WHITSON & SONS’ BREWERY.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 204, 12 September 1874, Page 2

WHITSON & SONS’ BREWERY.

We have recently responded to Messrs. Whitson’s invitation to take a run over their uew brewing establishment in Gisborne, the erection of which is just completed, and we have no hesitation in saying that it is at once one of the most complete, commodious, and unique buildings of the kind in the colony. It stands on the plot of ground fronting to Lowe-street and Read’s Quay, for some time forming the garden to Dr. Nesbitt’s late residence. It is 70 feet long by 26 feet wide, and consists of ground floor and two upper stories. At one end is a kind of tower, 46 feet high, with flights of steps leading to the upper portions. Surmounting this tower are ventilators to convey away steam from the boiling tuns. Close to these are the reservoir, malt copper, and American hoisting apparatus, driven by the engine, for lifting the malt and hops to the top flat. On the top flat is the mash tun, hot water tun, and ale copper; the two latter are boiled by steam coils served from the Engine below. The next flat contains a refrigerating apparatus, which instantly reduces the temperature to any desired degree of coldness. The lower one contains fermenting tuns, crushing mill, and a large grain loft running the whole length of the building. The cellar occupies the whole of the. lower, or ground floor; the Engine itself is comfortably housed in a small building at the foot of the tower. The whole is as complete as ingenuity, experience, and money can make it; it is compact, and faithfully built, and is a credit alike to the enterprise of the proprietors, and to builder—Mr. Morgan—whose name alone is a sufficient guarantee of the excellence and stability of the work. The arrangements for the actual work of brewing are reduced to a system; all the newest improvements have been made and added to the establishment under the personal superintendence of Mr. Whitson senior. The principle upon which the labor of the brewery is economised is at once simple and admirable. All the tedious processes of heating bv fire and cooling by exposure to the atmosphere are here done away with. There is no actual fire on the premises except that used to drive the engine; everything being heated by steam and cooled by water. But to proceed. A twelve horse power engine commences operations by forcing water from the well to the top of the highest portion of the building, where it is lodged in a reservoir to be drawn from thence to the hot water tun. This “ tun” contains 1,600 gallons and inside it is placed a coil of copperpiping about 3 inches in diameter, filled with steam pumped from the engine below; the steam heats the water which is then led into the mashing tun. The system adopted by the Messrs. 1 . Whitson in this process is very different from the old plan of manual labor, where some three or four hands work the mash with poles. A patent mashing machine is now employed, which does the work far more effectually. The liquor, now called wort is then drawn into the wort tun, or ale copper, which is also fitted with a steam coil. Here the wort is again boiled, after which it runs over a refrigerator. This method of cooling deserves a little explanation. About 120 feet of copper tubing, placed horizontally in a kind of ruck in 6 feet lengths one above the other, are filled with a constantly-flowing supply of cold water by means of a pipe leading from the reservoir above. This is preparatory to the wort being turned into a trough at the top of the rack, pierced with small holes, through which the liquor runs on to pipes beneath. On the under side of each pipe is a row of small teeth which conduct the liquor on to the npxt one, and so passing over the 10 lengths it becomes instantly cool, and is conveyed thence to the fermenting tuns. This method of cooling is simple and reduces the work of many hours to a few minutes. In the fermenting room the liquor throws off the yeast, and having now come to maturity is drawn off into hogsheads in the cellar. The beer is then “ racked ” off, that is, run into the casks intended for delivery. The short explanation is that the water after being pumped from the floor to the roof, returns to the floor a manufactured beer. There is no hoisting or lifting except the first; the law of gravitation being so taken advantage of as to utilize it with economy as regards time, labor and capital. Ale brewing commenced yesterday, the first stock of which will be in market in about 10 days. Now comes the fervent, short and pithy grace —“ Here’s luck,” and for ourselves, looking through a glass of Messrs. Whitson’s Auckland brew, as we have just done, we cordially wish them the success in their undertaking that their pluck and enterprise undoubtedly merit.