Brewery Installation

[Fulthrotl]

This was mandated by whom?

most of what i'm referring to was sauce lines, for the little blister pack condiments.
i've done a lot of them, spanning 20 years.

food packing equipment has a number of industry wide conventions in how they fabricate
stuff.... cross bracing on equip stands is round tube or square tube on a 45 degree canted
angle, 304 or 316 stainless in some extreme locations, but mostly 304.... most of the
equip. fabricators i know use US made 304, not the chinese stuff.... the Chinese stuff starts
rusting after about six months or so.

when taco bell was doing their super hot sauce promotion, the plant i did work for ran the
production for this half of the country, and the sauce was so aggressive, it ate up 316 SS
plungers and teflon seals, about $60,000 worth of them in a month... it also ate thru TIG
welds in the cooking heat exchanger. 304 SS tube and weld rod....

so, all the fittings are usually stainless, with robroy for the conduit. the only time i've ever
seen EMT in a food packing plant was when a friend and i went to a goose processing plant
in downtown LA they wanted to relocate, and wanted a price... most of the EMT was half
gone, with wires just laying there exposed. it was horrible.... and the fact that it was a poultry
packing plant is especially fugly.... something like 10,000 fowl slaughtered a day, and it was
foul... and near a place called Vernon. Farmer John was nearby, and the galvanizing plant i've
used in the past when i needed stuff hot dipped. the gal plant smelled better than either of the
packing plants.

so anything galvanized isn't gonna be allowed. PVC isn't durable enough to survive production,
it'll get beat on and broken. so my remarks were just based on seat of the pants observation
of standard practices where i have worked.

i've only used stainless conduit once or twice. it actually threads and bent ok, to my surprise.
but once you buy stainless steel condulet fittings, robroy starts to look like a good deal.....

 

[Aleman]

I'm not sure what the corrosive cleaning agents are. It was expressed to me by the Brewer that he would be using them so I was thinking I'd like to provide a job that would be resistant to rusting.

Usually this will be both an acid like phosphoric, nitric, or sulfuric and a caustic based off sodium hydroxide. These will be diluted for use.

You will see plenty of EMT in breweries, and PVC, and flexible conduit. If your customer is willing to spend money, I used some stainless EMT sold by McMaster Carr for a small system.
Bent pretty well and looks great. EMT will hold up well as usually they are not hosing pipe down with chemicals. Mostly your pipe will see water and maybe some beer.

Tray is also an option along with cable drops and PVC or stainless cable chases for instrument wiring. Another way to route instrument cables around tanks etc is SS uni strut with SS covers.

I am unaware of any conduit restrictions in breweries as far as food handling etc.

 

[kwired]

Usually this will be both an acid like phosphoric, nitric, or sulfuric and a caustic based off sodium hydroxide. These will be diluted for use.

You will see plenty of EMT in breweries, and PVC, and flexible conduit. If your customer is willing to spend money, I used some stainless EMT sold by McMaster Carr for a small system.
Bent pretty well and looks great. EMT will hold up well as usually they are not hosing pipe down with chemicals. Mostly your pipe will see water and maybe some beer.

Tray is also an option along with cable drops and PVC or stainless cable chases for instrument wiring. Another way to route instrument cables around tanks etc is SS uni strut with SS covers.

I am unaware of any conduit restrictions in breweries as far as food handling etc.

In general there isn't any restrictions. But anything that is rusting and flaking into product is not exactly welcome either. So it really depends exactly what you have. Most of the time the less exposed equipment you have the better off you are also, and it it must be exposed is best to have it spaced off walls, ceilings so it can be washed easier.

The problem with EMT isn't usually surface rust as much as condensation causes it to rust from inside out. Any caustic or acids used for cleaning help accelerate the process. Those cleaning agents are typically not used for external cleaning but they do get in the air and on to other things. Strong cleaning agents are necessary for pipelines and other spaces where product is handled that are hard to clean via any kind of handwashing, some processes the cleaning system may be more complex than the process is for the product they make.

 

[norcal]

Not sure really but my son works in a microbrewery in Asheville, NC and if I remember correctly it is most done with emt.

Have you had a chance to check this one out? http://www.sierranevada.com/brewery/north-carolina/brewery-tour Their new NC brewery.


This is a photo taken during a wildfire of the original brewery.


They are HUGE in solar & also installed fuel cells, if my memory serves me they used a lot of rigid conduit in the brewery.

 

[Aleman]

Well, Sierra does everything first class and I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of ridgid. Even the exposed ductwork in the restaurant is polished copper. Beautiful facility, custom everything.
The new brewery in N.Carolina looks great from the pics they have posted. But in my opinion EMT is fine for most places in a brewery. And mostly that is what you will see, aside from the plastic
and NM flex.

 

[Fulthrotl]

Well, Sierra does everything first class and I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of ridgid. Even the exposed ductwork in the restaurant is polished copper. Beautiful facility, custom everything.
The new brewery in N.Carolina looks great from the pics they have posted. But in my opinion EMT is fine for most places in a brewery. And mostly that is what you will see, aside from the plastic
and NM flex.

just varies with the customers.... everywhere i've worked it's ocal below 8' from floor, and emt above that.
where sealtight was used, standard sealtight fittings, not stainless ones are customary.

except for nutrilite vitamins...... all conduit below 10' was 304 stainless... it was right purty, too.

 

[norcal]

Well, Sierra does everything first class and I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of ridgid. Even the exposed ductwork in the restaurant is polished copper. Beautiful facility, custom everything.
The new brewery in N.Carolina looks great from the pics they have posted. But in my opinion EMT is fine for most places in a brewery. And mostly that is what you will see, aside from the plastic
and NM flex.

They spent the bucks to build a nice facility, funny thing is that I took the photo w/ the smoke in the background from CSM Inc., Chico Scrap Metals Inc.:lol: driveway across the street, the scrapyard ain't purdy.


One thing for sure, there is money in alcohol, but Ken Grossman & his former partner built the brewery w/ hard work, so I cannot begrudge them. They have a reputation as a great place to work, BTW.