Paul Industries builds and installs process systems for distilleries, breweries and beverage producers: fermentation and mash vessels, still and condenser installation, sanitary process piping, glycol and cooling loops, heat exchangers and clean-in-place systems. Distilling runs under TTB permitting and food-contact sanitary design rather than cGMP, which means a lighter documentation burden and a far more cost-driven specification than a pharmaceutical project. We scope to the standard that actually applies instead of importing pharmaceutical overhead.
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The most expensive mistake in beverage projects is buying pharmaceutical engineering
Distilleries and breweries need genuinely sanitary process systems. They do not need the qualification apparatus that comes with a drug plant, and contractors who only work in pharmaceuticals frequently sell it to them anyway. A distillery does not need installation and operational qualification protocols, a validated cleaning cycle with residue analytics, or a compendial water system. It needs equipment that is cleanable, drainable, correctly sloped, properly welded and able to run hard for decades.
The regulatory reality is straightforward. A distilled spirits plant is permitted and regulated by the TTB, whose interest is production accounting, proof, bonded storage and tax determination rather than process validation. Food-contact surfaces still have to be sanitary and cleanable, and the sanitary design principles are close cousins of what a dairy plant uses. But there is no compendial water monograph to satisfy and no batch record regime to build around.
The saving is real and it is large. The same tank, the same orbital weld and the same CIP skid cost considerably less when they are specified to a food-contact standard with sensible documentation instead of to ASME BPE with a full qualification package. That money is better spent on capacity, on glycol, or on a still that does what the distiller actually wants.
What we build for distilleries and breweries
- Fermenters, mash vessels and tanks Fabrication and installation, with cooling jackets, manways, spray devices and drainable outlets designed for real cleaning rather than nominal cleaning.
- Process piping Sanitary stainless for wort, beer, low wines and spirit, sloped and drainable, with pumps, valves and instrumentation installed and commissioned.
- Heat exchangers and condensers Wort chillers, spirit condensers and product coolers, installed with the glycol or cooling water side sized for the real duty rather than the brochure duty.
- Clean-in-place systems Skids and distribution for tank and line cleaning, with spray coverage verified rather than assumed.
- Millwright and rigging Setting stills, columns and large vessels, including the awkward rigging that older buildings and multi-storey stillhouses demand.
Where the capital is going
Kentucky alone gives a clear picture of where beverage capital expenditure is concentrated, and it is not only in the visitor centers.
| Category | Planned investment | What it means for process systems |
|---|---|---|
| Warehousing and storage | $675.2 million | Largest single category, but mostly structural rather than process work. |
| Bottling and production | $320.9 million | Filling lines, product handling, tanks and the sanitary piping feeding them. |
| Distillation | $282.3 million | Stills, columns, condensers, heat recovery and the stillhouse piping around them. |
| Visitor centers and tourism | $127.4 million | Often drives a working display distillery with the same sanitary requirements. |
| Office space | $24.5 million | Minimal process content. |
Figures from the Kentucky Distillers’ Association 2025 membership survey, reported in its 2026 economic impact report, alongside a $10.4 billion total economic impact and roughly $1.45 billion in total planned investment.
Why Paul Industries
We are a nationwide process-equipment and sanitary-piping contractor, and beverage work sits naturally alongside the food and dairy side of what we do. The advantage for a distillery is that we know exactly where the pharmaceutical standard stops being worth paying for. Cleanability, drainability, weld quality and material selection matter enormously. Compendial water systems, validated cleaning cycles and qualification protocols generally do not. Knowing the difference is most of the value.
Frequently asked questions
Does a distillery need to meet cGMP?
No. A distilled spirits plant is permitted and regulated by the TTB, whose requirements center on production records, proof determination, bonded storage and tax. Food-contact surfaces still need to be sanitary and cleanable, and sensible food-safety practice applies, but there is no requirement for pharmaceutical-style validation, compendial water or batch-record systems. Contractors who quote a distillery as though it were a drug plant are selling documentation the distiller cannot use.
Do I need ASME BPE piping in a distillery?
Almost never, and specifying it is one of the easier ways to overspend. ASME BPE exists for bioprocessing, where surface finish and joint geometry are tied to cleaning validation and sterility. A distillery needs sanitary tube, good orbital welds, proper slope and drainable layout, which delivers the cleanability you actually need at a substantially lower cost. We will quote BPE if you want it, but we will tell you what it buys you first.
Should my still be copper or stainless?
