The cost to rent a crane and hire a rigging team for brewery tank installation typically ranges from $5,000 to $25,000. The exact price depends on tank size, crane type, and building access. A standard microbrewery installing a few 15 BBL to 30 BBL fermenters with ground-level access will fall on the lower end. Lifting 100 BBL tanks through a reinforced roof in a dense urban area pushes costs into the tens of thousands.
The True Cost of Brewery Tank Rigging
Many owners focus entirely on the purchase price of the stainless steel tanks and underestimate the expense of moving them safely from a flatbed truck to their final positions. The rigging and installation process generally accounts for 15% to 30% of the total equipment cost for a standard 5 to 15 BBL setup.
Your bill splits into several categories. First is the crane rental. Cranes are billed hourly, but most companies require a four- to eight-hour minimum charge. You will pay $1,600 to $2,500 even if the lift only takes two hours. Second is the rigging crew. The crane operator stays in the cab; you need riggers on the ground to guide the tanks and secure the loads. A standard crew of a foreman and two riggers costs between $200 and $400 per hour.
You are also billed for mobilization and demobilization, often called “portal-to-portal” billing. You pay for the time the crane takes to drive from the equipment yard to your brewery and back. If your brewery is far from the crane company, this travel time adds thousands of dollars. Permitting is another hidden cost. If the crane parks on a public street, you must pay for municipal street closure permits, sidewalk closures, and potentially off-duty police officers for traffic control, adding $500 to $2,000.
Understanding Tank Weights and Dimensions
To get an accurate quote, you must provide the exact dry weights and dimensions of your tanks. Capacity is measured in barrels (BBL), with one barrel equaling 31 gallons. The empty stainless steel vessels are lighter than they appear, though their awkward shapes make them difficult to handle.
A 7 BBL fermenter or brite tank weighs between 750 and 900 pounds empty and stands seven to eight feet tall. A 15 BBL fermenter weighs between 900 and 1,150 pounds and reaches up to ten and a half feet in height. A 30 BBL fermenter weighs 1,400 to 1,900 pounds dry and stands over thirteen feet tall. Large production tanks, such as 100 BBL fermenters, weigh between 3,800 and 4,500 pounds and tower up to twenty feet.
Ensure the rigging team uses the manufacturer-designated lifting lugs welded near the top rim. Lifting a tank by its plumbing, manway, or cooling jackets can permanently warp the steel or cause vacuum leaks.
For related guidance, see our guide on CNC machine moving costs.
Key Factors That Drive Up Installation Costs
Crane capacity is primarily about distance and reach, not just weight. Lifting capacity decreases dramatically the farther the boom extends away from the crane’s center. Even if your tank weighs only 2,000 pounds, you might need a 100-ton crane if the tank must be lifted far over a building or deep into a property.
Building height is another major factor. If your brewery is in a single-story industrial park with roll-up doors, a forklift or small boom lift might suffice. If you are moving into a historic downtown building with narrow alleys, the crane must reach over the roofline and drop tanks through a skylight or a cut hole in the ceiling. Every extra foot of boom extension requires a larger, more expensive crane.
Overhead obstacles complicate the lift. Federal safety regulations mandate strict clearance distances between crane booms and live power lines. If lines run directly in front of your building, the utility company may need to temporarily drop them, requiring advance coordination and fees. Trees, neighboring buildings, and uneven ground force the team to take precautions, slowing down the process and adding to your hourly labor costs.
Through-Roof vs. Through-Wall Installations
When moving large fermentation vessels into a building, you generally go through the roof or through a wall.
Through-Roof Installation
Dropping tanks through the roof is often the only option for dense urban breweries. This requires cutting a large opening in the roof structure, lifting the tanks, and lowering them precisely onto the floor.
The primary benefit is placing the tanks exactly where they need to go without sliding a tall tank horizontally across your room. However, this method is more expensive. You need a larger crane with a longer boom to clear the building’s height. You must also hire a roofing contractor to cut the hole, reinforce the structural joists, and seal the roof once the tanks are inside. The coordination between the roofing company and the rigging team must be exact to prevent weather risks.
Through-Wall Installation
If your building has large roll-up bay doors or walls that can be temporarily removed, bringing the tanks in horizontally is preferred. The crane or a heavy-duty forklift unloads the tanks from the flatbed truck and sets them onto specialized moving equipment near the doorway.
This approach requires a smaller, less expensive crane, or no crane at all if a large forklift handles the unloading. The rigging team uses machine skates to roll the tanks across the floor into position. You must ensure your floors are smooth and capable of handling the concentrated weight of the skates. You also need enough ceiling clearance inside to stand the tank up from its horizontal shipping position, which often requires a small indoor gantry or boom lift. Professional brewery equipment machinery moving crews handle these tight indoor maneuvers regularly.
