The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-06-15
READY TO START.
Visit to the New Brewing Com.
pany's Big Plant.
The Work of Making Beer Commenced
Last Friday Morning.
Model Brewery.

On Friday the Standard Brewing Co.
of Mankato started up its machinery
on a false brew, and on Monday it
began to make beer. While the work
on the plant is by no means completed,
it is far enough along not to enterfere
with the operation of the brewery. The
first beer will be ready for consumption
on Aug. 10th if nothing happens,
which is the birthday of Manager Will
hartz.
A reporter for the Free Press visited
the new brewing company's big plant
day or so ago, and was shown over it
by Mr.. Wilhartz. who seems to take
pleasure in receiving visitors. The
office building was naturally the first
one inspected. The four rooms have
been tastefully decorated and present
an inviting appearance. There is
the business Office, the managers pri-
vate office, the directors room, etc.
Across from the Office is the wash
house, 40 by go feet, where kegs and
barrels will be cleaned by automatic
process They are first soaked in a
tank and then scrubbed on all sides,
and then the inside is cleaned. Next
comes the racking room, where kegs
and barrels are filled and stored until
ready for shipment. The temperature
is kept at about freezing by means OF
the refrigerator plant.
The brew house is the biggest and
most important part of the plant. Down
in the basement the malt and rice used
in the manufacture Of the national
beverage is received and conveyed to q
scale hopper where it is weighed and
then carried by elevators to the top of
the building to be ground and cleaned.
There is also space in the basement for
the storage of empty kegs and barrels.
Here also is the engine and ice machine. |
heaters, drip tanks, electric plant and
boiler room. The hop jack occupies
the first floor of the brew house. The
second floor is occupied by the ammonia
condenser, kettle and mash tub with
Grant pumps. The material room
where fittings are kept is also here,
always locked on account of the value
of it's contents. The big copper and
brass kettle can brew 100 barrels of
beer at brew and can brew four times
day. 1t is cemented with magnesia
The brew master. Richard Sippel, has
his office here. The mash tub has a
formasher. The hop storage room is
over the racking room and is kept at
freezing temperature There is also a
general storage room, adjoining which
are living rooms for several men, in
Guiding two bed rooms, a sitting room
and closet.
The third story of the brew house
has hot and cold water tanks. rice tub
and meal scale hopper, etc. The fourth
floor contains the cleaning, grinding
and scale machinery for malt and rice.
A flag pole is to extend mp fifty feet
beyond the roof and carry flag ten by
twenty feet. The brew house has an
engine for pumping water and beer,
and passenger elevator running from
the basement to the fourth floor. A
whitewashing machine for wh1tewash-
ing the entire plant is kept in this
building.
The machine house was the next one
visited and there II. M. Hunt, the
engineer. and his assistants were
found busily at work. Then came the
bottling house, which is expected to be
made the finest in the state. 1t is to
have the same kind of front as the
brew house. Manager Wilhartz is in
Chicago this week purchasing the
finest bottling machinery that he can
find. The storage space for white and
brown bottles is 20 by 80 feet. and the
same amount of space is given to the
storage of cases. In the rear is the
cooper shop, % by 40 feet.
A general storage building for ma
chinery taken from the oil mill is 20 by
40 feet. The latter contains 700 tons
of ice for storage purposes TO the
east of this is the paint and repair shop,
20 by 25 feet. The malt house is 80 by
$50 feet, three stories high, and is soon
to be made use Of A small building be-
tween the others is to be used for pitch
ing and keg branding.
Then came the big stock house, 30 by |
1870 feet, four stories high above base |
ment. In the basement is the pump
and filters, and on the floors aboye rs
huge casks and tubs that will soon be
filled with beer. On the first floor are
the chip or clarifying casks, on the
second floor the stock or resting tubs,
on the third floor the fermenting tubs |
and an enormous pump, and on the
fourth floor the Baudelot cooler with |
brass and copper coils. Above this
cooler is the surface cooler, q large |