Is Kombucha your thing?

Enterprise Tondelli recently supplied and commissioned an automatic Kombucha bottling line for the SynerChi Kombucha Brewery in the district of Gweedore, Donegal, a beautiful, picturesque area and a centre of Irish culture.

SynerChi is Ireland’s original Kombucha brewery and was established in 2012. This had been based on the company ’ s own custom, state-of-the-art, BRCGS A++ facility in Gweedore, Co Donegal Since being established, more than 20 Irish local jobs in the community have been created, and SynerChi has been certified by The Organic Trust to produce organic products

Of its process, the company states: “Our unique micro-brewing craftsmanship produces authentic live kombucha in small batches and without the use of any artificial additives or preservatives. We have nurtured our culture and carefully blended the finest organic teas and tisanes resulting in a perfect synergy of natural ingredients ”

To read the full story visit: https://synerchi.ie/story

Don’t know what kombucha is?

Kombucha is a fermented tea product that is “live” and is generally made from green tea that is fermented with a “SCOBY” - an acronym for ‘Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast’. The product is then enhanced with such natural flavours such as ginger, raspberry, apple etc. There are purported health benefits from the probiotic bacteria in the product and this market continues to grow rapidly

Allegedly kombucha culture can even be dried into bacterial cellulose and then moulded into forms to create seamless clothing!

The new bottling line from Enterprise Tondelli consists of a de-palletising station feeding a rotary three station labeller The labeller from BRB Globus in Italy is fitted with servo-motor-driven bottle platforms so that any future labelling combinations can be accommodated The bottles are labelled before filling as the drinks are carbonated and filled cold This strategy avoids labelling on to bottles with condensation and allows more accurate labelling and better product presentation. A packaged carbonator supplied by Enterprise Tondelli is used to carbonate the final drinks with fine bubbles giving a velvety mouth feel The carbonator uses an in-line with flow meter control for accurate CO2 dosing and a stabilisation tank prior to filling all mounted on a stainless-steel skid Also supplied is a Cimec rotary rinser, counterpressure filler and crowner mounted on the same stainless steel base frame to ensure high product hygiene To enhance shelf life and potentially colour retention a double bottle pre-evacuation system is used with a final injection of CO2. As this is a ‘live’ product cleaning in place is also very important and the filler has special stainless steel dummy bottles For improved worker safety caps are loaded into a hopper at low level and then automatically delivered to the high-level cap unscrambler by a pneumatic pipe system. A two tank CIP set with flow and return pumps and electrically heated tank ensure the system is cleaned effectively with a control panel with timers and temperature settings

Conveyors from Enterprise Tondelli partner Euro Sistemi Srl complete the line to give a turnkey project

Mr Seamus McGowan, factory manager of SynerChi, said: “We are very happy with the line supplied and commissioned by Enterprise Tondelli The result of our collaboration together has been a bottling line to be proud of, giving us gains in efficiency and consistent high-quality production ”

Mr Garry Wilson, senior project manager for Enterprise Tondelli, said: “It has been a pleasure working with Seamus and his team on this small but interesting project. By good cooperation the very best outcome has been achieved ”

Enterprise Tondelli continues to work in partnership with both small and large producers Do you need something like this for your kombucha production or other beverages? Or maybe you need a canning plant. If so, visit the company ’ s website to see the scope of supplyfrom single machines to complete turnkey projects www.enterprisetondelli.co.uk