Choosing the Right Crane
Small mobile cranes or boom trucks in the 20-ton to 40-ton range are ideal for unloading tanks from a flatbed and placing them near a bay door. These cranes typically cost between $100 and $300 per hour. They are highly mobile, require minimal setup time, and are perfect for basic ground-level installations.
Medium all-terrain cranes in the 60-ton to 100-ton range are required to lift tanks over small buildings, trees, or power lines. These cranes cost between $300 and $500 per hour. They have longer booms and heavier counterweights, allowing them to maintain stability while reaching further distances.
Large cranes exceeding 100 tons are reserved for through-roof installations on tall buildings or lifts that require reaching far back into a property. These machines cost $600 to $1,500 or more per hour. Setting up a large crane often requires multiple support trucks just to deliver the counterweights before the lift can begin.
Rigging Labor
The crane operator controls the machine, but the rigging crew directs the operation. A minor mistake can easily crush a cooling jacket or drop a tank.
You can expect to pay $1,500 to $3,500 for a full eight-hour day of specialized rigging labor. Once the tanks are inside the building, the crane’s job is done, but the riggers’ work continues. For indoor positioning, riggers use toe jacks to lift the tanks fractions of an inch off the ground and slide machine skates underneath the legs. A 30 BBL tank can then be pushed across the floor by hand or towed by a forklift. Hiring experts in brewery equipment crane rigging ensures the heavy loads are maneuvered without damaging your floors or walls.
Site Preparation
Proper site preparation prevents crane day delays. When a crane and rigging crew sit idle, you bleed money at a rate of $5 to $10 per minute.
Before the trucks arrive, your concrete floors must be fully cured. While an empty 15 BBL fermenter weighs around 1,100 pounds, that weight is concentrated onto four small footpads, creating significant point-load pressure. If the concrete is fresh or improperly reinforced, the legs will crack the floor. You must also calculate the wet weight of the tanks; a 30 BBL tank full of beer weighs over 9,000 pounds.
Clear the entire area of obstacles. Remove temporary fencing, clear employee vehicles from the parking lot, and ensure the delivery trucks have a clear path to back in. Inside the brewery, utility connections such as glycol lines, electrical conduits, and water pipes should be mapped out. If the riggers place a tank down perfectly, only for you to realize it is sitting directly over your floor drain, you will have to pay them to move it again.
Timeline: What to Expect on Installation Day
A multi-tank installation project usually spans two to three days.
Day one focuses on staging and unloading. The flatbed trucks arrive from the manufacturer. A forklift or small crane unloads the tanks, still in their horizontal shipping cradles, and places them in a staging area. The rigging crew unpacks the equipment, removes protective wrapping, and inspects the lifting lugs for shipping damage. This day costs around $3,500 for the crew and forklift rentals.
Day two is the main crane lift. The large crane arrives, and the operator spends the first hour setting up the outriggers and counterweights. Each tank is lifted, guided through the roof or doorway, and set down inside the building. Tag lines—long ropes held by ground workers—are essential to prevent the large stainless steel tanks from spinning in the wind. The crane and crew for this day cost roughly $5,000 to $8,000, depending on the crane size.
Day three is dedicated to final positioning. The crane is gone, stopping the hourly meter. The rigging team works entirely indoors, using skates and jacks to move each tank to its exact final footprint. This final day of labor costs around $2,000.
If you are coordinating a large project with dozens of tanks or highly complex logistics, review how to plan a critical lift to understand the safety steps required before the crane arrives on site.
Budgeting for Future Expansion
The best time to plan for your next brewery expansion is during your current build-out. Failing to plan for growth makes future tank installations unnecessarily expensive.
If you are cutting a hole in your roof for today’s tanks, ask the contractor to design a removable roof hatch or a reinforced skylight specifically sized for future equipment. Paying a few thousand dollars extra now for a modular roof section saves you tens of thousands of dollars in roofing and structural engineering costs later.
Similarly, if you are bringing tanks through a wall, install oversized roll-up doors during your initial construction. Ensure the concrete pad leading up to those doors is rated for heavy machinery. Inside the brewery, leave a clear, straight aisleway from the loading door to the future tank pads. Do not run overhead glycol or hard-piped water lines across this path. If your ceiling is blocked by low-hanging pipes, the rigging team will have to disassemble your utilities or use slow, difficult methods to slide new tanks underneath them.
By mapping out the path your future equipment will take, you guarantee that your next round of crane and rigging costs remains on the lower end of the spectrum.