• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • About Craft Brewing Business

Craft Brewing Business

Professional Insight, Unfiltered

  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • COVID-19

Firestone Walker triples per-hour keg output with new keg line

February 19, 2014Chris Crowell

Firestone Walker

Firestone Walker Brewing Co. christened its “Keg Shed,” firing up a dual state-of-the-art keg line that nearly triples the brewery’s per-hour keg output.

“We are always looking for any incremental edge in quality and efficiency, and the Keg Shed is our latest investment in this mission,” said Co-proprietor Adam Firestone.

The Keg Shed is a new kegging-dedicated building adjacent to the brewing facility. The shed’s new keg line is made by leading beer packaging company KHS based in Dortmund, Germany. It features two lanes with nine positions that transition the kegs from cleaning to sterilizing to filling, keeping a total 18 kegs in simultaneous and synchronized motion.

The new keg line is already running at nearly three times the speed of the brewery’s previous line.

The previous keg line located within the brewery cellar is being removed, freeing up cellar space that will now be filled by Firestone Walker’s patented Firestone Union oak barrel fermentation system.

The Keg Shed houses Firestone Walker’s fourth keg line since the brewery was founded in 1996. The first was a single-head, fully manual model that, according to Firestone, “was purchased used and non-functioning.” When it wasn’t breaking down, it could manage up to “several” kegs per hour, “each one lovingly lifted by longtime employee Miguel Ibarra.”

This was followed by a small Mini King line that was still largely manual. Approximately eight years ago, the brewery invested in a KHS line that served the brewery through last month.

The new KHS line improves upon the previous one with the latest internal cleaning and filling technologies, as well as added features such as a touchscreen control panel and automated external cleaning.

“This line was developed in Germany for Hefeweizen kegs, because they’re the heaviest in residual yeast and deposits,” said Brewmaster Matt Brynildson. “So it’s doing the most thorough cleaning possible. We’re getting incredibly good fills in terms of low dissolved oxygen and gentle transfer of beer, so we’re already really excited about how it’s performing.”

keykeg_family_with_mm_coupler-001
Maybe try and boost home keg sales with easily transported, user-friendly plastic kegs?
Allagash Brewing canning line
How Allagash Brewing stepped up its canning line in 2019
KeyKeg_ and UniKeg_ Production Line USA
Plastic keg producer Lightweight Containers rebrands as OneCircle, debuts a new fitting for UniKeg line
If you’re going to own your kegs, maybe get some with style like these Schaefer Containers

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. crsimp01 says

    February 20, 2014 at 8:52 am

    Firestone Walker triples per-hour keg output with new keg line – Craft Brewing Business http://t.co/n7a9I2Aka2

    Log in to Reply
  2. AdvancedLabels says

    February 19, 2014 at 5:47 pm

    RT @CraftBrewingBiz: Firestone Walker triples per-hour keg output with new keg line. http://t.co/N3orE8sF1v @FirestoneWalker

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • Craftpeak launches Square integration within its digital storefront
  • Why (and how) Cabarrus Brewing will stick with online sales post-lockdown
  • Marketing Idea of the Week: CraftHaus Brewery’s scratch ‘n sniff cans
  • Portland Cider Co. donates $12,500 to Hunger-Free Schools

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • libdib online beer distributorWhy (and how) Cabarrus Brewing will stick with online sales post-lockdown
    February 25, 2021
  • craft beer consumer tastesCraft Beer Consumer Habits in February 2021: Are on-site attitudes changing?
    February 24, 2021
  • No and low alcohol beer grew 30+ percent last year, now enjoy some big haps in the NA beer sector
    February 23, 2021
  • How to Seduce a Distributor: The importance of branding, common misconceptions and automatic disqualifiers
    February 22, 2021
  • I would totally sit in a hot tub of hops and drink chill pints at this new beer spa in Denver
    February 18, 2021
  • truly hard seltzer‘Truly’ crushing it: Boston Beer nets over $1.7 billion in 2020 revenue
    February 18, 2021

Footer

  • Email Newsletter Sign Up
  • About Craft Brewing Business
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise on Craft Brewing Business
  • Media Kit Download
  • Privacy and Terms

© 2021 · CBB Media LLC

Continue ...

sponsored by