Build A High-Efficiency Brewery: Layout Design Guide by DEGONG

In the fast-growing craft beer industry, the way a brewery is planned and laid out directly impacts product quality, production efficiency, operating costs, and future scalability. With years of experience in supplying brewing equipment and turnkey plant solutions, DEGONG offers this systematic layout guide from the equipment-manufacturer’s vantage point — to help you design a modern, efficient and scalable brewery facility.

1. Define Your Brewery Goals and Positioning

Before entering the layout design phase, it’s vital to clearly define your brewery’s goals and positioning, as these will influence facility size, equipment configuration, functional zoning and expansion potential:

• Production scale: Is your target annual volume tens of thousands of litres (small craft), hundreds of thousands (medium urban brewery) or over a million litres (industrial production)?

• Beer variety: Are you focusing on ale, lager, a broad range of specialties (sours, barrel age, non-alcoholic)?

• Business model: Will you engage in direct on-site sales (taproom/brewpub), contract brewing, or export and distribution only?

• Budget vs. scalability: Are you building full-scale upfront, or planning phased expansion? These questions will guide your layout and equipment strategy, ensuring your investment aligns with your long-term business model.

2. Standard Functional Areas in Brewery Layout

A well-designed brewery typically includes the following functional zones:

Raw Material Receiving & Storage

• Location: adjacent to loading/unloading areas for efficient logistics.

• Storage: separate zones for dry materials (malt, hops) and wet inputs (yeast, adjuncts), with climate control where needed.

Brewhouse

• It is the heart of your production — mashing, lautering, boiling, whirlpooling.

• Equipment: mash tun, lauter tun, kettle, whirlpool, hot water tank.

• Layout Tips: arrange in a U-shape or L-shape to streamline flow; ensure adequate ventilation and drain system; reserve space for future kettle addition.

Fermentation & Maturation Area

• Tanks: conical fermenters, bright beer tanks, temperature-controlled systems.

• Layout Tips: co-locate chilling station, use modular tank arrangements for scalability; ensure good piping insulation and accessible CIP spray balls.

• Cold Chain, Filtration & Packaging Area

• Function: final filtration, carbonation, chilling, filling (bottles/cans/kegs).

• Layout Tips: maintain clean-room environment; place cold storage near packaging line; allow at least 20–30 metres of linear space for automated packaging lines.

CIP & Utility Room

• Function: central cleaning and sanitizing of all beer-contact equipment and pipelines.

• Layout Tips: locate between brewhouse and fermentation areas for operational efficiency; integrate hot acid/alkali tanks, circulation pumps, and control systems.

Laboratory & Quality Control

• Function: testing wort gravity, pH, alcohol content, yeast viability.

• Layout Tips: place next to brewhouse or fermentation zone; equip with microscope, densitometer, autoclave; maintain good ventilation and cleanliness.

Finished Goods Storage & Logistics

• Function: temporary storage of final products and dispatch.

• Layout Tips: position near facility exit for truck access; organize inventory by batch; include insulation, pest control, sun protection.

Auxiliary/Public Areas

• Includes: staff changing rooms, offices, visitor walkways, taproom if present.

• Layout Tips: if open to public, use glass partitions so visitors can see production; separate office noise from production zones; design taproom to reflect your brand identity and culture.

3. Optimize Your Brewery Space Layout

Process Flow Alignment

Align your material and process flow unidirectionally: raw materials → brewhouse → fermentation → packaging → logistics. This reduces back-tracking, manual handling and wasted time.

Dry-Wet Zoning

Separate wet operations (mashing, cleaning, fermentation) from dry/clean operations (packaging, lab, storage). Use floor gradients, drainage channels and physical separations to avoid cross-contamination.

Separate Staff, Materials & Visitor Routes

If visitors or a taproom are part of your model, create three distinct lines:

• Logistics route — inbound raw materials and outbound finished goods should not cross;

• Staff route — include changing rooms, hand-washing buffers;

• Visitor route — safe corridor along production periphery with glass partitions, without entering production zones.

Space Utilisation, Vertical & Modular Design

Leverage vertical height (e.g., two-level brewhouse platforms, gravity-assisted flow), modular tank groups with expansion aisles, and reserved connection points for future growth.

Safety & Maintenance Accessibility

Ensure valves, sight-glasses, measurement points are operator accessible; avoid pipeline blind corners; clearly mark emergency exits, fire extinguishers and control zones; ensure good lighting and ventilation for safety and maintenance.

4. Common Layout Models & Examples

Here are typical layout models depending on production capacity:

• Microbrewery/Brewpub model (300 L–1000 L batches): Small footprint, open equipment display, strong customer interaction; good for branding but limited scale.

• Medium Urban Brewery (1000 L–5000 L batches): Clearly defined functional zones (brewhouse, fermenters, packaging), supports multiple SKUs, suitable for retail + wholesale.

• Standard Industrial Brewery (>10,000 L annually): Full process layout, separated zones, semi-automated system, high efficiency but higher utilities/technical team needed.

• Tourism-oriented Brewery: Visitor pathways, open layout, taproom, storytelling-driven brand experience; high safety and visitor-flow requirements.

• OEM Contract Brewing Facility (>50,000 L and above): Large-scale, standardized layout, automated packaging, cold-chain ready, multi-SKU; needs digital QC and production management.

5. Role of Equipment Manufacturer in Layout Design

As your partner, DEGONG plays multiple key roles:

• Planning consultant: We work with you from project initiation—understanding production goals, business model, site conditions—and produce tailored layout plans including equipment location, functional zoning and future expansion interfaces.

• Technical coordination: We help with equipment selection (two-vessel, three-vessel or four-vessel brewhouse; fermenter configurations; cooling systems) and ensure spatial compatibility and efficient equipment grouping.

• Construction support: We provide complete utility drawings (water, electricity, gas, foundation embeds) to civil contractors ahead of equipment delivery; our installation engineers coordinate CIP loops, glycol piping and process pipelines to ensure alignment with brewing workflow.

• Training & operation support: Besides equipment manuals, we provide on-site operator training, process walkthroughs and troubleshooting guidance so your team can quickly stabilise production and reduce losses due to misuse or inexperience.

• Long-term support & future-proofing: We proactively reserve expansion space, blind-pipe ports, future tank aisles and kettle addition zones to reduce cost/time of future upgrades.

6. Conclusion

The success of a brewery depends on high-quality raw materials, reliable equipment, and professional processes — but among all these elements, smart layout design is the crucial bridge linking them. With DEGONG’s holistic approach to site-specific equipment and layout integration, you can build a modern brewery that is efficient, scalable and profitable.

If you are planning to build or upgrade your brewery and want professional layout design, equipment integration, or full turnkey services, contact DEGONG today. Let’s turn your brewing vision into reality together.