When the Asheville Brewers Alliance brewed its collaboration 12-pack beer on Sierra Nevada’s new brewhouse in Mills River, North Carolina, they used 1,000 pounds of sweet potatoes in the mash tun. A half a ton of anything raises the question, just how big is that brewhouse?
Well, the lauter tun alone is twenty feet in diameter, says a Sierra Nevada blog post. The brewhouse, a six-vessel, 200-barrel “workhorse,” will handle the bulk of the brewery’s production in North Carolina for years to come.
“When all elements [of the new facility] are complete,” says Sierra Nevada communications manager Ryan Arnold, “the brewery will be approximately 230,000 square feet.” That will include a tasting room, restaurant, and taproom that are still under construction.
Curious about what else is happening at the new Sierra Nevada digs? Here are a few more stats.
The brewery’s twenty-eight fermentors traveled overseas for fourteen days when they came from Ziemann in Bürgstadt, Germany.
At the heart of the new packaging line is a 132-head bottle filler capable of getting beer into bottles at a rate of almost 1,000 bottles per minute.
The new brewery, everything from gauges on the brewhouse to gutters in front of the building, is clad in copper just like its sister brewery in Chico, California.
There are currently eighty-five employees at the Mills River brewery. Of those, ten are brewers.
Mills River environsSierra Nevada has developed less than thirty acres of its 184-acre property that borders the French Broad River. “There are three Natural Resource Specialists on our team to help tend to the lush natural environment on and around the brewery,” says Arnold.
Get more interesting facts, and construction updates on Sierra Nevada’s blog.