PROJECT
plumbing
Brewhouse Depends On Reliable Hot Water Atlanta brewery chooses tankless system over steam boiler to supply 10,000 gal. of hot water daily.
N
eeding large volumes of hot water delivered
er to get the quantity of hot water they needed.
continuously and at consistently correct—and
Iverson didn’t care for the idea of “hacking” water heat-
often very high—temperatures was the prime
ers together to build a makeshift system, but he was in-
driver behind Monday Night Brewing’s (MNB), Atlanta
trigued enough to begin researching the possibilities of
(mondaynightbrewing.com), move to tankless hot-water
connecting multiple units to generate the hot water the fa-
heaters at The Garage, the six-year-old company’s second
cility needed. He subsequently learned that Noritz Ameri-
Atlanta brewhouse.
ca, Fountain Valley, CA (noritz.com), offered a prefabricat-
Located in the southwest section of the city, the new
ed system, including a central controller.
MNB barrel-aging and souring facility consumes approxi-
“I contacted the manufacturer’s headquarters in Cali-
mately 10,000 gal. of hot water daily in its beer-making
fornia and walked them through my sizing calculations for
processes. For example, water at a temperature of 150 F is
the maximum flow rate of approximately 16 gal. per min-
combined with barley and hops to produce an enzymatic
ute at 180 F,” Iverson said. Working back from that metric,
reaction that yields a sugar. This watery “mash” then is
Noritz tech support helped him determine that he needed
mixed with yeast to become alcohol.
a 1-million-BTU system, with five tankless heaters con-
Elsewhere inside The Garage, 180 F water is used to
nected in a series.
steam and sterilize its collection of wine, whiskey, and rum
Throughout his work with Noritz, Iverson and his col-
barrels that give the various brews their distinctive flavors.
leagues never wavered from their conviction that tankless
“This sanitation of the wood is a critical piece of the oper-
was the right choice. “Our lone concern was: What hap-
ation,” explained MNB co-founder Joel Iverson. “We
pens if a sudden need for an unusually high volume of hot
could do chemical sanitation of our equipment, but the
water arises? So we devised a creative way to deal with that
best way to ensure a clean and sterile environment is hot
in the form of a 150-gal. holding tank,” said Iverson. “This
water. And by ‘hot water,’ I mean no less than 180 F.”
backup tank is not absolutely required, but it does provide
While attending a brewing industry conference, Iver-
reassurance and peace of mind.”
son spoke with a fellow brewmaster about MNB’s plans for The Garage and the need for a more reliable source of hot
AFFORDABLE SYSTEM REDUNDANCY
water. Iverson’s new acquaintance mentioned that a num-
Among the factors persuading MNB management they
ber of smaller breweries had taken to experimenting with
were on the right track with tankless was a sharply low-
tankless technology, jerryrigging two or more units togeth-
er acquisition cost. Iverson figures a million-BTU steam
Above. Joel Iverson, co-founder, Monday Night Brewing, likes the redundancy of having five tankless water heaters. “When maintenance for one unit is required, one or more of the other four will remain online, so we can continue brewing beer.” Left. Located in the southwest section of Atlanta, the new Monday Night Brewing barrel-aging and souring facility consumes approximately 10,000 gal. of hot water daily in its beer-making processes.
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COMMERCI A L A RCHI T EC T URE
MAY 2018
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