Industries — Beer & Wine
Craft product shows every mistake. Move beer or wine too hard, or let it pick up a little air on the way, and you taste it later — flat, oxidized, or just off. Small breweries and wineries don't get to hide behind volume, which is exactly why the pump on the end of the hose matters. IPE helps independent producers choose equipment that treats the product as carefully as they do.
Small Batch, High Stakes
A ruined batch is a bigger hit to a small producer than a large one. Four things drive almost every pump decision in a brewery or winery.
Beer and wine are fragile. Push them through the wrong pump and you get oxidation, knocked-out carbonation, or a foamy, scorched mess. The right pump moves product slowly and cleanly, with as little air pickup as you can manage.
Grapes and skins, hop trub, yeast slurry, settled lees — a lot of what you move isn't a clean liquid. The pump has to pass those solids without shredding them, or, with grape seeds, without crushing out bitter tannins.
A single stray wild yeast or a pocket of bacteria can turn a whole tank. Every pump in the line has to strip down or clean in place completely, with no dead spots for a colony to settle into.
A ten-barrel brewhouse or a family winery doesn't need plant-scale iron, and can't spare the floor space or the budget for it. The trick is pro-grade sanitary handling, sized honestly for the room you actually have.
Around the Cellar
From the hot side of the brewhouse to the last racking before the bottle, here's what tends to work where. IPE will tune the details to your process.
Getting hot wort off the kettle, through the whirlpool, and into the fermenter, carrying trub and spent hops with it. You want flow at volume without whipping air into the hot side.
How centrifugal pumps work →
Moving yeast slurry without beating it up, so the crop stays alive for the next batch. Low speed, low shear, and no impeller chewing through the cells.
How PD pumps work →
The transfers that end up in the glass, tank to tank, off the lees, to the bright tank or the filler. Slow and steady, with as little air as possible, protects flavor and carbonation.
How PD pumps work →
Whole clusters, crushed grapes, and must, all of it thick with skins and seeds. A hose pump moves it gently, keeps the berries intact, and leaves the seeds alone so you don't extract green, bitter tannins.
How peristaltic pumps work →
The heavy, sludgy stuff at the bottom of the tank. Seal-less hose and diaphragm pumps handle thick solids and shrug it off when the tank runs dry, which it will.
How AODD pumps work →
Metered additions, from finings and enzymes to tartaric acid, where you need the same dose every time and no carryover from the last product through the pump.
How peristaltic pumps work →
Cleaning between batches, which in a small shop happens constantly. Sanitary pumps that break down fast and clean in place keep contamination out and keep turnaround quick.
How centrifugal pumps work →
Go deeper: compare pump types → | see all manufacturer lines →
Why Independents Work With Us
The big houses have engineers on staff to spec this out. Most craft producers don't — so that's the part we help with.
We would rather sell you the right pump than the biggest one. For a small brewhouse or a boutique winery, that usually means compact, versatile, sanitary equipment matched to the flow rates you actually run.
Peristaltic hose pumps and low-shear lobe pumps are craft favorites for good reason. We carry both, plus the drives and CIP gear to run them, so you're not chasing parts from three suppliers.
Wort, yeast, racking, must, lees, dosing, cleaning — source it from one place, matched to work together, instead of piecing it together part by part.
Independent brewers and winemakers punch above their weight every day. We help you run the same sanitary, pro-grade handling the big houses use, without paying for capacity you'll never fill.
The Equipment
The lines that earn their keep in a brewery or winery. Tap any card for the full manufacturer profile.
Seal-less hose pumps for must, grapes, lees, and dosing. It is the gentlest way to move fragile or solids-heavy product, and it has quietly become the craft cellar's workhorse.
View the Enviroflex line →
Centrifugal pumps for wort and CIP, and low-shear rotary lobe pumps for beer, wine, and yeast. 3-A and EHEDG, and interchangeable with a lot of what is already in the brewhouse.
View the Ampco line →
The hygienic gearmotors and controls that run the pumps at the speeds craft work calls for, built in wash-down-tough stainless.
View the SEW-Eurodrive line →
Brewery & Winery Questions
The questions we hear most from brewers and winemakers sorting out how to move their product.
What is the best pump for transferring beer or wine without oxidation?
Gentle positive displacement lobe pumps and peristaltic hose pumps are the usual answer. Both move product slowly and with very little air pickup, which protects carbonation in beer and guards wine against oxidation.
Can you pump grape must and whole grapes?
Yes, and a peristaltic hose pump is ideal for it. The must only ever touches the inside of the hose, so whole berries come through intact and the seeds are left alone, which keeps harsh, green tannins out of the wine.
How do you move yeast without killing it?
Low and slow. A rotary lobe or peristaltic pump run at low speed moves yeast slurry with very little shear, so the cells stay viable whether you are pitching a fresh batch or harvesting a healthy crop.
Is sanitary pump equipment worth it for a small brewery or winery?
It tends to pay for itself the first time it saves a batch. Sanitary, CIP-friendly pumps clean out completely and leave nowhere for wild yeast or bacteria to hide, and IPE sizes them for a small operation so you are not paying for capacity you will never use.
Can these pumps be cleaned in place?
The lines we point breweries and wineries toward are built for clean-in-place or quick teardown, with hygienic, crevice-free designs that meet 3-A. We will confirm the right setup for how you actually clean.
How do I figure out what I need?
Tell us your process and your batch size, whether it is a brewhouse, a cellar, or a crush pad, and we will spec pumps that fit. Call 206-790-0775, email [email protected], or use the quote form.
Tell us what you're transferring and how big your batches are, and we'll help you pick pumps that treat your product as carefully as you do.
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