Commercial Architecture May 2018 - 52

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.

52

COMMERCI A L A RCHI T EC T URE

MAY 2018

commercialarchitecturemagazine.com
http://www.mondaynightbrewing.com http://www.noritz.com http://www.commercialarchitecturemagazine.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Architecture May 2018
