Fileder Filter Systems, one of the UK’s leading filtration and water treatment suppliers, has provided Navigation Brewery with a solution that has assisted the process of filtering its keg beer. Navigation Brewery, based in Nottingham, produces a wide range of cask ales and craft keg beers. The brewery opened in 2012 and now has a capacity to brew 180 brewer’s barrels a week, or in drinkers terms that is 52,000 pints a week and almost 3 million per year. It is one of a handful of craft breweries with the capacity and expertise to brew, filter and keg its craft range on site. Dom Flynn, the Head Brewer, sought the help of Fileder Filter Systems. The main difficulty was the hassle of the slow process of changing the plate and frame filters in the existing set-up and the amount of batch waste generated. Fileder visited the site to see the set-up and determined bag filtration would help improve this process. After a successful small-scale trial, Fileder supplied the SPECTRUM Size 4 stainless steel bag housing together with a SPECTRUM Economic 1 micron and Premier 5 micron bag. This system is installed on the final filtration kegging line and, depending on the beer being produced, utilises either the 1 or 5 micron bag to remove dry hops, flavour additives and sediment, whilst leaving the crucial yeast and bacteria in place. Dom is pleased with the results and the amount of time saved filtering the beers. He said, “The SPECTRUM bag filter has increased our keg filling speeds, reduced batch wastage and minimised the labour required at the end of the brew. The only test data is a lot of empty kegs, happy drinkers and pub landlords, not to mention happy brewers.” Established for over 3 decades, Fileder Filter Systems is the largest process filtration and water treatment supplier in the UK. A wide range of filtration and water treatment products is available to order for next day delivery, including carbon blocks, pleated and depth cartridges, housings and RO systems. 14 BREWING & BEVERAGE INDUSTRIES BUSINESS Fileder offers rough filtration solution for kegged beer www.fileder.co.uk For more information visit: The craft spirit boom in the UK is not restricted to the 180+ craft gin distillers, but with vodka, Welsh Whiskey and premium edition Scotch whisky blends and malts becoming ever more popular, with all the large international distillers jumping on the bandwagon, the need for high quality craft spirit lines is becoming an important issue for this burgeoning market. Craft premium spirits, by their very nature, need premium packaging so they look the part on high-end bars and all this needs to be applied by well-engineered equipment. Richard Portman, Managing Director of Makro Labelling UK Ltd, said, “A number of our existing customers asked if we could look at a number of projects and we sourced some really top quality Italian equipment that is scalable, if required, that can fill, apply stopper cork or Ropp closures and back and front labels with high precision. The semi-auto lines can operate with up to four operators at 40 b.p.m. These lines come in at £60,000 delivered and installed and, if you do the maths, payback can be in as little as two months.” Richard continued, “We have sold and installed three of these lines in the last few months and have orders for three more lines all to be installed in early Autumn. The mindset of the craft distiller is very different to the craft brewer. Of course the unit selling price is very different, which makes a huge difference for the distillers’ bottom line. I am sure some of them will develop and then require the next step up to a small fully auto line and having said that flexibility is key to this sector of the market and our lines offer this inbuilt flexibility.” The lines on offer include infeed conveyors and rotary tables feeding the rinser and the filler, which may be either a 4 or 6 head inline filler and single head capper together with an inline labeller that applies a body and back label. The labeller can also be equipped with a mechanical spotting device to accurately apply the labels, and a packing area conveyor is provided. If the client’s output increases then in time an automated carton packing station can be included and an automatic depalletiser. Richard concluded, “This new business for us comes at a very exciting time for Makro in the UK. We have enjoyed our best year to-date since the UK company was founded seven years ago, which mirrors the success that Makro Italy is enjoying around the world. We had several very exciting new machines on show at the recent drinktec exhibition in Munich.” Makro develops craft spirit bottling lines www.makrolabelling.it For more information visit: PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT Showcase 14_Layout 1 10/11/2017 09:42 Page 1