For an award-winning London based brewery, a move to new premises gave them the opportunity to install a brand-new process cooling system, complete with built-in heat reclaim.

Wild Card Brewery, based in Walthamstow, East London, was founded in 2012. Within just 5 years Wild Card had 2 award winning beers to their name and currently supply supermarkets, pubs, bars and restaurants throughout the UK. They quickly realised that demand for their products was totally outstripping production and moved to new premises, giving them the potential to double their capacity.

Aqua designed and installed an energy efficient temperature control system for the new facility. The system chills the brewing tanks to sub 10°C once the fermentation stage of the process is complete. The chiller unit was designed with built in waste heat recovery, which is achieved by means of a desuperheater. The waste heat created during fermentation is subsequently reclaimed and used at the earlier “mashing” stage which requires water at 70-75°C. The heat reclaim process can achieve 50-55°C which means only a small amount of energy is then needed to top up the temperature to the required 70-75°C.

The new system’s energy credentials enabled Wild Card to successfully secure a £5,000 capital contribution from the Carbon Trust’s Green Business Fund. In addition to this, Aqua’s system is expected to save the brewery £3,000 each year in energy savings.

The full solution included:

• Chiller with desuperheater for built in heat recovery
• Glycol tank
• Pumps
• Individual temperature control systems for each tank – 12 in total
• Bespoke design service
• Support with a Carbon Trust Green Business Fund capital contribution application
• Full installation – including electrical and mechanical works

For Wild Card the system has proved a real success. Head Brewer, Jaega Wise, explains “We’re really pleased with the new system at Lockwood Way, and after starting a crowdfunding campaign to facilitate our move, the annual savings are invaluable to us as an SME. The fact that Aqua are an approved supplier to The Carbon Trust and could help us secure an additional £5,000 funding was invaluable. We’re now looking forward to producing lots more Wild Card beer for everyone!”