Demand for brewing equipment has surged to the point where local manufacturers are quoting 10-month wait times.
That back-order logjam is prompting entrepreneurs with ambitions of entering Metro Vancouver’s fast-growing craft beer sector to find other options, including buying used equipment from breweries that have recently upgraded or sourcing equipment from China.
The dramatic growth in the number of B.C. craft breweries is one driver behind the equipment shortage. The sector is expected to add approximately 20 new breweries this year to bring the total to around 130.
However, craft brewery startups are expanding all across North America.
The numbers are rising so fast that B.C.’s biggest brewing equipment maker, Abbotsford’s Newlands Systems Inc., builds more brewing systems, stainless steel tanks and other necessities for companies outside B.C. than within the province, the company’s finance and human resources manager, Gail McQuhae, told Business in Vancouver.
“We had nine employees when I started in 2001,” she said. “We now have 148.”
Newlands’ annual revenue has soared deep into the tens of millions of dollars, and the company is building a second manufacturing facility, in South Carolina.
“If we do a large system for Molson [Coors] or Miller [Brewing Co.] or another large company, the wait could be up to a year,” McQuhae said.
Newlands’ long wait times prompted Tim Knight to buy equipment from Vancouver Island’s Specific Mechanical Systems for his Strathcona Brewery Inc., which he plans to open on East Hastings in early June. Specific’s wait times were slightly less than Newlands’, Knight said.
“We looked at some used equipment, but it was so expensive that you might as well go with new,” he said. “If you’re paying $10,000 for new and it’s $9,000 used, go with new as you’ll also get a warranty.”
Another option is to buy directly from Chinese manufacturers.
Twin Sails Brewing principal Cody Allmin told BIV that he Googled around and found what he thought was a great deal.
He paid approximately $250,000 to buy direct from a Chinese company that he declined to name.
The price was about $200,000 less than Newlands would have charged, and he said the equipment arrived several months before Newlands could have provided it.
The downside was that Allmin had to install the equipment largely by himself. He hired someone to help him who spoke Chinese, which was the only language the installation instructions were available in.
“[The Chinese company] was supposed to send an engineer, but he couldn’t come because his visa wasn’t approved,” Allmin said. “So it was a giant nightmare.”
Allmin stands by his decision to buy the stainless steel tanks from the Chinese company but warned that the mechanical equipment and pumps broke down within a couple of months.
He now jokes that he has a scrap heap in the back of his seven-month-old brewery.
“Had we ordered locally, the parts would have taken longer to arrive, but the full timeline would have been shorter because we would not have had some of the delays,” Allmin said.
“I’d have no problem ordering stainless steel from China because the quality has gone up exceptionally in the past 10 years. I wouldn’t bother buying anything mechanical because, for the most part, it is essentially unusable.”
Doan’s Craft Brewing Co. principal Evan Doan advises equipment buyers to pursue a different international option. His year-old brewery bought all its equipment from Portland Kettle Works, in Oregon.
“It’s unbelievable quality,” he said, “really amazing equipment made with American steel and good welds.”•
