The development of craft brewing equipment has been in China for more than 10 years. There have been peaks and downturns. After a cliff-like downturn in 2000, it gradually recovered in 2003. If it were not for the impact of the US financial crisis in 2007 and 2008, the market would recover even more. Faster.

The situation in 2015 and 1999 was similar. In 1999, there were hundreds of craft beer equipment manufacturers across the country, and Jinan alone had more than 40. This year, many pharmaceutical manufacturers, tank processing companies, and beverage and dairy companies have begun to transform into the craft beer industry. Jinan has quickly recovered from a dozen manufacturers to 30 beer equipment factories, and there are more than 30 in Shanghai, Ningbo, Wenzhou and other places. Equipment manufacturers have a very low entry barrier in this market. A salesperson can find an OEM manufacturer to start a company, and a production team leader can find a foreign trade company to start a factory. Of course, there are too many shoddy products.

The market is getting better, and many participants join in. This market must be exciting and bloody. For equipment purchase customers, a set of equipment ranging from 100,000 to hundreds of thousands is a considerable investment. If there is a quality problem and the manufacturer has no after-sales service, it will be too late to regret. , That sentence is always so sharp: you get what you pay for! But can small manufacturers fail to do well? The answer is definitely no. You need to check the strength of the manufacturers and the processing of the equipment, and see if the thickness and material (201, 304) of the plates are sold as mutton; look at the sheet metal Is it a manual hammer or machine sheet metal; check whether the pipeline welding is filled with argon gas shielded welding, whether the internal and external are consistent, there is no welding slag welding bead; to see whether the sanitation of the factory is qualified, it is said that foreign companies inspect OEMs only to see whether the factory bathroom Qualified, because the details determine everything!

The details are officially introduced below

The development direction of beer equipment should be private customized supermarket products. The so-called private customization means that the products should be oriented to all types of customers (including craft brewers, home brew enthusiasts, hotel customers, bar customers, factory customers, etc. ), to meet the personal customization functions proposed by customers; the so-called supermarketization, that is, when customers choose equipment, they should match and combine equipment as if they were going to a supermarket. Next, the editor of Shandong Zunhuang will take you in-depth understanding of the beer equipment industry and teach you how to buy beer equipment.

Saccharification equipment is the most important part of beer equipment, and it is also the part of a set of brewing equipment that can best reflect the "skills" of equipment manufacturers. Large brewery saccharification equipment is mostly three pots and two tanks (gelatinization pot, saccharification pot, filter Tanks, boiling pots, rotary sinks), and our commercial beer equipment is usually equipped with two to three saccharification containers, some of which have multiple functions. According to the current mainstream equipment on the market, the craft brewing equipment can be roughly Divide into the following categories (we welcome everyone to add deficiencies): traditional saccharification two devices, classic saccharification two tanks and three devices, split saccharification three devices, new saccharification three devices, large saccharification three devices, large saccharification four devices and other types (home The brewing saccharification equipment and integrated machine are not suitable for commercial brewing and are not within the scope of our research) The specific introduction is as follows:

One,Saccharification system combing

1. Two traditional saccharification devices:

This equipment has been used earlier in the industry and mainly consists of a saccharification/boiling pot and a filter tank. The saccharification/boiling pot has the function of a rotary sink, or a saccharification/filtering, boiling/sinking composition.

Its main advantages are:

① The equipment is simple and the investment is small.

2 The pipeline is simple and easy to operate.

③ The height of the equipment is low, and the requirements for the height of the site are not high.

The main disadvantages are:

① Only suction filtration can be used for wort filtration (that is, the mash is in the filter tank, the wort is pumped through the wort pump, and then fed into the saccharification/boiling pot). The filtration speed is relatively slow, which requires high requirements for the winemaker. Once the operation is wrong , It will cause the lees layer to be compact and difficult to filter, and it will cause deformation of the sieve plate and affect subsequent use.

② This type of equipment generally has a stirrer in the saccharification/boiling pot. Because the saccharification/boiling pot has the function of a spinner, the stirrer will affect the spin-down effect.

③ Drainage water can only be prepared in advance and stored in large basins, buckets or fermentation tanks (generally not recommended to store in the fermentation tank, if improper operation, it is easy to form a vacuum in the fermentation tank or affect the operation of the ice water system), the operation is troublesome , High heat loss.

④ Generally, only two batches can be brewed a day, and the winemaker needs to stay up late to work overtime.

