Since setting up shop in 2015 a renovated train depot in Johnson City, Tennessee, craft brewery Yee-Haw Brewing Company has already hit a lot of milestones. Within its first year, the company landed the Bronze Award at the 2016 World Beer Cup for its Muenchner Dunkel beer. They’ve also since expanded their distribution into Nashville and upped their production output to a remarkable 12,000 barrels per year.
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The secret to their success? Brewmaster Cris Ellenbecker credits it to making a lot of right decisions at the very beginning — including
“Yee-Haw takes a lot of pride in what it makes and where it’s located, Ellenbecker explains, “and that extends to making smart decisions throughout the facility, including which steam boiler to use.”
Why Miura?
For Yee-Haw, the choice to go with a Miura boiler was an obvious one. Ellenbecker cites several key advantages they have experienced with their LX-200:
- Compact design. With limited space in their facility, Yee-Haw realized it would need a boiler that could meet their demands while occupying less space. “It can fit through an average doorway,” notes Ellenbecker.
- Steam within 5 minutes. Ellenbecker notes that at the previous brewery where he worked — one that used a conventional boiler — staff members had to come in several hours early to power up the machine for morning production. “I can just come in the morning, fire the boiler up, and start mashing in and heating up m mash right away,” he says. “There's no wait time.”
- Ease of use. Ellenbecker notes that most of his staff can operate the boiler rather than hiring a trained operator. “With Miura, shutdown is basically two valves and a button,” he says. “Anybody can shut it down, anybody can start it up, and if we did have any minor issues, the customer support is phenomenal.”
- Room to grow. Despite its compact size, Ellenbecker says the Miura LX-200 gives them plenty of room to expand their output without having to add boilers. “We've been running steam all over the brewery with it,” he says, “and then just added another line onto it, and it hasn't skipped a beat. It's taken the full workload and then some.”
- Cost savings over time. Miura boilers save their clients an average of 20 percent on their energy bills, some even more. “Because it starts up so quickly and shuts down so easily, there’s no question about the efficiency and the savings on fuel and water,” says Ellenbecker.
With all these benefits, Ellenbecker points out that operating with a Miura boiler has had a direct effect on driving the Yee-Haw Brewing Company’s quick growth — and he adds, it has even been an incentive to attract new employees who are familiar with Miura’s efficiency and ease of use. “I would absolutely recommend the Miura boiler,” he says.
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