The complementarity of simulation and analytical methodologies is illustrated by a study following the general objective of modelling and optimizing the brewhouses of an industrial brewery. During this study, an extensive simulation model of the brewhouses of an industrial Belgian brewery has been developed within the framework of the simulation package BATCHES. The use of this simulation model has been complemented by the use of a simple analytical method in order to achieve a quick and efficient design of a new optimized configuration for the brewhouses, representing a notable reduction of the number of equipment items. A series of simulation runs have finally been used to refine this alternative configuration and prove its operability. While such a dual methodology is shown to be easily implemented and used, an economic study has shown that the unit price of production capacity of the brewhouses can consequently be reduced by about 30% in comparison to the base case.