2、Classic mashing two tanks and three devices:

This type of equipment is generally a saccharification/boiling pot and a filter cyclone. The filter cyclone is actually composed of an upper and lower two-layer structure. The upper layer is a filter tank and the lower layer is a cyclone. This type of equipment has been replaced by a new type of saccharification three-device upgrade.

Its main advantages are:

① The appearance is a slim and tall device, which is in line with the Chinese aesthetics (skin feel).

② The heating area of the saccharification/boiling pot is generally large and the heating speed is fast.

③ The location of the filter tank is high, which can realize natural filtration (wort is filtered by gravity), the filtration speed is fast, and the wort is clear and bright. Even if the operation is wrong, there will be no compaction of the grain layer or deformation of the board.

④ The spiral sink is a vertical cylindrical tank design, because it is a special spiral sink, the design does not consider too much influence conditions, so the separation effect of hop lees and thermal coagulum is better.

⑤ When the wort is filtered, the saccharification/boiling pot can prepare the spent grains, and the spent grains can be washed while filtering, which can shorten the saccharification time by 30-50 minutes.

⑥ Generally, two batches can be brewed in one day. If you consider staying up late and working overtime, you can brew 3 to 4 batches a day. During the peak beer sales period, you can brew more wine in the shortest time.

The main disadvantages are:

① The size of the equipment is generally slightly higher than that of the traditional two-saccharification equipment.

② The equipment investment is higher than the traditional saccharification two-device equipment.

3、Three separate saccharification devices

There are many combinations of this kind of equipment, the commonly used combinations are as follows:

① Saccharification pot + filter tank + boiling/sinking tank

② Saccharification/filter tank + boiling pot + rotary sink

③ Saccharification/filter tank+boiling/rotating sink+hot water tank

④ Saccharification / boiling pot + filter tank + hot water tank

Generally speaking, although the combination of this kind of equipment is diverse, it is always the same.

Its main advantages are:

① The daily brewing batch is similar to the classic saccharification three-vessel equipment.

② The height of the device is relatively short.

The main disadvantages are:

① Only suction filtration can be used for filtration.

② The equipment covers a large area.

4、New type of saccharification with two tanks and three devices:

This type of equipment is generally accepted by the market and belongs to the latest modification of the classic three-vessel saccharification equipment. It is also the crafting equipment commonly selected by craftsmen.

This type of equipment is generally a saccharification/boiling pot, a filter/sinking tank, the filter-sinking tank is actually composed of an upper and lower two-layer structure, the upper layer is a filter tank, and the lower layer is a screwing tank.

Its main advantages are:

① The appearance is upgraded, in line with Chinese aesthetics. The mixing and tilling knife reducer and tilling knife are upgraded to horizontal type, the equipment operation is more stable, and the jacket design is added to fully filter out the vibration during use and keep the equipment running smoothly.

② The heating area of the saccharification/boiling pot is large and the heating speed is fast.

③ The location of the filter tank is high, which can realize natural filtration (wort is filtered by gravity), the filtration speed is fast, and the wort is clear and bright. Even if the operation is wrong, there will be no compaction of the grain layer or deformation of the board.

④ The spiral sink is a tangential feeding, because it is a special spiral sink, the design does not consider too much influence conditions, so the separation effect of hop lees and thermal coagulum is better.

⑤ When the wort is filtered, the saccharification/boiling pot can prepare the spent grains, and the spent grains can be washed while filtering, which can shorten the saccharification time by 30-50 minutes.

⑥ Generally, two batches can be brewed in one day. If you consider staying up late and working overtime, you can brew 3 to 4 batches a day. During the peak beer sales period, you can brew more wine in the shortest time.

The main disadvantages are:

① The equipment is generally slightly higher than the traditional two-saccharification equipment.

② The equipment investment is higher than the traditional saccharification two-device equipment.

5、Three large-scale saccharification devices and four devices:

This type of equipment generally has a volume of 1000L and above, and is a combination of saccharification/filter tank + boiling/rotating tank + hot water tank, usually with auxiliary equipment such as screw conveyors, wort balance tanks, and hop filter tanks.

Its main advantages are:

① The sharp weapon of the craft brewing factory has separate tanks for saccharification, filtration, boiling, and rotary sedimentation. With the equipped hot water tank, the pot time can be significantly reduced. The total saccharification time will generally be shortened by 30-60 minutes. It can be up to 6 batches, and can be equipped with a large fermentation tank up to 5-6 times, which can greatly reduce the cost of equipment.

② The saccharification/filter tank and the boiling/revolving sink tank use new heating jackets, which can significantly shorten the saccharification temperature rise time, and the boiling strength can reach up to 8-10%, which is beneficial to protein denaturation and aggregation and can reduce the content of undesirable taste substances.

