The use of a SURF not only eliminates the ongoing costs associated with cleaning, both from a material, energy and human resource perspective, it also significantly reduces the original capital outlay cost associated with fermentation equipment. This results in significant savings on capital layout. The rate limiting step for any brewer is the brewing as opposed to the fermentation step. The brewing equipment, i.e. mash tun, malt hoppers, boilers, heat exchangers, etc. can typically be used to produce up to two (2 No.) batches of fermentable wort per day. However, production of high quality beer necessitates an extended fermentation/conditioning period. This ranges from 2 weeks to several months depending on the beer type. So, while the brewing equipment is a considerable cost for a start-up microbrewery, the cost of fermentation and conditioning vessels is significantly higher in comparison to the brewing equipment as the brewer increases the number of batches produced.
Equipment cost is the primary factor from limiting the number of microbrewery start-ups and expansion of these microbreweries.