• Windsor & Eton Brewery was established in 2010, and became the first brewery in Windsor since the closure of Burges’s Brewery in 1931. • Since the newly purpose built microbrewery was launched, demand for its traditional cask ales has been rising, with Guardsman selling out at many local pubs and beer festivals. • The brewery has four brews in regular cask production and supplies own-branded beers to numerous public houses in the Berkshire and London area, as well as online retailers. Other popular initiatives have been developed, including the opening of a brewery shop and brewery tours. • Windsor & Eton’s main objective is to produce great traditional cask ales, whilst adopting an efficient brewing process in order to expand distribution throughout the UK. • Windsor & Eton started a brewing process business from scratch and required the implementation of an automated control system, as they had limited automation to critical parts. A modern solution had to be developed purely for the flexible needs of the newly purpose built brewery. • One of the key requirements was to use a company who had extensive experience within Process Automation, and in particular one who had worked within the Brewing Industry before. • The Control System was required to create complete visibility of the entire brewing operation. • It was paramount that the new brewing process ran as efficiently as possible and produced consistent and high quality products. Windsor & Eton Brewery hops into life: CASE STUDY How Cimlogic helped keep the beer flowing at Windsor & Eton Brewery Company Profile The Business Requirements Jim Morrison – Director, Windsor & Eton Brewery “It was a passion of mine to start up a microbrewery from scratch, but we needed to find a company who had extensive experience of process automation as well as working within the brewing industry. Cimlogic was an ideal choice for us, as they fulfilled both of these. Cimlogic had already provided Control Systems for other global brewery organisations, so they were perfectly positioned to provide us with a practical, modern control solution, which was deployed quickly and efficiently within 4 weeks prior to the official opening.”
Transcript
• Windsor & Eton Brewery was established in 2010, and became the first brewery in Windsor since the closure of Burges’s Brewery in 1931.
• Since the newly purpose built microbrewery was launched, demand for its traditional cask ales has been rising, with Guardsman selling out at many local pubs and beer festivals.
• The brewery has four brews in regular cask production and supplies own-branded beers to numerous public houses in the Berkshire and London area, as well as online retailers. Other popular initiatives have been developed, including the opening of a brewery shop and brewery tours.
• Windsor & Eton’s main objective is to produce great traditional cask ales, whilst adopting an efficient brewing process in order to expand distribution throughout the UK.
• Windsor & Eton started a brewing process business from scratch and required the implementation of an automated control system, as they had limited automation to critical parts. A modern solution had to be developed purely for the flexible needs of the newly purpose built brewery.
• One of the key requirements was to use a company who had extensive experience within Process Automation, and in particular one who had worked within the Brewing Industry before.
• The Control System was required to create complete visibility of the entire brewing operation.
• It was paramount that the new brewing process ran as efficiently as possible and produced consistent and high quality products.
Windsor & Eton Brewery hops into life:
CASE STUDY
How Cimlogic helped keep the beer flowing at Windsor & Eton Brewery
Company Profile The Business Requirements
Jim Morrison – Director, Windsor & Eton Brewery
“It was a passion of mine to start up a microbrewery from scratch, but we needed to find a company who had extensive experience of process automation as well as working
within the brewing industry. Cimlogic was an ideal choice for us, as they fulfilled both of these.
Cimlogic had already provided Control Systems for other global brewery organisations, so they were perfectly positioned to provide us with a practical, modern control solution, which was
deployed quickly and efficiently within 4 weeks prior to the official opening.”
• Cimlogic provided a complete Turn-Key Controls Solution, which included the supply and commissioning of PLC and SCADA Systems, using GE Cimplicity and Rockwell CompactLogix within the Brewing Process.
• Part of the solution involved the installation of a web-based remote access system, which allowed the brewer to dial-in to the SCADA system from home. The brewer was able to view and control plant processes remotely, whilst achieving full functionality and remote support. Small companies usually have very limited ability to diagnose and fault find on a SCADA System.
• An SMS alert system was developed and installed by Cimlogic to immediately notify the head brewer of real-time production issues. This timely remote alarm messaging and notification system provided the intelligence to make the best decisions for solving problems quickly and effectively. Such advanced Control Systems and Web Software Technologies are quite uncommon in microbreweries, but are very likely to be used within larger organisations.
• In the infrequent event of a control system failure, the plant can be controlled remotely. This is a major advantage, as small companies are unlikely to get the plant up and running quickly, eliminating the effects of downtime.
“The success of the Control System has enabled us to develop and create the idea of
selling a complete brewery package to other start-up microbreweries. The package includes a full automation
control system design, set up and on-site brewery installation.
We knew that there was a need for microbreweries to move away from manual control processes, and to utilise the
benefits of automatic controls, like Windsor & Eton have – in order to improve quality of the beer and to be able to
compete with the big breweries.
Cimlogic’s modern Control System Solution has helped us and other microbreweries to achieve this.”
The Cimlogic Solution
• The creation of this unique and practical Control System has been so desirable that two other microbreweries have bought copies of the brewery design.
• Windsor & Eton can view trending history for key temperatures, has complete visibility and control of the brewing operation remotely. It has enabled the production of multiple beers without compromising time or quality.
• In the future the system will be further developed into a flexible modular package aimed at a wide range of brewing scenarios.
• Microbreweries can now benefit from automated control systems which result in higher quality products, more efficient production and less human error – creating the ultimate ‘High-Tech Microbrewery’.
• Through marketing initiatives and new product development, Windsor and Eton aims to expand distribution of their beers throughout the UK.
