WESTONS CIDER CALLS ON COOLMATION FOR QUALITY COOLING

Coolmation, the market leader in low energy cooling for the brewing sector, has recently completed installation of a new cooling system as part of an expansion in production capacity at Herefordshire-based Westons Cider. The new project continues a decade-long business relationship between Coolmation and Westons, helping to maintain the cider maker’s reputation for producing high quality ciders in a very competitive market.

Still based on the same Ledbury farm where the original company began back in1880, Westons today employs more than 200 people, produces over 30 different ciders and perries, sells approximately 60 million pints a year and has a turnover of over £40 million. The company makes a wide range of ciders and perries, from cloudy scrumpy through to organic sparkling vintage, all subject to the strictest quality control.

To meet a requirement for increased production capacity, a new bottling line was installed at the plant. Efficient cooling is an essential part of the high quality cider-making process. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is more soluble at lower temperatures. As a result, the cider for bottling is chilled to facilitate the addition of CO2, to reduce the risk of fobbing when bottles are filled.

Working closely with Weston’s, Coolmation had previously supplied a new Rhoss 127kW air cooled chiller for this original bottling line. Located outside the plant, this unit serves a double wall heat exchanger in the bottling area, interconnected with insulated stainless steel pipework. The chiller provides a glycol solution to the heat exchanger’s primary circuit at -3°C, cooling the cider which is re-circulated through the secondary side from 15°C to 1°C. The double wall heat exchanger is designed to prevent cross contamination in the event of a leak from either of the two circuits.

With the extension of the production line, the cooling load has increased to 156kW. Coolmation recommended an additional dual circuit Rhoss chiller to meet this demand. This would ensure that the chiller not only copes with the extra load but provides a degree of redundancy, giving Westons the freedom to run full production on just three of the four circuits, saving energy and reducing the stress on the chillers. This second chiller was connected into the original pipework with an uplift in diameters where required to cope with the higher overall flow rates.

The new Coolmation installation is the latest in a series of projects for Westons at the plant stretching back to 2002. These contracts have involved the specification of new chillers for bottle lines, similar to the most recent work, alongside the re-location and re-engineering of an existing air-conditioning chiller to provide additional process cooling capacity.

“We are very pleased with the service that Coolmation has given Westons on this project and over the last ten years,” says the company’s Operations Director, David Griffiths. “Cooling is an important part of our high quality process, so our choice of partner is significant to the business. Coolmation offer a reliable service and all our chillers are now either supplied or serviced by them.”

Coolmation is an innovative installer of energy saving industrial cooling systems and part of the Coolmation Group, the exclusive distributor for low energy, Eurovent certified chillers, heat pumps and air side equipment from Rhoss, one of Europe’s largest and most innovative manufacturers.

With offices in Lancashire, Leicestershire, Bedfordshire, Bristol and a Head Office in Ringwood, Hampshire, The Coolmation Group operates nationwide in chiller sales and installations, hire, service and technical support.

For further information call freephone 0800 731 5466 or visit www.coolmation.co.uk