It is a flavour decision before it is an engineering one. Copper reacts with sulfur compounds produced during fermentation and removes them, which is why traditional pot stills and column heads use it. Stainless is cheaper, lasts longer and is easier to maintain but does not provide that chemistry. Many producers use stainless bodies with copper packing, plates or a copper condenser to keep the contact area where it matters without building the whole vessel from it.
How much glycol capacity do I actually need?
More than the sum of the nameplate figures, because fermentation load is not steady and peak demand usually falls when several vessels are in active fermentation at once. Sizing to the average is the classic error and it shows up as fermentations running warm in peak season, which changes the product. We size against a realistic worst-case concurrency for your vessel count and turn pattern, not against an average.
Can you install a still I have already bought?
Yes, and that is a large share of what we do in this sector. Distillers frequently buy a still, a column or a set of vessels directly and then need everything around them: rigging and setting, steam or heating connections, condenser and cooling loops, spirit piping, safes and parrots, drains and the platform and access steelwork. We work to the equipment you own rather than requiring you to buy the package through us.
How do you handle rigging in an old multi-storey stillhouse?
Carefully, and with the survey done before anything is committed. Historic distillery buildings frequently have limited access, restricted floor loading and no route large enough for a modern column in one piece. The solutions are usually some combination of sectional delivery and field welding, temporary openings, and lifting plans that account for the actual structural capacity rather than assumed capacity. That assessment should happen before the equipment is ordered.
What does CIP look like in a brewery or distillery?
Typically a caustic wash, an acid wash to remove mineral deposits such as beerstone or scale, and rinses between, circulated through spray devices in tanks and around the process lines. The two things most often wrong are spray coverage, where shadowed areas behind agitators and manways never get wetted properly, and drainability, where a line holds residual solution. Both are layout problems that are far cheaper to solve during installation.
What is beerstone and why does it matter?
Beerstone is a deposit of calcium oxalate combined with protein that builds up on tank and line surfaces in brewing. It matters because it is a rough surface that harbours spoilage organisms and shields them from cleaning, so a system that looks clean can still contaminate product. Caustic alone does not remove it, which is why acid steps are part of the cycle and why surface finish and cleanability are worth attention at the design stage.
Do you work with breweries as well as distilleries?
Yes. The process systems overlap heavily: fermentation vessels, wort and beer piping, heat exchangers, glycol, CIP and packaging-line connections use the same engineering. The main differences are that brewing puts more emphasis on oxygen pickup and wort chilling, and distilling adds stills, spirit safes and heat recovery around the stillhouse. Both are food-contact sanitary projects rather than pharmaceutical ones.
How is spent stillage and process waste handled?
Spent stillage is high in solids and organic load, so it cannot simply go to a municipal drain without consequence, and the surcharges for doing so are substantial. Common routes are separation with the solids sold as animal feed, anaerobic treatment, or land application depending on scale and location. The relevant engineering decisions are the collection piping, pumping of an abrasive slurry and where the separation equipment sits.
Can you expand a plant without stopping production?
Usually yes, and in beverage work it is often essential because the production calendar is tied to a season or a contract. Tie-ins to existing product lines, added fermentation capacity and new CIP drops can normally be staged around production windows. The honest constraint is that some tie-ins require the line down and cleaned, so those get grouped into a single planned outage rather than spread across several.
Why is cheap power a reason to build in Kentucky or Tennessee?
Because distilling is energy intensive and those states sit well below the national average. Kentucky industrial electricity averaged 6.50 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2024 and Tennessee 6.21, against a national average of 8.13 (EIA). Combined with steam demand for distillation and cooling load for fermentation, that difference compounds over the life of a plant and is one reason the regional concentration keeps reinforcing itself.
How long does a distillery process installation take?
The equipment lead time usually sets the schedule rather than the installation, with vessels and stills often measured in many months. The installation itself is more predictable, but it depends on the building being ready, which in renovation projects is the common source of delay. The practical advice is to order long-lead equipment early and to survey the building before committing to a layout, because those two decisions constrain everything else.
How do I get a quote for a distillery or brewery project?
Use the form on this page or call 201-450-8280. Useful inputs are the product and annual volume, your vessel count and sizes, whether the still is already purchased, your available utilities including steam and cooling, and whether the building is new or a renovation. Photographs or drawings of an existing building help a great deal, because access and structure drive more of the cost than most people expect.
Planning a distillery or brewery build-out?
Tell us the product, the volume and whether the equipment is already bought. We will tell you what the installation really involves. Call 201-450-8280 or use the form below.