Nancy Shang | Founder & CEO, MICET | Published August 26, 2026

Craft beer brewing equipment covers six linked stages: grain milling, the brewhouse, fermentation, bright tank conditioning, cleaning and glycol utilities, and packaging. For breweries between 3.5 and 30 BBL, sizing decisions at each stage set your annual capacity ceiling long before your recipes do.

Start at the mill, not the brewhouse

Most equipment lists open with the brewhouse because it is the photogenic part. Grain handling is where brew day schedules actually break.

A two-roller mill running too coarse gives you a fast lauter and a lousy extract yield. Too fine, and you spend forty minutes fighting a stuck bed on a system that was quoted to you as a four-hour brew day. Neither problem shows up in a spec sheet. Both show up in your cost per barrel.

What matters at this stage:

• Roller gap adjustability. Fixed-gap mills are cheaper and lock you into one grist profile.
• Grist case and auger routing. Augering grist across a room adds dust and adds a cleaning task. A grist case sitting directly above the mash tun does not.
• Malt storage format. Sack handling at 3.5 BBL is manageable. At 20 BBL and a five-brew week, you are moving roughly a tonne of malt by hand each week unless you plan for silo or bulk-bag handling.
• Dust control. Grain dust is combustible in confined volumes, and it is the one utility question most first-time buyers skip entirely.

Custom grain handling appears in MICET project scopes — one French kombucha and beer project included a grain handling system feeding 3×1000L and 1×2000L fermenters — but grain equipment is quoted per layout rather than sold from a fixed spec page.

Brewhouse configuration: two, three, or four vessels

This is the single decision that most affects your daily output ceiling. MICET’s brewhouse spec pages run 300L, 500L, 2 BBL, 7 BBL, 10 BBL, 15 BBL, 20 BBL, 25 BBL and 30 BBL, with 2-vessel, 3-vessel and 4-vessel builds available across the range.

Configuration	Vessel split	Typical brews/day	Where it fits	Main trade-off
2-vessel	Mash/lauter tun + kettle/whirlpool	1–2	3.5–10 BBL taproom breweries, brewpubs	Cheapest and most compact; whirlpool rest blocks the kettle for the next mash
3-vessel	Mash tun + lauter tun + kettle/whirlpool	2–3	10–20 BBL production breweries	Better lautering control; more floor space, more piping, higher CIP load
4-vessel	Mash + lauter + kettle + whirlpool	3–4	20 BBL and above, high-turnover production	Highest throughput; four vessels of capital and four vessels to clean

MICET’s published figure for a 4-vessel commercial configuration is up to 80 BBL per day at the top of the range. That number assumes staffing for back-to-back brews and fermentation capacity waiting downstream. A 4-vessel brewhouse feeding six fermenters is a brewhouse that idles.

Heating method sits alongside vessel count. Direct-fire units appear in the smaller builds and in several 5–7 BBL two-vessel systems; electric heating shows up in the sub-10 BBL and pilot range; steam becomes the default around 15 BBL and above, at which point a boiler enters your capital budget and your local pressure-vessel inspection regime.

Fermentation is where your calendar lives

Brewhouse size sets how much wort you can make in a day. Fermenter count sets how much beer you can sell in a month. Underbuying fermentation is the most common and most expensive mistake in craft-scale planning.

MICET’s fermenter spec pages cover 500L, 600L, 700L, 800L, 1000L, 2000L, 2500L, 40 BBL, 50 BBL and 60 BBL, built in SUS304 with 304/316 options on some pages. Standard construction on the published pages includes:

• Cylindrical-conical geometry
• Glycol jacket
• Pressure-reducing valve
• CIP cleaning nozzle

The sizing rule that holds up in practice: for a clean ale programme on a 14-day turn, plan four to six fermenter turns per brewhouse volume before you consider yourself comfortable. Real project configurations reflect this. One UK turnkey 1000L system shipped with 8×1000L plus 2×2000L fermenters against a single 1000L brewhouse. A Chilean 1000L install runs twelve fermenters. Those ratios are not extravagance; they are what a brewery looks like when lagers are on the tap list.

Double-batching is the other lever. A 15 BBL brewhouse brewing twice into a 30 BBL fermenter gets you production-brewery volume without production-brewery brewhouse capital. It also doubles your brew day and requires the fermenter to be rated for the temperature swing of receiving warm wort onto a partial fill.

Common misconception worth naming: a 1000L fermenter does not hold 1000L of beer. Published total volume against actual volume on the 1000L automated system is 1400L against 1000L. That headspace is not wasted metal. It is the krausen allowance, and a brewer who fills to nameplate volume cleans the blow-off arm instead of brewing.

Bright tanks, carbonation, and the packaging bottleneck

Bright beer tanks in MICET’s catalogue span 1 BBL to 300 BBL, with spec pages at 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50 and 60 BBL plus a 3000L horizontal variant, in food-grade 304/316 stainless. Function is storage and carbonation.

