Go to Brau Beviale 2014 – The Start of the Tour

The Editourmobil is off on its travels again. This time it’s heading in the direction of Italy, North Africa and Spain. As expected, the preparations have once again been characterised by a somewhat hectic atmosphere. With a total of 11 sponsors, the Editourmobil is well provided for. Waldemar Schmitke and I (Alexander Büchler) have decided to tackle Italy for starters. On the way there we look in briefly on Alpla at Hard/Austria and Netstal at Näfels in Switzerland.

The Editourmobil in front of Netstal’s facilities

Making sure but steady progress at 20 km/h, we now have the Alpine crossing behind us and find ourselves travelling through the San Bernadino Tunnel at a height of more than 1600m. Of course, this is nothing compared to crossing the Andes at 5000m on our last tour, but pretty respectable for Europe all the same. The southern side of the Alps welcomes us with temperatures in excess of 20°C which put us in mind of summer. Definitely too warm for the time of year and a very early start to the season for the beverages industry. We arrive in Bergamo that evening, with the intention of visiting Siad the following day. We take a close look at the new compressor and examine the initial prototype at the premises of Fonti Pineta, one of their customers. Here we not only get the chance to experience the new compressor in operation, we also discover a brand new Sidel installation with 12 cavities and an output of 27,000 bottles per hour.

Inside of Fonti Pineta’s bottle plant

It runs super-efficiently on a blow pressure of just 20 bar. Next door in the second hall the Krones machine for 6 packs is working away. It has been operating here for 2 years, long before Krones’ official debut at last year’s drinktec.

We are planning to spend the weekend on Lake Garda. However, finding somewhere to park up proves to be something of a problem. No parking anywhere for campers and caravans and all pitches closed until 1st April – another two weeks-and-a-bit still to go So we park on the street, hoping we don’t get towed away …