Transcribed by Pennsylvania Brewery Historian, Rich Wagner January 26, 2023.
Note: M. Winter was one of the principals of (PA 575) Winter Brothers Brewing Co. which became part of Pittsburgh B.C. In 1899 and operated as a branch until 1920. See The Western Brewer August 1887 for a description of that new brewery in Pittsburgh.
The Western Brewer September 1903
A New Jersey Brewery, Orange brewery, M. Winter, proprietor.
p. 378 The Orange, N.J. Brewery is Modern and up-to-Date in Every Respect. Descriptions of the Buildings, Mechanical Equipment, Boiler House, Refrigeration, Handling of the Malt and Washing of the Kegs.
Electric Generating Plant for Light and Power.
Caption: View of Orange Brewery (M. Winter, Prop.), Orange, N.J.
Caption: View of Engine Room, Orange Brewery, Orange, N.J.
Caption: Cooker operated by Crocker-Wheeler motor, Orange, N.J.
In the brewing of beer the processes involved require but a small amount of power compared to the size of the apparatus employed, so that, although a rather large building is necessary, a mechanical plant of quite moderate dimensions is capable of supplying the demands for power. Elevating and grinding grain, stirring mash, removing refuse, pumping beer and water, lighting the buildings and refrigerating the finished product while it stands in storage during fermentation, are the principle purposes for which power is needed, and of those all except the last consume relatively small amounts. The Accompanying view of the exterioir of the Orange Brewery, on Prince and Hill Streets, Orange, N.J., gives a fair indication of the size of the buildings, but a better appreciation of the extent of the works may be had from the statement of its producing capacity – 80,000 barrels a year.
The main group of buildings is that shown in the cut and includes the brew house, stock house, machine house, boiler house, wash house and ice house. Besides these there are separate buildings, one of which constitutes an office and bottling house and another the barns and stables. The grounds cover a site approximately the size of an ordinary city block and one very desirably located, the tracks of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad being on one side and a street on the other, thus affording facilities for shipping either by rail or wagon.
In the boiler house there is a double equipment of boilers, one set being of the water-tube and the other of the fire-tube type, both of which were furnished by the E. Keeler Co., Williamsport, Pa. The water tube outfit consists of a three-drum battery of 400-horse power, containing 212 4-inch tubes sixteen feet long and a grate 11x6 feet in area. The other boilers, two in number are of the return tubular form, six feet in diameter and sixteen feet long, each containing seventy 4-inch tubes and having a capacity of 200-horse power. Sectioinal shaking grates, made by the U.S. Grate Bar Co., Elizabeth, N.J., are installed under all the boilers. The smoke connections give into a 6-foot breeching which leads into a stack 125 feet high and six feet in interior diameter. Opposite the boilers against the outer wall is the storage space for coal where it can be conveniently delivered from cars standing on a spur siding close to the building.
Water for all purposes, including boiler-feed, comes originally from two artesian wells 700 feet deep under the building. From these it is first raised by air pressure to a reservoir beneath the wash house, consisting of an iron tank having a capacity of 250 barrels, to be later pumped as it is needed to a 450-barrel storage tank on the roof. That part which eventually becomes boiler-feed is heated by stages prior to its admission to the boilers, the first heating being condenser and oil cooler. The condenser is used in connection with the ammonia compression system of refrigeration and contains 3,590 linear feet of 2-inch pipe disposed in nine banks 21-ft. long and 19 pipes high. The oil cooler forms a twentieth bank in the collection and is two pipes higher, giving 440 linear feet for the cooling of the lubricating oil after it has passed through steam engine, air or ammonia compressor cylinders. From a catch basin below the coils the cooling water drains to a heater outside of the building on the roof of an adjoining section, where, by exhaust steam from the engines, it receives a second heating. It next passes by gravity into a nearby open tank where the dirt and impurities collecting on its surface are removed to the sewer. The rest of the water drains to a closed iron tank in the boiler room to which the suction end of a 7½x5x6 inch Worthington feed pump is connected. Instead of being delivered directly to the boilers by the pump the water is first passed through a second feed-heater located on the roof beside the first and also using exhaust steam. As an alternative to this long and roundabout method of feeding the boilers, an injector may be used to supply them directly with cold water in case of emergency.
Lifting of the water form the wells to the reservoir is accomplished by a 14x16x23-inch air compressor, through a system known as the Bacon air lift. The compressor has a 5-foot fly-wheel running at 36 r.pm.m, and produces a compression of 80 p.s.i.
For making of ice and the cooling of beer De La Vergne refrigerating equipment is used. Tjere are two compressors each having two ammonia cylinders, placed vertically above the shaft, in which the compressions occur on alternative strokes. A horizontal steam cylinder with Corliss-type valve gear operating as a simple slow-speed engine provides the drive. One machine rated with a capacity of 100 tons of refrigeration per day, has a 10-ton. fly-wheel driven at 30 r.p.m. The steam cylinder is 28” in diameter and the stroke 42 inches. The other machine has a capacity of 35 tons of refrigeration per day, a 6-ton fly-wheel, a 22x33-inch cylinder, and runs at about 40 r.p.m. No brine is used in the circulating pipes, all coils being supplied directly with ammonia except those in the fermenting vats which contain water chilled to about 32° F by previous contact with ammonia coils. To keep this water in circulation there is a Tabor centrifugal pump direct-connected to a Crocker-Wheeler bi-polar motor of two horse power running at 975 r.p.m. and pumping against a pressure of about 18 lbs. A 5¼x4¾x6-inch duplex steam pump is cross-connected with the rotary set so that they may be used interchangeably.
