Rocky Mountain District Meeting
Wednesday March 12, 2008, 5:30 - 9:00 PM
At New Belgium Brewing Company

500 Linden Street,
Fort Collins, Colorado 80524
Ph: (970) 221-0524
Fx: (970) 221-0535

Author/Presenter:
Jim Spencer

Engineering Director
New Belgium Brewing Company
500 Linden Street,
Fort Collins, Colorado 80524
Ph: (970) 494 7893
E-mail: jspencer@newbelgium.com

Title:
"New Bottling Hall at New Belgium Brewing Company"

Abstract:

The New Belgium Brewery has experienced significant growth in the sale of its beers. This has resulted in the need for additional production capacity, specifically in the packaging operations. As a result of the preliminary design and limitations of the existing building, it was clear that we needed to design and construct a complete new bottling hall and packaging line. The project scope essentially had two separate focuses, one to design a new building with sustainable and environmentally favorable features and the other to engineer a high speed bottling line utilizing the latest available in packaging innovation and technology.

The project efforts began with evaluation of the proper site selection with due consideration to related brewing processes as well as shipping of packaging raw materials and finished goods. The building design had to represent the culture and philosophy established by the company’s founders, Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan. The final architectural design of the building therefore blended sustainability with an aesthetically pleasing Bottling Hall. The outstanding building design features included an integrated lighting strategy, thermal envelope coupled with efficient HVAC equipment and extensive use of recycled material in the building construction.

The design of the packaging line had to accommodate the necessary production capacity to meet the increasing sales growth. The technical features of the new packaging line included a new high speed electronic filler (the first in the US), a new packer based on wrap-around technology with partition insertion (also a first), and the latest in robotics applied in the palletizer operation. The line layout was engineered to provide the greatest amount of flexibility in production and had to be operator friendly.

The layout also allowed capabilities for various package configurations. The improved flexibility included an overall efficiency increase by providing easy and quick change over from six pack cases to loose pack configurations.

Project management was one of the keys to success of this investment, including the deliverables of scope, budget and schedule. The design of the building and bottling line included a great deal of challenging architectural and engineering solutions motivated by our budget and the fast track schedule. The final project results delivered on our expectations of building and equipment design with a start-up in less than 10 months from ground breaking to commissioning, while finishing significantly under the initial budget.

C.V. - Brief:

Jim Spencer received a B.S. degree from the Colorado School of Mines in Chemical Engineering and Master of Business Administration from the University of Colorado.

His career began with Coors Brewing Company in 1986 as a Project Manager and Process Engineer in Golden, Colorado and at the Memphis Brewery in Tennessee. He also worked as the Plant Engineering Manager for the Stroh Brewing Company in Tampa, Florida.

He is currently the Director of Engineering for the New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado. Jim is a contributing author to the latest edition of the Practical Brewer with a chapter on Wort Production.