Palmetto Brewing Company Case Study

Palmetto Brewing Company is the oldest and one of the largest craft microbreweries in South Carolina. It was the first brewery to open in Charleston since Prohibition, taking its name from the original Palmetto Brewery that operated in historic downtown Charleston from before the Civil War until sometime after the turn of the 20th century (Falkenstein, 2015). According to the Brewers Association, the term “microbrewery” is defined as a brewery that produces less than 15,000 barrels (17,600 hectoliters) of beer per year with 75 percent or more of its beer sold off-site (Brewers Association, 2015). Palmetto Brewery’s 6000 square foot production facility and warehouse is currently located on the Upper Peninsula in downtown Charleston. They employ 6 full-time and 2 part-time employees and currently produce approximately ¬¬¬¬¬10,000 barrels of beer per year packaged in both kegs and bottles. The brewery primarily focuses on the production of their four year-round beers: a Pale Ale, an Amber Ale, a Lager, and an Espresso Porter. They also produce a mixture of seasonal and experimental craft …show more content…
During the review of the production process, it was concluded that the fermentation stage was the bottleneck stage in the production process and should be the main focus of Palmetto’s planning and scheduling activity. Palmetto Brewery maintains three 100 barrel stainless-steel fermentation tanks, five 50 barrel stainless steel fermentation tanks, and one 25 barrel stainless steel fermentation tanks. The fermentation times of the four year-round beers in any of the fermenters is as follows: the Palmetto Pale Ale, Amber Ale, and the Espresso Porter are fermented and conditioned for two weeks utilizing top fermenting yeast; and the Palmetto Lager is fermented and conditioned for four weeks utilizing bottom fermenting