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Workers haul a tank on a farm road in King George using a 96-wheel flatbed trailer.
Tugboat captain Mark Douglas drinks a cup of coffee by one of five fermentation tanks brought in by barge on the Rappahannock to a King George landing yesterday. The tanks from Germany are bound for Coors' Shenandoah Valley plant.
Duane Arthur prepares to unload the 78,000-pound fermentation tanks aboard the barge. Forty tanks will be stored at Edward Taylor's farm off State Route 3. |
By RUSTY DENNEN
One by one, they've appeared mysteriously in a field next to the Rappahannock River off State Route 3 in King George County: massive, rocket-ship-like cylinders, lined up nose to tail.
The 19- by 70-foot stainless steel tanks--each weighing 78,000 pounds--have nothing to do with the nation's space program, though passers-by could be excused for imagining that's where they're headed.
These have a much more satisfying and down-to-earth purpose: making beer.
The fermentation tanks, manufactured in Ziemann, Germany, are on the latest leg of a long and complicated journey to the Coors Brewing Co. beer plant at Elkton in the Shenandoah Valley.
"They're gigantic, pretty awesome looking," said Joyce Dussling, manager of Aggregate Industries' Mid-Atlantic plant in King George.
Aggregate Industries, which leases mineral rights from Farmer Edward Taylor, has a dock suitable for barges and is one of the few spots upriver with water deep enough to accommodate them. Altogether 40 tanks will arrive there.
The tanks were shipped from Europe to Hampton Roads and were supposed to go up the James River, and then overland to Elkton.
Then shippers turned their attention to the Rappahannock and docks at Totuskey Creek, downriver in Richmond County. A closer look at the charts revealed an upriver landing in King George.
Two barges carrying five tanks each were unloaded last week and two more arrived this week.
The latest shipment came in yesterday morning. Four more barges will be arriving in the coming weeks.
It takes a crew of nine men over an hour to unload each one.
"You have to make sure the barge is stable; that's the hardest part," said Grover Nash, supervisor for Lockwood Brothers Inc., the Hampton company responsible for transporting the tanks to Elkton.
Big tanks require a big trailer to move them, in this case, a 96-wheel Goldhofer hydraulic flat bed trailer capable of carrying up to 360 tons.
The trailer was backed up a ramp to the barge and under giant pallets supporting each tank. Once secured on the trailer, the tank was ready for the slow trip to the storage area nearby.
Lockwood specializes in big jobs, Nash said, some much bigger than this.
"These are relatively large in size, but we've moved things much heavier," he said. For example, the company shipped a 700-ton steam generator to Dominion power's Millstone nuclear power plant in Connecticut.
It has also moved some historical heavyweights, Nash said, including the turret of the USS Monitor ironclad, and CSS Hunley, a Confederate submarine.
Donnie Stevens, an owner and tug captain of Skiff's Creek Towing Inc. in Hampton, said yesterday's voyage from Warsaw took about 10 hours. The load left Wednesday night.
"The first trip was tough," he said, because the tug was pushing the barge in rain and fog. The last three shipments have been easier because tugs towed the barges, making it easier for the captain to see and navigate.
Coors spokeswoman Aimee Valdez in Golden, Colo., said the Rappahannock was the best choice for this part of the shipment.
"Transport up the river avoids problems with overland travel, such as overhead power lines, tree branches, light poles, etc.," she said.
That is what Lockwood will face on the next leg of the journey, overland from Route 3 to U.S. 29, to U.S. 33, over the Blue Ridge mountains to Elkton.
The company is securing the necessary permits from the Virginia Department of Transportation, and utility companies. No date has been set for the first overland convoy.
Coors, which merged with Canadian beer maker Molson in February, has big plans for its Shenandoah Valley plant, which now does only bottling and packaging.
The fermentation tanks will be key parts of the company's first East Coast brewery, scheduled to open in early 2007. Fermenters receive a pre-beer mixture called wort, to which the brewer adds yeast, converting sugars to alcohol.
Each of the fermenters can handle about 126,000 gallons of wort.
Coors hopes to produce up to 7 million barrels of beer annually, to match the Elkton plant's packaging capacity.
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