UK: Ringwood Brewery to lift capacity by one fifth

Real ale maker Ringwood Brewery has increased its capacity by almost one fifth with the installation of a new 36,000-pint fermenting tank, The Wiltshire Times posted June 20.

The brewhouse roof had to be removed to allow delivery of the custom-made, seven-ton, stainless steel tank, which was hoisted into place by a giant crane.

Once in place and fitted with all the necessary pumps, filters, pitching and skimming arms and automatic monitoring equipment, the new fermenting vessel will be capable of brewing more than 120 barrels of beer at a time.

The rectangular tank has also been designed to be partitioned into two, 60-barrel fermenting vessels for the company's seasonal ales and special brews, which are made in smaller batches.

Brewing takes about a week to complete, including four or five days with the yeast bubbling away in the fermenting vessel.

The new tank will increase the brewery's annual output of cask and bottled beers by about 6,000 barrels.

It's a far cry from Ringwood Brewery's early years in 1978, when founder Peter Austin made just 20 barrels a year in a converted bakery in Christchurch Road.

The growing concern moved across the road in 1986 to its present premises, which once housed the 18th-century Tunks brewery, and the complex was extended in 1994 with the building of the current brewhouse.

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