Drop the H Brewing Co., Pittsburg, Kan.
RETROFIT TEAM
PIPE INSTALLER: Satterlee
PIPE SUPPLIER: Star Wholesale Supply
MANUFACTURER’S REPRESENTATIVE: Johnson & White Sales Co.
MATERIALS
As a commercial airline pilot, brewery owner Mark McClain is meticulous and researched every aspect of brewery operations, including piping that would carry glycol from his brewery’s process chiller to the facility’s 16 fermentation and serving tanks.
“I knew I wanted a system that was reliable and I really liked Aquatherm’s warranty and its ease of operation,” McClain says. “Although I could have gone cheaper upfront, I know that cheaper is not always what’s best in the long run.”
This project was pipe installer Satterlee’s first experience with Aquatherm pipe, and the company’s installers received training from Brandon LeMasters, outside sales rep for Star Wholesale Supply, and Ryan Epstein, an Aquatherm product specialist at Johnson & White Sales. LeMasters visited the job site regularly throughout the installation.
This project called for 400 feet of 2-inch and 450 feet of 3/4-inch Aquatherm Blue Pipe SDR 11, which was installed from June to September 2019. Satterlee’s crew installed the pipe using two sets of McElroy socket fusion irons and one McElroy Spyder125 fusion machine. One installer worked on the 2-inch mains and another handled the 3/4-inch drops to each piece of equipment.
LeMasters says Satterlee’s team was impressed with the ease and speed of installation, as well as Aquatherm’s light weight. “A 20-foot section of 3/4-inch Aquatherm weighs about a quarter of what the same length of steel pipe weighs,” LeMasters notes. “It’s much easier for the installers to work with.”
“When we did the pressure test, we found no leaks on that entire system with thousands of joints installed,” adds Dale Benedict, a Satterlee project manager.
PIPE MANUFACTURER: Aquatherm
PIPE FUSION TOOL MANUFACTURER: McElroy
THE RETROFIT
An appreciation for German beer inspired McClain to open his own brewery. The name “Drop the H” is a reminder about the brewery’s location in Pittsburg, Kan., not Pittsburgh, Pa.
Beyond ease of installation, performance, warranty and all the other factors that McClain considered, there was another reason he insisted on Aquatherm: the look of the pipe.
“Mark McClain wanted the brewery to look like a showroom, and he loved the colored piping,” Benedict says. “He didn’t like the look of pipe insulation, so we didn’t insulate any of this and we’ve had no problems with condensation even though we’re running 42 F glycol though a 70 F ambient. Mark was very happy about that because it was important to him to show off the pipe’s bright color.”
McClain admits he loved the idea of the modern, blue piping in his 100-plus-year-old building. “We gutted and renovated the building, but we kept many of the rustic elements,” he says. “I like the juxtaposition of the old and the new and the way they play off each other, and I’m happy to say that not only does the blue pipe work great, it looks amazing!”
PHOTOS: Aquatherm