Businesses brew up partnership for project

TWO Yorkshire companies have joined forces to build a new £2m fermenting room extension and 80 barrel brewhouse at a brewery.

Microdat and Watergate (Construction), who worked together on the new Moorhouse brewery, are partnering on the work at Wye Valley brewery.

Specialist brewing engineer Microdat launched in the late 1980’s and has developed a reputation for innovation within the specialist sector of keg and cask packaging in the UK brewing industry.

Watergate was founded in 1998 and has worked in partnership with Microdat in 2009.

Raising a glass: (l-r) Sam Lawson, project engineer at Microdat; Richard Cryer, managing director at Watergate; Vernon Amor, Wye Valley’s managing director; Jimmy Swan, head brewer at Wye Valley; Steve Midgley, managing director at Microdat; and David Hay, senior process engineer at Microdat.

Microdat won the initial design project last year and spent time working with Herefordshire-based Wye Valley’s head brewer, Jimmy Swan, to perfect the plant using its 3D modelling programme.

Mr Swan said: “Microdat and Watergate have successfully delivered a similar project at Moorhouses and we have worked with Microdat for the last 7 years so I can be confident that an open and honest approach throughout the project will deliver a successful outcome.”

Microdat founder and managing director, Steve Midgley, said: ”This plant will again break new grounds as it has been designed to have the lowest running costs possible to deliver 80 barrels of quality Wye Valley real ales.”

Phase one installation of the new plant begins in July.