How to Start a Nanobrewery
From homebrewer to licensed brewery: space, power, licences in the US and Canada, the equipment you need, and calculators to plan it.
What is a nanobrewery?
A nanobrewery is a licensed commercial brewery with a small brewhouse, usually 3 BBL (about 3.5 hL) or less. Most sell the bulk of their beer over their own taproom bar, where the margin is best, plus a few kegs to local bars. Many start on a 1 BBL system to prove their recipes and their market before investing in a bigger brewhouse.
The path from homebrewer to brewery
- Nail your recipes at scale. Brew your best beers on a 1 BBL-sized system and pour them for people who aren’t your friends. Scale your homebrew recipes with the recipe scaling calculator.
- Run the numbers. Work out how much you can make and sell with the capacity calculator, and what each pint costs with the cost per pint calculator. Total what it takes to open with the startup cost calculator. Your lender will want all three.
- Find a space. Check zoning first, then power, water, drains and floor. See the checklist below.
- Apply for your licences once you have a signed lease. The applications need the address and a floor plan of the brewery.
- Order equipment and build out while the licences are in process. Leave time for electrical, plumbing and inspections.
- Brew only after you’re approved. You can’t make beer for sale until your federal and provincial or state approvals are in hand.
- Open the taproom with enough beer in the tanks to stay stocked through the first busy month.
Space and utilities checklist
- Zoning. Confirm with the city that a brewery, and a taproom if you want one, is allowed at the address before you sign. Production breweries usually need light-industrial or a zone that allows manufacturing; taprooms may need a separate permit.
- Power. An electric 1 BBL brewhouse like the BräuPro 1 BBL runs an 11 kW element on 240 V single-phase, which needs its own 60 A circuit. Add the glycol chiller, pumps, walk-in cooler and taproom. Size it with the electric brewery calculator; many commercial units have 208 V or 3-phase, which changes the math.
- Floor drains. Brewing and cleaning put a lot of water on the floor. A trench or floor drain near the brewhouse and tanks, with the floor sloped toward it, saves hours every brew day. Check whether your city needs a sampling port or pH control on brewery wastewater.
- Floor. Sealed or coated concrete that can take hot caustic. A full 1 BBL fermenter weighs about 300 lb of beer plus the tank.
- Water. Hot and cold supply near the brewhouse, a carbon filter for chlorine and chloramine, and a hose station for cleaning.
- Ventilation and CO₂ safety. Vent steam from the kettle, and put a CO₂ monitor in any small or enclosed cellar or cold room.
- Cold storage. A walk-in or keg fridge sized for your kegs plus the taproom’s draft system.
Licences in the United States
- TTB Brewer’s Notice. The federal approval to brew for sale. Apply online through TTB Permits Online. You can’t brew beer for sale until it’s approved.
- Bond. Breweries that owe less than $50,000 a year in federal beer tax don’t need a bond; tick the box in the application.
- State licence. Every state has its own brewery or manufacturer licence, often with separate rules for a taproom, self-distribution and festivals. Many states want the federal approval first or in parallel.
- City and county. Zoning approval, business licence, building permits, and a health permit if you serve food.
- Labels. You need federal label approval (COLA) before you ship beer out of state. Some states require label registration for in-state sales too.
- Excise tax. Federal tax is $3.50 per barrel on your first 60,000 barrels a year, plus state tax. Small breweries file returns yearly or quarterly, depending on how much tax they owed the year before.
Licences in Canada
- CRA brewer licence. Beer made for sale falls under the federal Excise Act, so you need a brewer licence from the Canada Revenue Agency and you pay excise duty on what you package.
- Provincial manufacturer licence. Each province licenses breweries (for example the AGCO in Ontario, the LCRB in British Columbia, AGLC in Alberta). A tasting room or lounge usually needs its own endorsement or licence.
- Municipal approvals. Zoning, business licence, building permits and health inspection.
- Excise duty. Small brewers pay reduced rates on their first 15,000 hL a year. As of April 2026 the rate on those first 15,000 hL is cut in half for two more years. Check the current rates with the CRA before you build your budget.
