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Blueprints Bavarian Aerial for c. 1950 16x9 BW1a.jpg
8A2. BAVARIAN BREWING CO. PLANT No. 1 (1949)
BREW/MILL HOUSE FLOOR PLANS & INFORMATION

Please know that the plans shown below are best viewed on a large monitor or, at a minimum, a laptop or iPad; not a smart phone. 

THE BREW (& MILL) HOUSE

As implied by its name, the Brew House contained most of the equipment used for brewing. The Mill House actually occupied most of this combined structure between Lehmer Street and W. 12th Street. However, both parts were sometimes simply referred to as the Brew House. Before the mid twentieth century, breweries were designed so the brewing process could be assisted through gravity, called a gravity or top - down system, where after the grains were delivered on the first floor, they were transported to the upper floors, where the  brewing process began. To view how the Brew House was situated in relation to the other brewery buildings, please refer to Section 81A - Layout.

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THE BEGINNING OF THE BREWING PROCESS

The Brew House section was the curved building on the north side (shown in the first photo below) supported by the adjacent Mill House section situated to the south (that comprises the last two pictures).  Grains and hops needed to produce the beer were delivered to the ground floor Receiving Room in the middle of the Brew/Mill House through a garage like entrance. This entrance can be viewed in the lower middle of the second photo below above the cars and next to the left of the stone foundation of the former ice house.

The BLUEPRINTS FOR EACH FLOOR

In the following, blueprints are provided for each floor of the Brew and Mill House from 1949. They provide the ability to describe the brewing process and identify how the different portions of each floor were used. The former Brew House was a dining / entertainment center (BrewWorks and Jillian's) shortly before and after the millenium, but has been repurposed into what is now now the Kenton County Government Center. The blueprints displayed below are created as exhibits placed on their respective floors to help document the historical use of the building. They are located in areas open to the public and can be viewed 8am to 5pm weekdays. (See Visit / Map.) Consequently, the blueprints were designed to reflect accurate north-south directions in the way they are placed as exhibits and therefore directions can be oriented differently among these plans. However, the curved portion of the Brew House provides a good reference point in comparing the blueprints to the building photos. Each of the six floors of the Brew House are shown below, and is accompanied by interior photos of each level. The photos shown were taken around the time that the blueprints were made but may be slightly before or after.    

First Floor of the Brew / Mill House

The Beginning and Ending of the Brewing Process

     As shown in the plan below, the Machine Room was on the south, the Receiving Room was in the middle and the ground floor of the Brew House section was on the north. Adjacent to the Machine Room was a Maintenance & Supply Room that was the stone foundation of an old ice house (I), which had a staircase that led to an old lager cellar. It was used as a tunnel to access the Bottling Dept. and Boiler House. (See 4A. The Brewery Tunnels.)

     In the beginning of the brewing process, grains and hops to produce the beer were delivered to the ground floor Receiving Room. Circular grain elevators were located on the south side of the Receiving Room and used to transport hops and barley to the upper floors. There was also a service and passenger elevator just inside the Brew House section used to transport 100 lb bags of corn grits to the fifth floor of the Mill House section. The first floor was not only the beginning of the brewing process, it also ended the process before the beer wort was fermented. Near the main entrance to the Brew House was a a cooler to reduce the temperature of the wort from the Brew Kettle on the second floor. The first floor also had a hop strainer, that separated the hops from the brew kettle, and a bin for the spent hops next to the starat the end of the Receiving Room.

​The first photo is the Machine Room on the south side of the Brew / Mill House, with windows in the back that viewed W. 12th Street. The second photo is of the cooler and hop strainer, which were below the Brew Kettle. Please click any of the photos to enlarge them and obtain more information.

Fifth & Sixth Floors of the Brew / Mill House

     As noted, the brewing process began on the top (usable) level of the Brew House, i.e. the fifth floor. This floor had a malt hopper, malt mill and scale hoppers to measure the grains. To reduce the dust from the milling process, there was an adjoining room containing a dust collector. The fifth floor also had access to a catwalk on the Cupola. The sixth floor was essentially only a mechanical area for the elevators.

     Elevators transported the ingredients to the upper floors of the Mill House, which was above the Machine Room. These grains were then transferred for processing to the floor below. The malt was funneled into Malt Bins below, and where portions of the different malts were processed via hot water to become a malt mash on the fourth floor, while the corn girts were sent to the cereal cooker.

The first photo on the fifth floor below shows the storage of 100 lb. bags of corn grits and in the left background is the service / passenger elevator. The second photo was taken about a decade after the blueprints were made, but include the Grits Bin and the Malt Mill.

Fourth Floor of the Brew / Mill House

     In the Brew House section of the fourth floor was a Cereal Cooker with a 2,325 gallon capacity and a Mash Tub with a 235 bushel capacity. They were supported by three hot water tanks containing 412 barrels, 4,750 gallons and 5,270 gallons. This section also contained the cleaning reel and both the grain and service elevators. The middle section contained three malt bins and a storage area. The far south end of this structure was a large storage room with access provided to the flat ceiling and skylight above it.

     Corn grits from the floor above were cooked with hot water in the Cereal Cooker and became cereal mash. The malt was cooked in the Malt Tub and both mashes were forwarded to the Lauter Tun on the third level.