New Farm Cidery Layout

[Andy Andy Frogy]

Hello all,

I know the subject has been discussed many time before but I will like to gather new experiences and advices.

What an optimal layout will be for a small farm Cidery that is looking to produce 2000 liters in first year and then year by year to increase the production. Will a 40 sqm/ 400 sqft be enough? I know that in the past some of you shared their layout scheme, it will be nice if some of you can post there layout, even as draft.

Thanks.

[Philippe Archambault]

You want to expand to 4000 or 40 000 liters ? ;)

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[Andy Andy]

Is just an exercise, small cidery that will not jump 7000-8000 liters. What I was trying to say was how should a layout that can be easy scaleble look like.

[gareth chapman]

40sqm would be adequate, the requirements between 2000 litres and 7-8000 litres are pretty much the same. At 2000 litres you will spread out to fill the space at 7-8000 litres you will squeeze everything in. You will also need a bit of ancillery space to store fermentation vessels and other equipment, bottles etc.

[mannp...@gmail.com]

I think 40 sqm is excessively tight. Last year we produced 4000L in 50 sqm plus a bit of ancillary storage space and we were constantly wishing we had more space. Tanks and equipment are an easy fit. But then there are empty bottle, full bottles, shipping materials ... these eat up a lot of space. Plus spare tanks for racking into, product that may need to age more than a year, ... 

[Vince Wakefield]

It will also depend on the shelving/racking you might install.

 

If you install some pallet racking you could have 2 layers of ibc’s, this could free up a fair amount of floor space.

 

The less space you have the more organised you will need to be.

 

Vince

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[Andy Andy]

What is the required height of the room in order put to IBCs? 

Also I think I will start with a couple of 200l/400l blue barrels.

[gareth chapman]

A 1000L IBC is just over 1 m high.
one of the biggest factors will be what are you intending to produce.
A single generic cider all bottled at the same time or tankered and sent to be contract bottled will require different space to several small batch products or for example products fermented or aged in wooden barrels. then as mentioned above, you need to consider multi year processes.

[Andy Andy]

I want to highlight that this will be a new build.

[gareth chapman]

I think your situation is still the same, but if you have the option to  build  bigger then do it.
I would be thinking of  a space to mill and press your apples close to storage, which is then part of or immediately next to where you will ferment and mature your cider. Then an area for post fermentation processing, bottling labelling etc.
If you really are building from scratch then you could think of building in some outdoor undercover area.

[Eric Tyira]

Hi Andy,

Below is a layout of a cidery.  This is not to scale but close enough for what we're talking about.  What I don't show are the skids of full can cases, empty cans before a canning run, any IBCs of extra fermented juice, stack of old skids, misc. stuff that just seems to accumulate, etc.  This can easily produce over 190,000 liters (50,000 gallons) of cider per year.  I hope you can read my chicken scratch.  I included it as an attachment so that you  can zoom in better.

The most efficient layout is straight through.  Raw materials in one door and final product out the other end.  This layout requires access on both ends of a rectangle.  If you will have a tasting room, you can have it off to one side near the exit end.  Zero wasted space.  No room for variables.  Well defined processes.

The next layout that saves space is an "L" shape.  Production in one leg and a tasting room or finished goods in the other.    This is still a "straight through" process just with a 90° turn.  Assuming this is on a farm, raw materials in one leg of the "L" and finished goods out the other leg, presumably facing the road ro perpendicular to it.

Here's an example:

The layout I sketched above up would be a "U" shaped process.  Raw materials in one door, movement along one wall, finished goods along the other wall, final product out the same door.  This layout usually has an open middle where deliveries and shipments can occur, canning runs can be done (temporary setups), etc.  This open space is beneficial in that it is flexible for various activities.  It also allows for forklift movement to get things on/off the shelves and into/out of trucks.

No matter what we do during our time on this planet with you humans, two things remain absolutely true:

1. you never have enough space
2. you expand to fill the space you have

Nature hates empty spaces.  It will work diligently to fill them with something, be it weeds or apple trees.  It seems those genetic traits have Inevitably been passed down to humans because many of us behave in much the same way.

Hope this helps.

Eric

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[Andy Andy]

Thank you so much Eric, very inspiring. I will study your big layout and for sure it will help to plan for mine.