Benskin's new Bottling Store

From: THE BREWING TRADE REVIEW August 1958

Benskin’s Watford Brewery Ltd - New Bottling Store

Two giant bottling machines clinked into action on 15th July at Benskin’s Watford Brewery, filling 640 beer bottles every minute. This was the climax to a plan, which began to take shape in 1954, and, during the past few weeks, entailed extensive testing of the machines by the engineers.

The machines, both fully automatic and the most modern in the country, are part of a big new bottling store built at the brewery in Watford and opened by Mr Edward Thompson, MBE, TD, Chairman of the parent company, Ind Coope & Allsopp Ltd. At the ceremony in front of the store, Mr Thompson unveiled a plaque to commemorate the event.

Both bottling units have been built to slake the ever-increasing thirst in Britain. and especially in London. for bottled beer. They bottle either Benskin’s own brews, or Ind Coope’s beers, including the nationally distributed Double Diamond.

The bottling store also includes a cellar with storage space for 384,000 bottles, a ground floor and storage area from which beer is despatched and tanks and machinery by which the beer is pumped up to the bottling machines. Dr Bernard Kilkenny, a director of Benskin’s and assistant to Ind Coope’s technical director, Mr Neville Thompson, said plans for the new bottling store had been discussed four years ago, but it was not until September 1956 that building began. Plans were changed six months later with Benskin’s acquisition by Ind Coope and it was decided to install machines with a larger capacity not only to keep pace with the growing demand for Benskin’s own beers, but to supply some of the Ind Coope distribution in the Greater London area.

Dr Kilkenny said that mechanisation was a big feature in the new bottling store. Both conveyors and fork lift trucks were used as well as palletisation. There was also a pallet lift from the cellar to the ground floor.

The new bottling hall comprises a cellar, ground floor and first floor bottling hall, and covers an area of approximately 13,000 sq.ft. There is sufficient land available to double this if extra capacity is required later. The building work was begun in autumn 1956 and the first plant arrived about March 1957.

In the cellar there is a filter room with 2 Filtrox Kieselguhr sheet filters each with a capacity of 40 barrels per hour. There is also a Redox tank installation consisting of 8 x 50 barrels and 6 x 100 barrels glass lined Redox tanks. The refrigeration plant for this work consists of two J & E Hall “V” block compressors, together with evaporators, condensers, etc. using ammonia as the primary refrigerant and alcohol instead of brine as the secondary refrigerant. Compressed air for the plant is supplied by oil free carbon ring compressors. In the basement and alongside is a CO₂ recovery plant. There is also a fully automatic water softener with a capacity of 6,000 gallons per hour. The remaining area in the basement is used for stacking bottled beer. There is space for approximately 32,000 dozen half-pints.

The main bottled beer storage is on the ground floor, where a further approximate 48,000 dozen half pints can be stored. A pallet lift connects the two floors.

On the ground floor are situated 8 x 50 barrel jacketed bright beer tanks for holding filtered beer ready for bottling. These tanks can be coupled to either filter or filing machine through a stainless steel panel with Avery Hardoll couplings. There is also a complete detergent circulation system for cleaning mains etc. This consists of two tanks, one containing a hot detergent solution and the other a cold sterile solution and either or both of these can be circulated. Also on the ground floor is the switch-gear room. A bulk liquid CO₂ tank is situated on the loading dock with a capacity of 1 ½ tons.

On the first floor are two bottling units. The units are fed with empty cases from conveyors across a bridge from the old bottling store. When refilled with full bottles the cases travel down by conveyors to the floor below for storage.

Both bottling units are fully automatic. No 1 unit has a capacity of 1,200 dozen half pint bottles per hour. It consists of a Hopkins unpacker, a Webster bottle washing machine, a Worssam “Super Sixty” filling machine and crowner, a Barry Wehmiller double deck pasteuriser, three Comet body and neck labelling machines, and a Lilleshall Webster packer. The cases running alongside the machine are cleaned by turning with a Cookson case turner. No 2 unit has a capacity of 2,000 dozen half pint bottles per hour. In this line these is a Meyer liquid bottle washing machine with a 4 head direct coupled unpacker. The filler is a 60 head Meyer machine and the pasteuriser again a double deck Barry Wehmiller machine but of a larger size. There is a 3 head “Fairway” labelling machine and a 2 head UDEC case packer. For this line the cases are cleaned with a Dawson case washer and turner. The solution for the bottle washing machines is supplied from bulk liquid storage tanks on the roof, storage 14 tons.

The main contractor was Messrs. Adlam & Sons Ltd, Bristol; the building contracotrs Messrs. Percy Trentham Ltd, Rainham Essex. The service mains were run by Messrs Brightside Engineering Ltd; Sheffield and the electrical wiring was carried out by Messrs J W Russell Ltd, Queens Road, Watford.