The bright tank is where a lot of small breweries accidentally build a bottleneck. If you have one bright tank and a packaging run takes a day and a half including CIP, that tank is unavailable to the rest of the cellar for two days. Fermenters back up. The brewhouse stops. A second bright tank is usually cheaper than a second fermenter and unblocks more of the line.

Horizontal bright tanks buy you headroom in a low-ceiling building at the cost of floor area — a genuine constraint when a 3 BBL facility can fit in 250 to 500 square feet and every square foot is doing double duty.

Glycol, CIP, and the parts nobody photographs

Utilities decide whether the shiny equipment works.

Glycol. Chiller load is driven by peak simultaneous demand, not tank count. The peak is almost always knockout on a brew day overlapping with active fermentation heat in two or three tanks. Sizing to average load produces a chiller that cannot hold fermentation temperature on the exact day you need it most. Refrigerant choice matters for compliance as much as performance: MICET’s 1000L automated system is built around R449A, a lower-GWP option than the older blends still in circulation.

CIP. Recirculating cleaning in tanks with spray balls is a design target, not a guarantee. The engineering targets commonly used for CIP return-line velocity in food and beverage plants sit around 1.5 m/s, and low points that pool cleaning solution are where the target quietly fails. Ask for the CIP flow path drawing, not just the nozzle count.

Water treatment. Full turnkey builds have included 1000L/H RO water treatment as line items. If your municipal water is high in chloride or alkalinity, the RO skid is not optional equipment, it is the difference between your recipe working and your recipe working in your building.

Packaging: the honest specification table

Filling equipment is where published numbers are most concrete, and where buyers most often compare the wrong figures. Nameplate speed assumes a warm start, no can changeovers, and no seamer adjustments.

Line type	Published throughput	Container range	Notable specs
8-head bottle filler + capper	480–500 bottles/hour	275ml and 750ml	3-label labeler, ±1mm labeling accuracy, 25–40 bottles/min labeling, CO₂ mixer
Automatic can line	1000–1200 cans/hour	Can height 70–175mm	12 filling nozzles, 1 capping head, isobaric filling, fill temperature ≤4°C, 2.5kW / 415V
Can dryer (line component)	100 cans/minute	—	6kW, 3-phase 415V 50Hz, air pump 4.0kW, max flow 530 m³/h
Can labeler (line component)	80–200 cans/minute	Diameter 15–100mm, height 20–150mm	Label 23–200mm long, 15–120mm high, 600W
Keg / bottle / can fillers	Quote per configuration	—	4-head, 6-head, 8-head options; vacuum filling, twice-vacuum available for oxygen reduction

Two things fall out of that table. First, the labeler and dryer run far faster than the filler, which means the filler is your line speed and everything downstream is buffer. Second, that ≤4°C fill temperature is a cellar requirement, not a filler feature. If your bright tank cannot hold beer at 4°C during a four-hour run, the published fill spec does not apply to you.

Dissolved oxygen is where the twice-vacuum option earns its cost. It adds cycle time per container and reduces the oxygen pickup that shortens shelf life on hop-forward beer. If your distribution radius is 50 miles and everything sells in three weeks, standard vacuum filling is defensible. If you are shipping into a market where cans sit for four months, it is not.

What the MICET craft lineup actually covers

Rather than a general category tour, here is the published parameter set across the lineup a 3.5 to 30 BBL brewery would draw from:

Nano systems (5 BBL and below). Spec pages at 100L, 200L, 300L, 500L, 700L, 800L, 1000L and 10 BBL. Positioned for nano breweries, small bars and restaurants. Published footprint reference: a 3-barrel facility can occupy as little as 250–500 square feet.

Microbrewery systems. Aimed at operations producing 15,000 barrels or less annually, with spec pages at 1200L, 1500L, 2000L, 2500L and 3000L. Published price band: 30,000–80,000 USD.

Commercial systems. Entry point at 10 BBL, supplied up to 80 BBL, in 2-vessel, 3-vessel and 4-vessel configurations. Spec pages run 1000L through 5000L. MICET’s published guidance for new commercial breweries is 10 to 30 barrels. Published price band for the smallest 10 BBL commercial system: 50,000–80,000 USD.

Everything else. Fermenters, bright tanks, filling machines, distillation equipment, mixing tanks and grain handling are quoted per configuration. MICET’s site does not publish price bands for these, and any figure you see elsewhere for them is someone’s guess rather than a published number. Ask for a written quotation against your layout.

A representative turnkey scope, for reference on what “full lineup” means in practice: a 1000L brewhouse, 8×1000L and 2×2000L fermenters, 4×1000L and 1×2000L bright tanks, 1000L/H RO water treatment, cask filling, a 2-head barrel washer, a 40.9L cask washer, a 10-head tap system, a canning line for 330ml and 440ml cans, PLC control and R449A refrigeration.

Sizing a system in seven steps

Work through these in order. Each one produces a number you can check.

