Okell and Son Ltd

During 1994 a brand new brewery was designed and built at Kewaigue on the outskirts of Douglas. The Brewery was designed from the start to be a dual Ale/Lager brewery but the building of the Ale Facility was commenced first. The brewery went into full Ale production in August 94 and the lager brewing facility was then started. Lager brewing commenced in September 95. The Brewery was officially opened on the 12th Jan 96 by the then Chief Minister Sir Miles Walker. The capacity of the Brewery is 10,000 Brls. of Ale and 10,000 Brls of Lager. For its size the Brewery is highly automated with most of the brewing process controlled by PLC's and computers. The majority of the Ale production is cask conditioned. The Brewhouse consists of a Mash Conversion Vessel, Lauter Tun, Copper and Whirlpool. The brewlength is 60 Brls. The Copper is of unusual design as it has a Vapour Condenser to stop the escape of steam and any aromas to the outside of the brewery. It is also heated by an external heater, which is not uncommon in itself, however this one is a wide gap plate and frame heat exchanger which is very rare. The fermentation facility for Ales consists of four 60 Brl. fermenters and one 30 Brl. The lager facility consists of three 120 Brl. conical fermenters and six 120 Brl. Maturation Vessels, there are also two 120 Brl. Bright tanks to feed the kegging plant. There is also a very well equipped Laboratory to back up the Quality Control and Production functions.