West Berkshire Brewery opens new £6m facility

The brewing team moved into the new premises, located Yattendon, Berkshire, in October, and has now completed an initial trial period.

The new site contains a three-vessel 60hl brewhouse and an automated packaging line capable of filling up to 9,000 330ml bottles or 12,000 330ml cans per hour.

An automated packaging line means that West Berkshire Brewery will be able to offer contract packaging to other brewers in can, bottle, keg and cast formats, and in volumes from 30hl to 210hl.

Small-batch sizes

It is also flexible enough to allow a run to be packaged into four different bottle varieties or three different can sizes, or be racked into keg or cask.

It is hoped that the facility will allow brewers to trial new beers and customers such as restaurant chains and supermarkets to launch their own beer brands.

The beer can be brewed for customers at the brewery, or brewed by the client and transported to the brewery for finishing and packaging.

Exciting opportunities ahead

The brewery is also putting quality control at the heart of its new facility, with an on-site laboratory running full micro-analysis before and after filling to ensure there is no risk of contamination or dissolved oxygen.

West Berkshire Brewery chairman David Bruce said: “This is a big moment for us. It is the culmination of a three-year project that has seen us plan, fund and build a cutting-edge, custom-built brewery complete with extraordinarily sophisticated packaging lines.

“It means that as well as being able to continue to brew our own exceptional beers, we will be able to offer extensive brewing and packaging facilities to other brewers from all over the UK. We are extremely excited about the opportunities that lie ahead.”