Case study

Case study

10 hl Research Brewery

Location: Sutton Bonington, England

Scope: Overall process design and build of complete 10 hectolitre (hl) research brewery

Briggs of Burton designed and built a 10 hectolitre (hl) research brewery for SABMiller for their new Bioenergy and Brewing Science Building. The building was opened in 2011 by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Nottingham, Professor David Greenaway and the Chief Executive Officer of SABMiller, Mr Graham MacKay.

The building was funded by a combination of industrial, European Regional Development Funds (ERDF), Government Funds and the University. The building houses the Briggs of Burton brewery, a micro-maltings facility, a smaller Briggs of Burton 35 L nano brewhouse, a fermentation suite, a food processing centre, a bioenergy suite and several state of the art laboratory suites.

Brewing Equipment

Complete pilot scale Brewery designed, engineered, and built by Briggs of Burton for SABMiller including:  
  • Malt and Cereal Handling with 4-Roll Mill, Dust Filter, and 2 Mobile Grist Bins
  • Briggs Cereal Cooker and Mash Vessel with controlled feed premashers and low shear mash agitation
  • Briggs Lauter Tun, max charge 200 kg, featuring a density meter, and haze meter
  • Briggs Kettle/Whirlpool with sugar weighing and auto additions, manual additions pot, CO2 sparge, and trub handling
  • Features Briggs of Burton Symphony External Wort Heater (EWH).
  • Wort cooling using ambient water blending
  • Wort oxygenation using air or oxygen
  • Yeast propagation flask/air supply
  • Yeast handling including 3 x 1 hl yeast vessels
  • 2 x 5 hl, 2 x 10 hl, and 20 hl FVs with automated jacket control/temperature profile and top pressure control.
  • Beer centrifuge
  • Beer chiller, blending and carbonation skid
  • 2 x 10 hl BBTs including rousers and automated jacket temperature control
  • 3 Tank automated recovery CIP system; recovered rinse, caustic and final rinse with acid and sterilant dosing.
  • Bottling line.
  • Single use automated CIP system with caustic, acid and sterilant dosing
  • CIP disposal effluent buffer system.
  • De-Aerated Water (DAW) generation and UV steriliser
  • Steam and condensate provided by 650 kg/hr, natural gas fired steam generator
  • Cold and chilled water generated through 45 kW packaged propylene glycol chiller, refrigeration plant, and water treatment plant
  • Process and instrument air, including sterile filtered air for wort aeration
  • Siemens S7 PLC and WinCC SCADA control system

Brewing Engineering

  • Process Design Calculations
  • Equipment Sizing
  • Process Flow Sheets
  • Plant Utilisation Charts
  • User Requirement Specification (URS)
  • Functional Design Specification (FDS)
  • Automation and Control
  • Software Writing
  • Installation and Commissioning

Useful Links

Briggs of Burton continue to support the University of Nottingham Brewing Science Course with several of our engineers providing annual lectures. https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/brewingscience/