Located in the Lambeau Field Stadium District in Green Bay, Wis., Badger State Brewing Company is owned by Andrew Fabry, Sam Yanda and Mike Servi.
Since 2013, the business has won several awards and expanded its brewery three times—in 2014, 2016 and 2018. With a Tap Room, Beer Garden, 10,000 square feet of brewing space that houses a 30-barrel brewing system and an event hall that can host up to 500 visitors, the business is thriving.
When the trio decided to continue their expansion and growth, they turned to Matthew Whitaker of Fluid Handling Inc., and added a Miura LX-100SG steam boiler to build out processing capabilities while reducing fuel consumption and lowering emissions—helping to achieve their goal of being an even greener brewery.
“The Miura boiler gives us the scalability we need to continue making strides in the craft brewing industry,” says Fabry. “The actual boiler is a very impressive, compactly designed piece of equipment that provides full steam in five minutes from a cold start (on-demand steam). That alone is an enormous advantage, when compared to other boilers that require hours to reach full steam. Now we can turn the boiler off at the end of the day and know that when we arrive the next morning, we’ll have the steam we need in minutes. Plus we’ll burn less fuel, have fewer emissions, use less water and conserve natural resources.”
In selecting Miura, Fabry pointed out that in his business, there are companies that offer to set up entire breweries, but that’s not in keeping with Badger State’s philosophy of being the best.
“These days, groups want to offer you a packaged one-stop-shop deal,” he says. “But that’s not necessarily the best option, especially when it comes to choosing the best products and the best partnerships. For our boiler, we wanted the very best product we could find for our particular requirements, and Matt certainly delivered the goods with Miura.”
Fabry says that since they began working together, Whitaker has guided them in all the right directions. “In fact, we still have a fire tube boiler that we purchased from another vendor early on that is so big we had to install it first and then build the doors and enclosure around it. Before long we’ll be taking down those walls and buying another Miura boiler. We can actually fit two Miura boilers the same space,” Fabry says.
Steam is what starts the brewing process, so Fabry notes that a responsive and knowledgeable vendor is important. Fluid Handling has provided education and training along the way, although Fabry says that the boiler is easy to operate.
According to Whitaker, “With the Miura LX boiler, shutdown is basically two valves and a button. It’s that simple and almost anybody can shut it down or start it up. Customers really appreciate that, especially those in the brewery industry who aren’t typically trained as boiler operators.”
Miura’s LX-100 SG models use natural gas or propane and are available in a range of steam options (300 MAWP, 170 MAWP or 15 MAWP). Whitaker says their compact size allows them to fit through a standard doorway, while their naturally low nitrogen oxides (NOx) ratings are as low as 9 ppm, depending on the model.
For more information, visit www.fluidh.com, www.miuraboiler.com