③ Using a screw conveyor, the conveying of malt powder becomes easy and simple (don't underestimate this, generally speaking, the feeding amount of 1000L wort is more than 200kg...This is the weight of 4 bags of fertilizer).

④ The wort balance tank is added, which can realize the natural filtration of wort.

The main disadvantages are:

The equipment for this type of output is generally factory equipment, and customers will directly face the Food and Drug Administration, so the requirements for equipment processing are higher. When choosing this type of equipment, you must conduct a comprehensive inspection. Price is one aspect. Quality, after-sales service, and manufacturer development are all very important inspection contents.

At present, the hotel bar craft brewing equipment is mainly based on the space-saving and easy-to-operate two-body three-device German equipment. The winemaker's evaluation is the first choice for craft breweries. The saccharification equipment has some detailed configurations, we should pay attention to it when choosing:

There are many ways to match equipment in other factories, such as two vessels, three vessels, four vessels, and hot water tanks. These can be reasonably configured in combination with the conditions of the fermentation tanks equipped with the equipment and the production plan.

A If possible, it is recommended to add a hop adding filter tank, which can not only filter the hops to prevent the heat exchanger from clogging, but also add hot hops to improve the hop aroma of the fermentation broth. At present, hot hop addition tanks are popular in Europe and America.

B Almost all the filter tanks of domestic craft brewing equipment are cone-bottomed, which is convenient for processing and low cost, but the wort yield is also low. The best design is flat bottom (the price is slightly more expensive). First, the filter tank is fast , But the yield of wort is higher. At the same time, it is equipped with an easy-to-remove sieve plate, which is taken out and rinsed after each wine making.

Winemakers in European and American countries often dismantle and wash the grids, because the grids are full of places where dirt is easy to hide, which can not be seen at ordinary times. In summer, bacteria will breed and cause odor. Basically, domestic winemakers can't disassemble and wash, because some manufacturers design it to be inconvenient to disassemble, so soak them in water. This is lazy!

C The spray coil of the filter tank is necessary, and most manufacturers do not provide it. This needs to be added. When the hot water is washed, it is convenient and safe to spray directly through the pump and pipeline through the washing coil. If there is no spray The coiled tube can only be washed manually, and it is very troublesome not to mention the danger, not to mention the danger.

D The heating method of the boiling pot is very important. The best choice for steam heating is that the heating surface of the steam heating is uniform and the wort color will not be too deep. Of course, this requires a boiler and the equipment cost is slightly higher. The electric heating tube can be used on equipment below 1000 liters, and auxiliary measures such as stirring can be used to avoid the occurrence of paste pots. For equipment above 1000 liters, use steam directly, don’t worry about electric heating tubes. Heated up.

Two,Fermenter

a.If the budget is sufficient, please equip side manholes or upper manholes, mechanical pressure regulators, breathing valves, sampling valves, laser welding jackets, and hop nozzles at will. If the budget is limited, at least the manufacturer needs to add hops and sampling valves.

b.The most important thing is the material and thickness of the plate. Excessively high, low, high pressure, acid and alkali produced during use will cause steel plate fatigue and affect the service life of the fermentation tank. The thickness of the inner tank of equipment above 500L cannot be less than 3 mm, the thickness of the ice water jacket is 1.5 mm, and the thickness of the outer cover is 1.5 mm-2 mm. I heard some friends say that after one year, the fermentation tank leaked ice water or wine. In fact, the manufacturer did not use a steel plate of sufficient thickness, or the welding workers were too poor, and the welding was seriously oxidized.

Three,Refrigerating system

The credit of the refrigeration system is far greater than that of the boiler, and the preservation of all craft beer is inseparable from low temperature.

When the spinned wort enters the fermentation tank, it needs to be cooled by a plate heat exchanger. At this time, ice water is required to cool the wine.

Late wines need to be stored at low temperatures, especially lager-type beers, which require low temperature. Once refrigeration problems occur, all beer temperatures increase, which will seriously affect beer quality.

The refrigerator must be of a stable quality and a large brand used for housing.

The size of the ice water tank should be reasonably configured. It is recommended to equip with 2 chillers, two ice water coils, and two chillers working at the same time to reduce the burden of the chiller. One of them has a problem, and the other can operate normally.

Four,Boiler

Boilers are currently standard products with relatively stable quality. It is recommended to use a big brand. At the same time, the boiler must be used with water softening equipment, otherwise the scale in the boiler will be full in a few months, which will seriously affect safety.