Black Country Ales contacted us with a very interesting job. When they had purchased their premises they inherited three antique fermentation vats that had last been used in 1937. Each of the vats was made up of wooden slats bound together with iron rings like a barrel. Understandably the owners of the brewery did not want to replace these pieces of history, but instead asked if we could make them functional again by lining them and reinforcing their structure. |
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| Each of the vats were badly damaged by woodworm and warping, it was possible to move several of the slats by hand as most of them had quarter inch gaps between them. The vats had been treated for woodworm, but the damage done was so extensive that we could break off pieces of wood with minimal effort. |
The surface of the vats was abraded to remove surface contamination and to provide an improved mechanical key. We applied an epoxy primer to each of the vats, which soaked deep in to the wood and once hardened added to the structural integrity. We used a purpose made resin paste to fill in the gaps between each of the slats where they were evident.
Once theses preparatory works had been completed we lined the vats with fibreglass laminate using a food grade epoxy resin, further increasing the structural integrity of the vats. Finally we applied several top coats of the food grade epoxy resin in a light grey colour. As a finishing touch we embedded the original identification plates into the top coats of resin. |
| The result was three fermentation vats that retained their external look and character, whilst having a high tech modern lining. This meant that they were still able to be used over 100 years after they were first built. |
