Bass Worthington. Brewing School visits 1968 to 1969

Bass, Ratcliff & Gretton Ltd, Worthington & Co. Ltd Burton on Trent

Visit by Brewing School students - 19 February 1969

New No1 Brewhouse cost about £1 million was put up in 16 months. First stage of what will finally be a fully integrated brewhouse of some 60,000 barrels a week capacity. Consists of silo block, refrigeration block, water storage and treatment block, brewhouse and fermenting room. First phase, originally designed for just under 8,000 barrels per week, the plant is already producing over 10,000 barrels per week.

Malt is delivered in bulk to four 50 ton capacity silos. Pneumatic transfer to six roller Miag mill. Adjuncts stored in separate 50 ton silo. Malt is steam conditions to render it more pliable at milling. Mashed into temperature controlled vessel with two agitators. After a short mash stand. It is pumped to the lauter tun equipped with cutting knives and spent grain removal ploughs. A ring sparge main is fitted. First runnings re-enter the mash vessel now being used as an under-back while the copper is still being used for boiling the previous batch. After casting the contents of the mesh vessel are transferred to the copper and the final worts go directly to it. Spent grains removed to a Ponndorf system and into two metered silos for sale. During boiling the steam generated passes through two vapour condensers where cold liquor is then heated for other purposes.

There is a Wittemann hop strainer and the hops are removed to silo with a screw arrangement. Trub is removed in a tangential word separator. Yeast slurry is pitched into the main to FV. 24x 400 barrel enclosed stainless steel vessels. Skimmed yeast is separated from barm ale by a rotary vacuum filter and yeast sold to Marmite or Distillers Co. Steam sterilisation of pipework as led to considerable deterioration of ceiling plaster. In place cleaning is used throughout brewhouse vessels and mains are of copper and the whole brewhouse was built by Weigelwerk of Essen.

Control from malt storage to wort receivers is from a central console in the control room. The panel has a flow diagram of the plant and if necessary visual indication of brewing conditions in the main vessels is also possible in the same room. Control by one man and his assistant. All remote controlled valves are fitted with local manual control in case of maintenance and emergency.

There are two 100 barrel per hour paraflows. Sangamo gravity meter in line controls addition of water for accurate adjustment of wort gravity. Yeast slurry obtained from own brewery or Cape Hill. 4 x 80 barrel yeast collection vessels. 200 barrel/hr centrifuges to clear green beer after 72 hours fermentation 44 brews per week, one 330 brew every 3¾ hours.