A craft beer specialist has chosen the COOL-FIT 2.0 system, manufactured and supplied by GF Piping Systems, to carry coolant around its main building in Rotherhithe, South-east London.
The Fourpure Brewing Co. moved into its premises on the Bermondsey Trading Estate in 2013 and has seen sales of its beers such as Session IPA and American Pale growing both here in the UK and abroad. On a trip to the United States the two brothers who set up Fourpure first saw GF’s COOL-FIT 2.0 pipework installed at a brewery and realised the system’s benefits.
As a result, Fourpure’s own technical team investigated the system’s physical characteristics – including composition, working temperature range, resistance to chemicals and installation method – before undergoing product training with one of GF’s Area Sales Manager.
The Head of Operations for Fourpure, Sean Knight, commented: “We moved into what was an existing building five years ago and had it completely fitted out to our own specification. More recently the partners had been over in America, visiting breweries there, and saw COOL-FIT in use and realised we could source it ourselves.”
The company decided to purchase the 63mm diameter pipe size, along with the fittings, which have now all been installed to connect a chiller unit, external to the building, with the large capacity stainless steel vessels where the beers are brewed.
Sean continued: “We use the pipework to carry glycol at an optimum temperature of -5°C to cool the fermentation tanks and our process water. Our engineer and myself underwent training with GF’s Training Officer one afternoon – learning how to accurately cut the pipe and carry out the electro-fusion jointing process – before completing the entire installation ourselves. Not only was it very straightforward, but it saved us considerable cost in not having to hire a specialist contractor and there has not been a single leak on any of the connections. Now we’re looking to take on more production space and we would certainly consider using the COOL-FIT system again.”
GF’s COOL-FIT 2.0 range offers a three-in-one system for the circulation of chilled water or other low temperature liquids. Its pipe, insulation and jacket combination can carry saline, glycol or alcohol – as alternatives to pure water – at very low temperatures.
