Hood Rive Distillers, Hood River, Ore., is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year with a $2.1 million equipment upgrade. The new equipment will replace two of the distiller's four current production lines with one, faster, more efficient line, it says. Construction on the project began in July, and will replace 1960’s era machinery with new state of the art packaging equipment.

 

“Our equipment upgrade has been in the planning process for years and we are anxious to get the new equipment up and running,” said Ronald Dodge, Hood River Distillers president and chief executive officer. “Our growth has necessitated a move to state-of-the art equipment which will permit greater flexibility over time. These changes will provide the opportunity to enhance packaging and improve production efficiencies.”

 

Hood River says the equipment upgrades and their benefits include:

 

42-valve Monobloc filler and capper: Fills and caps up to 300 bottles per minute

 

Bertolaso Kappa 508 Corker: Applies bar-top corks at 50 to 200 bottles per minute

 

Dynac 6400W accumulator: Three and a half to seven minutes of accumulation time until full

 

Four-station pressure sensitive labeler: Labels up to 250 bottles per minute

 

CI Vision system with reject lane: Identifies label problems and broken tamper rings

 

Hood River Distillers produces more than 1 million cases of spirits each year, including Pendleton Whisky, Yazi Ginger Vodka, Ullr Nordic Libation, HRD Vodka and Monarch spirits.