With COVID-19 vaccines slowly but steadily being distributed throughout the country, a return to normal life could be on the horizon. As a result, the demand in the booming craft brewery industry could pick up right where it left off pre-pandemic. To be ready to handle an influx of patrons, consider any of the following innovative building materials for your brewery in 2021.
Functional Drainage
The liquids are flowing at all times within a brewery. Whether through the normal spills and splatters of day-to-day operations or from a hose-down of the floor after hours, brewery floors will need to redirect runoff more than most facilities. As a result, the building needs to be well-equipped with proper drainage.
This can be facilitated through the use of a pre sloped trench drain. This innovative product is designed to manage and redirect the flow of surface liquids in your brewery. By eliminating the need for four-sloped floors to direct liquids to the desired drainage point, these pre sloped drains allow you to have a more level brewery floor, giving the building a safer, more uniform appearance.
Nonporous Flooring
Brewery flooring should be attractive enough to enhance the ambiance of the building’s interior and durable enough to withstand heavy wear and tear. Above all, it should be nonporous to prevent staining and bacteria buildup in the event of the aforementioned spills.
This leads many breweries to choose concrete flooring options. While concrete is definitely durable and nonporous when properly sealed, it is time-consuming to maintain and difficult to repair when damage does occur. With this in mind, it may be worthwhile to consider vinyl flooring for your brewery. Vinyl is nonporous, affordable, and is fabricated in a wide array of designs to match any interior layout your brewery chooses. It also comes in intuitive click-and-lock sections, making DIY replacements relatively straightforward.
Industrial Aspects
The sparse appearance of industrial design is trending in all kinds of properties and makes a particularly strong choice for breweries that want to keep the focus on their craft beverages. Concrete walls, stainless steel appliances, trough sinks, exposed copper pipes and oversized door and sink fixtures are some of the calling cards of the industrial look.
Compression Seals for Windows
Many breweries are located in metal or older brick buildings. In fact, some breweries even set up shop in old garages. While this design works wonderfully in warm weather, when customers want to open doors and windows and easily transition between interior and exterior spaces, it can create some challenges during the year’s colder months.
To help mitigate the unwanted transfer of cold winter air into the building, some brewery owners utilize magnetic storm windows to add an additional layer of insulation. This system works by installing a system of metal strips and brackets to your window frame and attaching a magnetized storm window to these strips. While this makes it quick and convenient to add the extra window layer to your brewery, this system is not without its drawbacks. The metal strips can cause deterioration in the window’s seals, and the mounted metal strips are likely to be an eyesore when the storm window is not in use.
A better alternative would be a compression seal with window inserts. Compression seals are pressed into the inside of the window frame, eliminating the aesthetic concerns arising from protruding metal brackets. From there, the storm window is gently mounted into the frame, adding the additional layer of insulation while enhancing–not detracting–from the main window’s seal.
Custom Railing
As hard brewery floors will undoubtedly get wet during the course of the day, it is important to have safety features in place to prevent workers and patrons from slipping while spills wait to be cleaned. Placing custom handrails at the ends of the bar, throughout the bathroom, and along the walls is a good choice for helping ensure the safety of everyone in the building.
Conclusion
With the possibilities of a return to normal life getting more realistic each week, your brewery needs to be in a position to handle an influx of patrons as 2021 progresses. By choosing any of the aforementioned building materials for your brewery, you can eliminate some of the costs and hassle associated with typical craft brewing facilities.
Matt Lee is the owner of the Innovative Building Materials blog and a content writer for the building materials industry. He is focused on helping fellow homeowners, contractors, and architects discover materials and methods of construction that save money, improve energy efficiency, and increase property value.
Tyler says
Shorts in the brewery I’m calling osha