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Process Design Overview : Grove & Grain Brewery is a full-stack process engineering design for a 10 BBL production brewery targeting 3,000 barrels of annual output in Elmhurst, Illinois. The production system was sized from first principles: at 300 batches per year across 50 active weeks, the brewhouse runs approximately six brews per week. The three-vessel hot side — mash tun, lauter tun, and combined kettle/whirlpool — was selected to optimize capital efficiency and brew day throughput at this scale. All five beer styles (West Coast IPA, NEIPA, Munich Helles, American Pale Ale, and Coffee Cinnamon Stout) share the same process backbone while diverging at style-critical control points: mash temperature profiles, water chemistry targets, fermentation temperatures ranging from 50–54°F for lagers to 64–68°F for ales, and adjunct addition timing for the coffee and cinnamon stout.
Cellar & Fermentation Engineering: Fermentation tank sizing drove the most consequential engineering decisions in the design. Ales turn over in 2–3 weeks while Munich Helles requires 4–6 weeks of cold lagering, meaning lager fermenters are occupied roughly twice as long per batch. To hit the 3,000 BBL target with a 20% lager allocation (600 BBL/year), the cellar was sized to 8 × 20 BBL ale unitanks and 5 × 20 BBL lager unitanks — each double-batched from the 10 BBL brewhouse — plus 3 × 20 BBL brite tanks serving all three revenue channels. The glycol system was sized to manage simultaneous temperature control across all 13 fermenters and 3 brite tanks, with individual pneumatically actuated jacket valves on each vessel controlled through a centralized brewery platform. Lager fermenters carry an additional pressure control loop to automate spunding valve management throughout the 7-week conditioning cycle.
Water Chemistry & Process Control: Style-specific water chemistry targets were developed for all five beers using the Elmhurst municipal Lake Michigan supply as a baseline — a notably soft profile with sulfate averaging ~27 ppm and sodium ~9 ppm, which provides an ideal neutral starting point for mineral tailoring. Target profiles range from high-sulfate/low-chloride for the West Coast IPA (SO₄²⁻ 250 ppm, Ca²⁺ 120 ppm) to a near-distilled soft profile for the Munich Helles (SO₄²⁻ 5 ppm, Ca²⁺ 7 ppm) to a high-bicarbonate alkaline profile for the Coffee Cinnamon Stout (HCO₃⁻ 345 ppm) buffering the mash against roasted malt acidity. Automation was applied selectively to the precision-critical control loops: wort knockout temperature via modulating butterfly valve on the heat exchanger outlet, strike water volume and temperature delivery via VFD-controlled HLT pump and flow transmitter, boil intensity via pneumatically actuated steam globe valve, and CIP sequencing through automated caustic/acid/rinse cycles timed by temperature setpoints. Process data from all 300 annual batches logs automatically to batch records.
Facility Layout & Economics The facility layout at 169–171 N. Addison Street (6,653 SF building on a 10,564 SF lot) was designed around a strict grain-to-glass workflow running rear to front: grain storage and mill room at the service access road, hot side brewhouse and utilities along the back wall, fermentation cellar and brite tanks in the mid-section, and cold storage sharing a wall with the taproom bar to minimize draft line runs. All utility connections, spent grain removal (~1,500–1,800 lbs/week donated to local farms), CO₂ refills, and keg logistics are consolidated at the rear access road, completely separated from the customer-facing street frontage. Capital equipment is estimated at approximately $535K, with total project cost including construction at ~$3.29M. The economic model projects $3.86M in annual revenue across three channels — taproom pints (30% of volume), canned distribution (60%), and keg sales (10%) — against $1.65M in operating costs, yielding a payback period of roughly 15 months at full capacity.
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