serve directly from the fermentor. Breweries that distribute—or need to free a fermentor for the next batch—will generally transfer finished beer to kegs, cans or bottles.

Kegs

Cornelius kegs are easy to open and clean by hand, but their 20 L / 5 gal size means more handling. Commercial Sanke kegs can hold up to 1/2 BBL and match most commercial draft systems. BREWHA’s fermentor-to-keg racking hose is available for Cornelius ball-lock and Sanke D connections.

Canning and bottling

Fully automated lines can cost more than $200,000. Mobile canning services can package at your brewery, while manual and small automatic fillers offer a lower-cost path for in-house packaging. Cask and Twin Monkeys supply compact systems; Oktober and Dixie offer small-format canning options.

Keg washing

BREWHA’s economical manual keg washer uses a spray ball to clean open kegs and can be paired with a Large fermentor for heated sanitizing. Sanke spears require the correct depressurizing tool and retaining-ring picks.

CO2 and O2

Food-grade CO2 tanks and regulators are available from beverage-gas, welding and some fire-extinguisher suppliers. Homebrew shops carry ball-lock gas connectors compatible with the BREWHA Gas In Post. Oxygen is added after cooling and before fermentation to support healthy yeast; O2 tanks and regulators are commonly available from local gas suppliers.

Brew-day utilities

Hot water source

The BIAC 5-in-1 fermentor can heat all brew water, and its jacket can heat sparge water. Breweries that prefer a separate source can add a BREWHA Hot Liquor Kettle with an internal heating coil or a dual-purpose hot/cold liquor tank.

Commercial BIAC installations can also use an on-demand water heater. Hubbell TX020-3R (208V) and TX021-3RS (240V) models are available in single- or three-phase configurations. Confirm that any selected heater can reach a sparge temperature of 75°C / 170°F; many standard water heaters are limited to around 60°C / 140°F.

Brew-day essentials

Miscellaneous equipment

Most of these items are available from a local brewing-supply or hardware store. Expect to spend approximately $1,000–$3,000 depending on size, durability and quality.

  • A variable-speed mixer drill, such as the Makita DS4012, for the BREWHA Mash Mixer.
  • A hydrometer or refractometer for measuring wort sugar. Hydrometers can measure original and final gravity; standard refractometers are best suited to initial gravity. Cool samples to the instrument’s calibration temperature before testing.
  • Alkaline cleaner such as PBW and acid cleaner such as Acid 5 to remove organic soils and beer stone every 10–20 batches, or as conditions require.
  • A small scale for minerals and hops, plus a larger scale for malt.
  • Measuring spoons, measuring cups and a pen thermometer.
  • Spray bottles for Star San sanitizer and rinse water.
  • A mash-capable pH meter. The Hanna HI99151 is waterproof and designed for beer analysis; keeping a backup meter prevents a failed probe from disrupting brew day.
  • Euroscrubby cleaning pads and, for larger tanks, a Carlisle nylon flared tank brush with an extension pole.
  • A stainless pot and compact heating source for boiling water. For yeast starters in borosilicate glass, use a suitable flame rather than a high-intensity electric coil that may crack the glass.
  • For removing Sanke spears: a purpose-built depressurizing tool plus a pick-and-hook set for retaining rings. See the keg cleaning and filling guide.
  • A reverse-osmosis filter when water chemistry requires it. For commercial systems, BREWHA uses the Triton IXC 850, which allows wastewater flow to be adjusted for the source-water TDS.