Nanobrewery equipment checklist
What a 1 BBL brewery needs from grain to glass. Links go to what we make; the rest you’ll source locally.
| Area | Equipment | Why it matters | From us |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot side | Brewhouse: mash tun, kettle, heating | Makes the wort. Electric keeps the room cooler and skips gas venting. | BräuPro 1 BBL |
| Hot side | Brew pump | Recirculation, transfers, cleaning. | BR-19 pump |
| Hot side | Wort chiller | Chills a full batch fast. | Counterflow chiller |
| Hot side | Grain mill | Milling your own grain is cheaper than buying it pre-milled. | — |
| Cold side | Fermenters | Your real capacity limit. Jacketed unitanks ferment, crash, carbonate and serve. | Unitanks |
| Cold side | Glycol chiller | Controls every fermenter’s temperature and cold-crashes. | Glycol chillers |
| Cold side | Temperature controls | One controller and valve per tank. | Temperature control |
| Cold side | Carbonation | Carbonate in the tank instead of in kegs. | Carbonation stone |
| Cold side | CO₂ supply and regulators | Pressure transfers, carbonation, purging kegs. | — |
| Packaging | Kegs and a keg washer | Half-barrels and sixtels for accounts; enough to cover beer out in the market. | — |
| Packaging | Walk-in cooler or keg fridge and a draft system | For the taproom. | — |
| Cleaning | CIP spray device and pump | Cleans tanks in place without climbing in. | Rotating CIP spray device |
| Cleaning | Caustic, acid sanitizer, PPE | Brewery-strength chemicals need gloves and eye protection. | — |
| Lab | Hydrometer, refractometer, pH meter | Hit the same numbers every batch. | Refractometer calculator |
Starting on 1 BBL
A 1 BBL system keeps your first investment small and turns your homebrew recipes into commercial batches with little change. With four 1 BBL fermenters, brewing twice a week, you can sell about 90 BBL a year, roughly 22,000 pints. When you grow into a bigger brewhouse, the 1 BBL system becomes your pilot system for new recipes.
Our BräuPro 1 BBL is a two-vessel electric system: a dedicated mash tun plus a 40-gallon jacketed Unitank that boils, chills, ferments and pressure-transfers to kegs. It runs on 240 V single-phase, uses standard tri-clamp fittings, and is designed and assembled in Vancouver, BC. To brew again while the first batch ferments, add a Unitank 1 BBL with a heating element: it becomes the BräuPro’s kettle for the next brew, then ferments that batch. The mash tun is shared, so each extra Unitank adds a batch without a second brewhouse. Add a glycol chiller sized for all of them. See all our systems side by side on the comparison page.
What our customers usually add to each extra Unitank 1 BBL:
- A 5,500 W brewing element, so the tank can brew
- A thermowell for the temperature probe
- A rotating racking arm
- A 3" butterfly valve, so one HopDrop moves from tank to tank
- A temperature control kit if you cool with glycol
Plan it with our calculators
Questions
How much does it cost to start a nanobrewery?
It depends far more on the building than on the brewhouse. Build-out (drains, electrical, plumbing, cold room, taproom bar), licences, and enough cash to cover the months before you open often cost more than the brewing equipment. Add it all up with the brewery startup cost calculator, then check the business pays it back with the cost per pint and capacity calculators.
What size is a nanobrewery?
Usually a brewhouse of 3 BBL (about 3.5 hL) or smaller. Many start at 1 BBL. Above that, breweries are usually called microbreweries.
Can I start a brewery in my garage?
Rarely. You need federal approval for the premises and local zoning that allows manufacturing, and most residential zones don’t. Most nanobreweries lease a small light-industrial unit or retail space with a taproom.
How long does it take to get licensed?
Plan on several months from applying to brewing, and start as soon as you have a signed lease. Federal, state or provincial, and city approvals often run at the same time, and one delay holds up the rest.
Is 1 BBL too small to make money?
On its own, 1 BBL works best for a taproom that sells most of its beer over the bar, where each pint earns the most. Brewers stretch it with more tanks: on a BräuPro 1 BBL, each extra Unitank 1 BBL with an element lets you brew again while earlier batches ferment. Plug your prices and costs into the cost per pint calculator to see where you break even.
Do I need bright tanks?
Not to start. Unitanks ferment, crash, carbonate and serve from one vessel. Bright tanks become useful when you brew enough that freeing a fermenter a few days early adds real capacity.
Talk to us
We help brewers go from homebrew to their first commercial batches every week. Tell us your space, power and how much you want to make, and we’ll help you work out the system and cellar that fit. Use the chat button on this page or contact us.