How we make it
A look inside the Foundry Road plant.
1. Water treatment
City water is carbon-filtered and polished by reverse osmosis before it ever touches a bean.
2. Cold extraction
Six 8,000-gallon jacketed extraction tanks hold brew at 38°F for 14 hours. Temperatures, levels and flow are controlled and recorded automatically for every batch.
3. Blending & pasteurization
Batches are blended to spec, then flash-pasteurized through our HTST skid to keep them shelf stable without preservatives.
4. Canning
Three canning lines fill, seam, code and pack up to 1,200 cans a minute. Line 3 adds liquid nitrogen dosing for Black Start Nitro.
5. Clean-in-place
An automated CIP system cleans tanks, lines and fillers between runs with recipes validated by our quality team.
6. Water recovery
Our on-site pretreatment plant neutralizes and recovers process water, returning 62% for cooling and cleaning use.
Built on automation
Cold Start runs on a modern, data-driven plant floor. Our lines are controlled by Allen-Bradley ControlLogix PLCs with operator HMIs on every line, and production data flows into a plant-wide SCADA and historian so supervisors can see OEE, downtime and batch records from anywhere in the building.
Our refrigeration and ammonia systems, boilers and wastewater plant are monitored around the clock from the central control room, and key OEM partners can provide remote support when we need them.
In 2025 we began a multi-year project to modernize the plant network and integrate our production and business systems. Interested in being part of it? We’re hiring controls engineers.
Sustainability at a glance
- 62% process water recovered
- 100% recyclable aluminum cans
- Rooftop solar covers 18% of plant load
- Spent grounds go to local farms for compost