A/C in the Brewery

Just better drink quickly, it won't be cool or refreshing for long.

 

That's a good excuse to buy another round.

 

If anyone has ever set up HVAC in a commercial property, they know: A. It’s complicated; B. It’s expensive.

This isn’t just a 3rd floor apartment where you can just stick a window unit in and get it cold. You have to balance your building. Every heat source fucks with that balance. HLT, definitely boil kettle, cleaning operations. If it’s a pub with a kitchen: ranges, fryers, ovens, etc. fughettaboutit. Ridiculously expensive. Don’t balance your system and you'll spill steam and caustic fumes into the whole building. No bueno...

I’m sure every place would love to have a powerful AC. Trust me, whatever heat you feel, add 10°-20° to get an idea of the temp on the brew deck. But when places get started, they have to pick and choose what they are going to spend their limited funds on and AC, especially in areas that have 4 seasons, will often have to wait.

Oh and sack up, wussies! We did without AC for 200,000 years! Drink a cold beer and soak up some sun!

 

Yeah, but the guys on the brew deck are getting paid to be there, while I'm getting charged to be in their shop. I'm just not paying money to sweat. You mention that places have limited funds. That's 100% true. They just have to know that their on-site business will slack off from May to October. It's just reality.

 

Agreed. It is very expensive and complicated to setup HVAC (source: work with HVAC engineers) and run it, but it's a part of the atmosphere. If a brewery decides to omit that per their business decisions, it's up to them. Between my job and training, I find myself outside during the hottest months of the year for hours at a time. I'm simply not supporting a company that doesn't provide a comfortable atmosphere for my time outside of training and working.

Fortunately around here, we have four distinct seasons. Should a brewery pop up without A/C, I'd hold my trips to those other three seasons. Most, if not all, breweries popping up around here are going into retail space that already has been established by past owners/tenants. I never considered that a bonus until this thread.

 

Oh, no arguments here! That’s the beauty of the free market. Vote with your wallets and whatnot. I was just trying to illustrate that just because a brewery is without AC, doesn’t mean they are cheap or lazy. Often startup breweries are forced into no-win decisions. Install A/C, purchase a parking lot, rehab the bathrooms, etc. Pick one, You are going to lose return customers no matter what.

 

Every time I'm in any kind of large building in the summer I can't help but wonder just how much it must cost to keep the damn thing cool (I was most recently wondering this on a sweltering day in a cavernous stretch of O'hare airport).

I'm a complete baby about being hot so no AC or no shade is pretty much a dealbreaker for me. But I'm a fantastic customer everywhere all winter as I'm perfectly happy to sit in an unheated warehouse or outside on a terrace without any of those fancy heat lamp things