BREWING
Down belowthe brewvessels
Three hop dosing pots
The new SSV wort kettle showing the small additions pot
The below stairs unit being placed in position before adding the vessels. (Photo: SSV)
The external kettle calandria
The kettle vapour condenser
The two-stage wort chillers
genation and dilution kit as well as the keg line ash pasteuriser. The old Alfa Laval Aldox nitro- gen-fed packed column deaeration tower from Bass seems to have survived its move and looks a lot more spruce than it did when I last saw it! Water is from the city supply of res- ervoir liquor (130 ppm total hardness) and is the same as at the old brewery. There is no incoming treatment beyond a dose of ClO 2 . Refrigeration involves two J&E Hall air-cooled Daikin glycol units producing a -3 ° C stock. There are two gas-fuelled Certuss 5000kg steam generators in black boxes in the yard; this ‘combi’ boiler idea copes well with variable steam demand. Air Liquide supplied the CO 2 and nitrogen tanks with associated vapourisation equipment.
commissioning period to allow for the unforeseen slippage. Trials and team training meant operating on both sites for a couple of months and beer would be blended from the two breweries. While this worked well most of the time, there was one incident where beer from the old plant stayed too long in vessels not designed for long-term storage of cask beers and in addition suffered from the effects of unseasonably hot weather. There was some adverse comment in the trade and media that was obviously directed at the new brewery rather than the old one which was the real culprit. Around the new brewery The area for production is long and quite thin so lends itself to a classic
their new desks in the following July. Brewery civils commenced in May 2018 and the equipment was all in place by January 2019. It must have been a struggle to get everything ready for the grand opening by Prince William just before a crunch Wales vs Ireland rugby match on 16 March 2019. Partnering with NIRAS (ex Alectia and Penborn), Brains scoped the new equipment and settled on a 50hL brew size which suited the dimensions of the building and the proposed product portfolio. Balancing length against mash frequency, they decided to run contin- uously from Monday 06:00 and collect 28 brews over the next four days with the operators on 12 hour shifts. Friday would be CIP day. Brewing without any mid-week breaks when the plant cools down confers considerable ef ciencies. The turn down is to half a brew (25hL) and ve brews may be collected in 250hL external vessels. SSV from Leeds which deals with Lehui kit from Ningbo in China was chosen to supply the dry goods, brewhouse, 33 vessels and CIP equipment. An Alfa Laval Brew 250 centrifuge feeds a four high Pall Suprapak car- tridge lter before a keg line from M+F. Cask racking plant is from Brewology. Centec supplied the carbonation, nitro-
U-shape design. There is but one rather narrow entrance with dry goods on the right, brew plant and fermenters leading down to bright beer tanks and centrifuges/ ltration across the end. Coming back down the left-hand side is the keg pas- teuriser, keg line, cask line and space to hold some empty and full containers in cold weather. Looking in more detail;
First brew The rst brew went through in March 2019, Brains was under pressure from the develop- ers not to delay the old site evacuation and some retire- ment commitments had to be honoured – so looking back, Head Brewer Dobson admits he should have included a longer contingency to the
november 2019 I BREWER AND DISTILLER INTERNATIONAL ● 47
i bd.org.uk
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