Stainless steel drainage channels for breweries

BLUCHER CHANNEL with cast stainless grate

Brewing up a stainless steel channel

Set up by Duncan Sambrook, Sambrooks have been brewing in Battersea since 2008, using traditional brewing techniques and the finest English ingredients to produce fresh, local cask and bottle conditioned ales for Londoners and visitors to London alike.

Sambrooks ales are great. However, the channels used to take away the wash down water from the floors within the brewery were not. Even though the polymer  concrete channel with galvanised grating were only 3 years old, the weight of the casks being rolled over the channels  had caused damage to the grates and channel edges and the floor around the channels was starting to crack.  

Following successful installations of BLUCHER channels at Smithfield Meat Market John Entwistle of Entech Services suggested BLUCHER may have the solution for Sambrooks. Enter Paul Cocks, London Technical Representative for BLUCHER. A keen ale lover Paul was almost too happy to visit Sambrooks, to the point that we almost decided that one of us from the office should attend instead. Putting aside our jealousy and with the best man for the job visiting site, Paul concluded that the brewery needed new channel.

As soon as Paul entered the brewery, he saw the problems.The existing channels and channel grates were not up to handling the weight of Sambrooks full casks of ale. In addition, the weight of the cask was also shifting the channels causing the surrounding floor to become unstable and crack. In summary, Sambrooks needed new channel anchored to the surrounding floor with a grate of higher load capacity.  

Paul was soon able to advise the best solution. The BLUCHER 670 stainless steel channel is perfect for concrete, tiled or resin floors. It is hygienic and strong and has proved itself throughout the brewing industrry on many occasions including installations in Heineken, Carlsberg,Coors, Sam Smiths, John Smiths, and a number of other breweries throughout the world.

Resin infill under the folded edge of the channel would solve the issue of the weight of the casks on the channel and a continuous anchor rail along the longitudinal edges of the channel would ensure that the channel was properly tied into the floor. BLUCHER’s unique, simple to clean, cast stainless steel grate which provides a high load capacity and an excellent level of hygiene was the perfect grating solution to compliment the channel 

BLUCHER 670 channel

But before Paul took the measurements and suggested a specification, he had a quick chat with Sean the head brewer to see if he had missed anything. Sean said that wash down took an age, as the water did not run down the channel quickly enough. In other words, the flow rate was not up to scratch either.

Paul adjusted the width and the depth of the channel to provide the required  flow rate, took the relevent site measurements and 2 weeks later Sambrooks took delivery of the BLUCHER 670 channel with continuous anchor rail, infill edges and cast stainless steel grate.