Welcoming Bertha! TRBC’s Newest Team Member

September 01, 2016

Welcoming Bertha! TRBC’s Newest Team Member

By far the most exciting thing that has happened to us in a while, Bertha means big things for us here down at Tumut River Brewing Co. Bertha -seen here in all her glory- is our new bottling plant which we picked up during mid-August, for a fine price, from our friends at Cavalier Brewing. She is a HDP, four head counter pressure filler and has had a lot of action over the past few years at Cavalier Brewing. If you’ve got a minute please go and check the guys at Cavalier out -you can find them here- because they (and Bertha) have been very good to us and others over the past years.

The boys at Cavalier gladly undertake contract brewing when the demand for an other brewers product reaches past their brewing capacity, and a lot of gypsy brewers also use their venue. A lot of craft beers that have been produced and sold in Australia -especially in Victoria and Melbourne- have come through Cavalier and therefore have also graced Bertha’s bottling track: Kaiju!, Brewcult, Killer Sprocket, Exit, Wolf of the Willows, Hop Nation, Bad Shepherd, Edge Brewing; just to throw in some of Bertha’s big name associates.

Yes we shelled out a good bit of money for Bertha, but it was definitely worth it; why? You may remember our article from last year entitled The What’s and Why’s of Counter Pressure Bottling and if you can remember it’s contents you will recall that counter pressure bottling allows for: better transportation, consistent carbonisation across all bottles and a longer shelf life. It mainly means that each stubby you crack open will taste the same as the last, to the very last drop.

Bertha -the name was given to her by Cavalier and we shall continue to use it- was replaced by Helga, a much larger and more expensive piece of kit that can pump out 3000 stubbies an hour. This may give you an idea of what Bertha was being put through, because she maxes out at 600 stubbies and hour. We are currently only using about half this capacity at present but hope to soon expand to being more efficient with her and use her to her full potential again.

This is a premium device for a small brewery like ourselves and is the first visible step into some larger goings on behind the scenes here at Tumut River Brewing Co. All we’re saying is: watch this space!