BREWING
with a progressive pump and taken off site weekly. All the brew and bloc vessels were erected at Ningbo and the walkways tted before break- ing down and shipping thus ensuring rapid installation and a perfect t.
The mash is isothermal and after 60 minutes is transferred to the lauter tun with a loading of 140kg/m 2 . Lautering takes 150 minutes to a prerun tank on the other side of the working stage. The kettle has an external calandria and a vapour con- denser where the warm water returns to the 150hL hot liquor tank and the condensed vapour goes down the drain.
outside on the right is a group of Collinson grain silos, two at 28-tonne for pale malt and four 16-tonnes for crystal, lager, torri ed wheat and wheat malt. All the other speciality grains are in sack and stored with the cartons of pelleted hops. Once opened hop boxes are stored cool in the sample room. Dobson plays the eld with malt and hop suppliers and all the usual players are involved at some time or another. With no screening, malt is screw-conveyed to the weigher, a venerable beast from Chronos Richardson which came from the old brewery and then rope and disc con- veyors feed a small Buhler four-roller mill (1000kg/hr), salts may be added before transfer up to the top of the grist case. The same conveyor serves the mash mixer. There are ve brew vessels at mezzanine level. Against the of ce wall window is the mash vessel where typically a 860kg mash will yield six to seven 1050 ° batches every 24 hours. Hydration is via an inverted cone device which looks rather like Braukon’s latest AlloySius premasher.
The brewhouse is operated by a single man and there are seven brewed streams plus three remaining contract brews before you get to the ‘craft’ beers and seasonals. In total brewed output is around 90,000hL a year. Yeast tanks sit beside the brew- plant and before the fermenters. Five yeast-storage vessels (two 30hL and three 10hL) have been relocated and a 5hL yeast-pitching tank operated on load cells is new. Brains has four yeasts; two for the Brains and Buckleys ales – and an ale and lager yeast for contract brewing. There are 20 dual-purpose ves- sels indoors; six 150hL, six 100hL, six 50hL as well as two 25hL for half brews. Outside vessels include four 250hL fermenters and two 250hL bright beer tanks usually involved with tanker
Incidentally, the vapour process- ing was not a planning permission issue but the environmental authorities were pleased to see it in the speci cation. Evaporation is 6% and the trub is dis- charged to a separate tank and taken off site along with vessel residues. There are three hop pots for addi- tions on the oor below. Late hops are added to the kettle immediately before casting to the whirlpool. Two-stage (water then glycol) heat-exchangers and oxygen injection from cylinder are downstairs in a 40ft long prewired and piped unit which had to be manoeuvred in from a shipping container and turned through a very constricted space. The spent grain is moved to silo
General view of the processing area; yeast vessels in the foreground and fermenters behind.
48 ● BREWER AND DISTILLER INTERNATIONAL I november 2019
i bd.org.uk
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