Page 12 - Food&Drink Magazine November-December 2021

COVER STORY
Business growth and changing consumer preferences saw leading Australian brewery 4 Pines Brewing Company looking for a partner to develop a new filling line. Foodmach provided the solution.
4 Pines’ turbocharges testing
4 Pines Brewing began in 2008 as a 500-litre microbrewery in Manly, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Over the next decade, it grew to become one of the country’s largest independent breweries, and is now part of Asahi Beverages.
The brewery has grown to include multiple venues around Australia while maintaining its agile and innovative position in the market. It runs small batches of new brews at its brewhouse for market testing before moving to large scale production. The smaller batch runs are also ideal for promotional packaging runs at festivals, events, and trade shows.
For chief brewer Chris Willcock and his team, the passion and commitment to quality is as strong as it was when the first beer was brewed.
“We don’t just rely on machines to produce our beer – we say love is the fifth ingredient in a 4 Pines beer – but we will use the finest tech out there to support our aim. We want our beer to be the best every time,” Willcock says
With the ever-increasing demand for its range, 4 Pines started looking at options to upgrade the filling line at its Brookvale brewery.
THE CHALLENGE
One of the drivers behind the upgrade was the shift in consumer preference for canned instead of bottled beer. When
4 Pines began, all its beers were bottled so a shift to a new format meant outsourcing canning. This raised quality control issues for the company, as quality was a key feature of 4 Pines beers in a
crowded and highly competitive market. 4 Pines initially
considered investing in a separate can line, but it would have been costly to purchase and run, requiring more operators, maintenance, and services.
There were also space constraints. Efforts to secure an adjacent factory
were unsuccessful, while available premises for the filler were too far away to pump the beer without presenting technical challenges and impacting on quality.
4 Pines turned to
the market to find a
partner that could
help develop a
solution. Foodmach
came to the table with extensive experience working with breweries and a flexible range of in-house and third- party equipment.
Foodmach also offered 4 Pines its integration and line control expertise, end-to-end in-house services and local service and support.
THE SOLUTION
Over several months, Foodmach and 4 Pines collaborated to develop the new filling line. There were a number of factors Foodmach had to take into consideration: 4 Pines’ sustainability ethos, commitment to quality, and its desire to produce innovative products and packaging – all in a limited space. Ultimately, Foodmach recommended
installing a GEA Vipoll All In One filler. The system is a world-first combined rinser/ filler/capper/seamer in a single monoblock.
The All In One’s multifunctional system can accommodate carbonated and still beverages, hot or and can fill glass
cold filling,
and PET bottles, and cans, in multiple formats. High-speed operation, fast changeovers, and the ability to handle an extraordinary range of containers and closures (while sterilising) fulfilled 4 Pines’ requirement for agility.
As well as saving on overheads, the All in One reduces both the energy used in bottling and canning beer as well as water use. An option is to warm fill at 15°C as opposed to traditional cold filling at 3°C. This feature also delivers significant energy savings as the product does not need to be cooled down as much, nor do the completed containers need to be warmed to above dew point to avoid condensation forming.
12 | Food&Drink business | November - December 2021 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au