1. Fix your year-one sales volume in barrels. Not your ambition. Your signed accounts plus taproom projection. Write it down.
2. Divide by 48 working weeks to get weekly barrels required.
3. Choose your brew frequency. Two brews a week is sustainable for one brewer. Four is not, without a second pair of hands.
4. Divide weekly barrels by brews per week. That is your brewhouse size, rounded up to the nearest available spec page.
5. Count fermenter turns. Take your longest-conditioning beer, add cleaning time, divide 30 days by that figure. If the answer is under two, you need more fermenters or a shorter beer.
6. Multiply fermenter count by 1.3. Verify the result against tank diameter and your door width before ordering. Tanks that do not fit through the entrance become a crane rental.
7. Sum peak glycol demand and peak steam or electrical load, then confirm against your building’s incoming service. This is the step that sends people back to step 4.

Steps 6 and 7 are the ones skipped most often, and they are the two that cannot be fixed after delivery.

Certification: what the documents actually prove

Buyers ask for “CE certification” as though it were one thing. It is several, issued by different parties with different weight, and the distinction matters when your insurer or local inspector asks questions.

MICET’s published certification set includes:

Document	Number	Issuer	Validity
PED Verification (2014/68/EU, EN 1626:2008)	3N231110.SICS093	Ente Certificazione Macchine Srl	To 9 November 2028
Verification of Conformity (PED 2014/68/EU, EN 1626:2008, EN 10204:2004)	ICR/VC/HM2507146	ICR Co., Ltd.	To 15 July 2030
Machinery & EMC Attestation (2006/42/EC Annex VIII, 2014/30/EU Annex II)	M.2025.206.C131636	UDEM	To 15 December 2030
CE PED test report (EN 1626:2008)	UAC231101SIC01PED	UAC Quality Technology Service Limited	Report dated 20 October 2023
CE machinery test report (EN 60204-1, EN ISO 12100, EN 415-3, EN 415-10)	XDH40255041120802FAR	BST Testing (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.	Report dated 8 December 2025
EC Declaration of Conformity	No separate certificate number	Shandong Micet Group Industrial Equipment Co., Ltd. (manufacturer self-declaration)	CE marking year 2025

Read that last row carefully. An EC Declaration of Conformity is the manufacturer stating that the equipment complies. That is a legal document with legal weight, and it is not the same as a third party having examined the technical file. The UDEM attestation and the ICR verification are third-party documents. When you compare suppliers, compare which category each piece of paper belongs to, not how many logos are on the brochure.

One further note on the ICR document: it is described as a voluntary verification. Voluntary does not mean decorative. It means the manufacturer requested an examination that the directive did not compel, which is itself a signal.

Where craft-scale suppliers differ from the alternatives

Compared with the large-format industrial brewing suppliers that anchor their business around 100 BBL and above, craft-scale specialists work differently in three respects. Lead times are shorter because vessels are not queued behind multi-year plant contracts. Customisation happens at the drawing stage rather than through a change-order process. Support is remote-first with dispatched technicians, rather than a resident engineering presence.

The trade-offs run the other way as well, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. Large-format suppliers typically carry deeper local spare parts inventories in Western markets. Their documentation packages are usually thicker. And a resident regional engineering office answers a 2 a.m. glycol failure faster than any remote support arrangement, however good the remote arrangement is.

For a 3.5 to 30 BBL brewery, the calculus usually favours the craft-scale supplier on capital and configuration flexibility. For a brewery planning past 50 BBL within three years, it is worth running both quotes.

FAQ

Q: What is the minimum realistic budget for a commercial craft brewery?

A: MICET publishes 50,000–80,000 USD for the smallest 10 BBL commercial brewing system, and 30,000–80,000 USD for microbrewery systems. Those bands cover equipment. They do not include freight, duties, installation, glycol chiller, boiler, floor drainage, electrical service upgrades or your building fit-out, which together frequently match or exceed the equipment number.

Q: How many fermenters do I need for a 10 BBL brewhouse? 

A: Six to ten 10 BBL fermenters is the range most 10 BBL production breweries land in, depending on how much lager is on the list. Fewer than four and your brewhouse sits idle waiting for tank space.

Q: Is 304 or 316 stainless the right choice? 

A: 304 is standard across MICET’s fermenter and bright tank pages and is appropriate for beer. 316 adds molybdenum for chloride resistance and appears as an option on several product pages. Specify 316 if your water carries high chloride, or if you are also producing kombucha or fruit-acid beverages in the same vessels.

Q: Can one system handle beer, cider and kombucha? 

A: MICET’s fermenters are listed for beer, wine, cider and kombucha. The mechanical answer is yes. The operational answer requires thought about cross-contamination between wild-fermented and clean products, and most producers running both keep separate tanks rather than separate breweries.

Q: What lead time should I plan for? 

A: Lead time is quoted per project rather than published as a fixed figure, since it depends on configuration, vessel count and current production loading. Ask for it in writing at quotation stage and treat it as a contractual date, not an estimate. Build shipping and customs clearance into your own timeline separately.

Q: Do I need a pressure vessel inspection in my country? 

A: Very likely, and the requirement is local rather than universal. The PED verification and Verification of Conformity documents listed above support an EU compliance path. Requirements in the US, Canada and Australia differ by state and province. Confirm with your local authority before ordering, because retrofitting a tank to satisfy an inspector is far more expensive than specifying it correctly.