The electric generating plant for light and power consists of a 600 kw Crocker-Wheeler continuous-current generator direct-driven by a 12x14-inch Watertown engine, at about 275 r.p.m., and a similar but smaller set with a 30kw generator and an 8x12-inch engine running at 300 r.p.m. Generated at a pressure of 220 volts, the current is utilized for lighting a total of some 250 incandescent lamps and supplying power to 13 motors representing an aggregate of 123 h.p.
The switchboard, shown in the view of the engine room, contains 2 ammeters, one for each generator, and a voltmeter with a double-point switch by which it may be connected to either generator. At the bottom of the board there are two 300-amp. 3-pole, single throw switches for connecting the generators with the bus-bars and two single-pole circuit-breakers, one in the negative lead of each of the generator connections. The field regulating rheostats is directly above the main switches and circuit-breakers, while above the rheostats and below the meters are the distributing feeder switches. These from left to right are as follows: a 25-amp. Switch controlling the current to the engine and boiler rooms, a 100-amp. Switch for the brew and stock rooms a 300-amp. Switch for all brew house motors, a 100-amp. Switch for the bottling house and office, a 100-amp. Switch for the wash and freezing rooms, and a 25-amp. Switch for the stables and barns.
Up to this point the description has been confined to the apparatus either in the boiler or engine houses or very directly associated with their equipment, and covers a part of the machinery that may be classified as the power producing or primary equipment. In the following the power consuming or secondary machinery will be taken up in the order in which it is used in the regular course of the beer manufacture.
Of the principal constituents of beer – malt, hops and water – the first presents the most difficult problem the matter of handling. In this brewery the arrangements are such that from the time the malt is received until its refuse is discarded it is handled entirely by mechanical means. Freight cars bring the malt to the side of the building, where it is delivered through a chute into a hopper at the base of a motor-driven belt and bucket elevator, by which it is taken up and discharged into the top of two large cylindrical iron storage tanks. When about to be used the malt is drawn from the bottom of the tanks and elevated to the top of the building by a second belt and bucket elevator traveling through a system of round sheet iron ducts. To remove dirt and foreign particles it is first put through a cleaner, after which it passes successively by gravity through a grinding mill to crack the shells of the grain; a scale-tank, where the charge is weighed and a mash tub into which the water is introduced, while the mash is agitated by revolving paddles belted to a motor-driven line shaft. After the mashing process the extract of the malt is drawn off through twelve larger brass faucets into the kettle, where the hops are added, and the wort is boiled until the desired point is reached. Finally, a valve below the kettle is opened and the beer runs into a receptacle on the floor below. This contains a strainer through which the liquid is drawn by a Taber rotary pump, at a rate of 4-barrels per minute, and pumped through an all-copper system of piping to the top of the building. It is then allowed to descend over a Baudelot cooler to vats in the fermenting room, where it is kept while that process is undergone, after which it goes into cold storage, then into chop casks and is finally put on the market in smaller barrels, the entire process taking about three months.
The malt remaining in the mash tub after the extract has been withdrawn is a salable by-product of value as a cattle-fattener; consequently for its disposal a scheme was sought which would remove it quickly and economically to an accessible location for intending purchasers. Since the mash while wet is very plastic, it was found that such a scheme was possible through the use of a rotary pump similar to the one for the beer but operated at a slower speed. This forces the mash through a long pipe at the end of which it may be discharged into the customer’s wagons. Bot rotary pumps are belted from a motor-driven line shaft.
Another ingenious mechanical process in use in the brewery is that employed for washing the kegs before refilling. An accompanying cut shows the apparatus in the interior of the wash house with two barrels in position, one being washed on the inside and the other on the outside. For the first the casks are placed on the rinsing machine shown at the right with the upright perforated nozzle projecting through the bung-holes into the interiors of the casks. After a thorough flushing the barrels are removed, filled with water and placed on the self-adjusting rack scrubbing machine for washing the outside. This is provided with four rubber-tired rollers rotating in the same direction and upon these the barrel is placed and caused to revolve in the opposite direction while adjustable brushes with water playing through them are brought to bear against the ends and side. When the barrel is thoroughly cleaned it is rolled down the runway to an inspector who examines the interior with the aid of a slim electric lamp dropped through the bunghole. If the loose dirt is not all removed it is washed over again and if there are any bits of wood or paper too large to be rinsed out they are fished out with a sharp iron rod. The washing machinery was furnished by Chas. Zoller & Co., New York.
The brewery is operated by the Orange Brewery Co. of Orange, N.J., of which Mr. M. Winter is proprietor. The general superintendent is Mr. William F. Wurster and the operating engineer Mr. John Miller. Mr. Oscar Beyer, Chicago, was the architect for the buildings. The principal contractors for the various parts of the work were Kaestner & Co., Chicago, for the conveying apparatus; the De La Vergne Refrigerating Machine Co., N.Y., for the entire refrigerating system; and the Crocker-Wheeler Co., Ampere, N.J. for the generators and all electric motors except those included with machinery under special contracts.