Spring 2010 has seen two key milestones in the history of Bristol Beer Factory, which continues to grow its business locally at a time when many in the industry are suffering the effects of the recession.

In April Bristol Beer Factory celebrated brewing its 2 millionth pint, just five years after brewing its first. Six weeks later and additional kit has just been installed at the Ashton Gate site which will see fermentation capacity double at the microbrewery.

Simon Bartlett, Managing Director of Bristol Beer Factory, has chosen his former employer, Briggs of Burton, to supply and install 2 twenty barrel fermentation vessels in the brewery building, off North Street in Bristol.

Briggs has an enviable reputation worldwide for supplying quality equipment and is the leading brewery engineer in the UK with an engineering heritage that goes back over 260 years. The Briggs name is synonymous with cutting edge brewhouse design and implementation, and the company have recently been working to supply the burgeoning microbrew industry in the UK.

“It has been brilliant working with Briggs again – in particular Engineering Director, Keith Poynton, who first took me on as a junior site engineer at Briggs back in 1986. We worked then on installing the Courage Bristol brewhouse and it’s great to be working in Bristol together again after 25 years.” comments Simon.

“They were the obvious choice for me, as I already knew their reputation for attention to detail and unparalleled history in the industry. Their recent success working with microbreweries, such as Nottingham University, shows that they have a first rate solution to suit the very specific requirements of the smaller breweries. For me they are quite simply the best in the world.”

Keith Poynton, Engineering Director at Briggs of Burton, adds “Briggs offers total capability, from brewhouse to warehouse and it has been a real pleasure to work with the smaller microbreweries on defining cost effective and energy saving solutions. With my old friend, Simon, we hope that together we have installed a system which will increase Bristol Beer Factory capacity from 40 to 80 barrels a week.”

With increased capacity, the team at Bristol Beer Factory are looking forward to brewing a number of seasonal specials including Mountain Goat IPA (the winner of our Home-Brew Competition), a wheat beer called Bristol Hefe, Southville Hop, an American inspired hop-heads dream and Ultimate Stout, an Imperial Stout that will blow your socks off!