Since it started in the 1980s, refrigeration company Cold Logic has chilled more than 1.6 billion litres of Australian beer. So it makes sense the company won the contract to chill around 11 million litres of beer a year for Pirate Life Brewing.
It’s a long way from when the two companies started working together in 2014, when Pirate Life was just starting out.
The brewer, acquired by Belgian brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) in 2017, has built a $15 million brewery and venue in the historic woolsheds of Port Adelaide in South Australia.
The move from its original Hindmarsh site will see its production quadruple.
The 400kW refrigeration plant – designed and assembled at Cold Logic’s nearby Port Adelaide factory – consists of compressors, a plate heat exchanger, evaporative condenser, glycol tank, and all associated pumps, valves and insulated pipe work.
Cold Logic partner Eddie Lane says the high performance system improves energy efficiency by 30 per cent through reducing the energy required during the brewing and fermenting process.
“Typically refrigeration makes up half of a brewery’s energy use,” Lane says.
“The process utilises the natural refrigerant ammonia, which has no greenhouse warming potential or impact on the ozone layer.”
The energy savings tie in to the brewer’s commitment that 100 per cent of its purchased electricity will be sourced from renewables by 2025.
Pirate Life rounds out four beer industry contracts recently awarded to Cold Logic: 4 Pines Brewing Company (also recently acquired by AB InBev); Australia’s largest independent brewery, Coopers; and contract brewing company Brewpack.
Lane says the food and beverage industry remains its key market. It has a four-year growth plan to reach an annual turnover of $30 million by 2023.
The company also has a dedicated defence division, which is going “from strength to strength”. Its new cooling tower service division has also opened up new market sectors for the company.
