Many brewers regard the brewhouse as the “heart” of a brewery, some even refer to it affectionately as the “living room”. There is certainly some truth in this. As the brewhouse is a particularly complex section, it merits two articles in the context of this series as it is hardly feasible to describe all brewhouse processes in one article. In this first part, brewhouse operations up to and including wort preparation are covered. As usual, a glossary explains some of the technical terms and there is also the usual section with calculations. The results are published in the online forum at www.brauweltinternational.com – “Service/Forum”.

An important criterion for cleaning returnable glass bottles is the time required for the removal of the paper labels. If the adhesive affixing the labels to the surface of the bottles is dissolved too slowly, the labels may be carried into the spray zones of the bottle washing machine, where they can block the spray nozzles and hinder effective cleaning of the bottles. Within the framework of the IGF research project 15343 N, the dissolution of adhesive and removal of different kinds of paper labels from glass bottles was studied by varying a number of factors influencing this process. Subsequently, an expanded model of the removal process for paper labels was developed. This research and the resulting model serves as the basis for a critical review of the relevance of the existing DIN 16524-6 standard for determining the time required for the removal of paper labels [5].

In order to enable real energy saving principles to be applicable to brewing plants of all shapes and sizes, measures to reduce energy consumption include fundamental process alternatives and implementation of new technical solutions. This paper describes an innovative technology that offers an important step-change in brewing; one which saves energy, reduces capital expenditure, and allows brewers to rethink their brewhouse processing technologies.

In the first part of this article (BRAUWELT International no. 6, 2011, pp. 374-379), haze components

Is disinfecting water a question of philosophy? The disinfecting power of UV rays has been known for over 100 years. As far back as 1903, the Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to Niels Finsen for his work in eliminating tuberculosis pathogens with UV rays [1]. UV lamps also quickly found a niche in the beverage industry and served as a means for disinfection, especially of fresh water. This, however, poses the question of why there has been a new wave of interest in UV disinfection of water – after all, the trend had been moving towards chemical and/or electrochemical disinfection methods for some years.

Yeast technology and the resulting yeast quality have a major influence on beer quality produced. The term yeast technology includes propagation of yeast, pitching

For many decades, two lautering systems, the lauter tun and the mash filter, have prevailed worldwide as state-of-the-art mash filtration technology for the wort production in brewhouses, and they are now competing in an almost-monopoly on a high performance level. Manufacturers that have integrated both lautering systems in their portfolio are in a clear competitive advantage, as the characteristics of both systems are fully known and can be very well presented with concrete arguments. Big breweries and brewing companies have recognized long ago which principle of lautering suits which brewery, in which country and under which operating conditions.

1.8 billion hectoliters of beer were produced worldwide in the year 2009. Production has remained fairly steady, but did drop slightly for the first time since 1992 – by almost 10 million hl. Almost all western industrial countries recorded a decrease in beer production volumes. The only “winner” was Asia again, which experienced growth of more than three percent. China was able to increase its production to above 423 million hl and therefore remains unchallenged in the international beer market with the largest production volume. The information was taken from the Barth Hop Report 2009/2010 published by the Barth-Haas Group.

The process of level measuring and monitoring can be based on various technologies – capacity, conductivity, pressure, ultrasonic, light or radar being a few of them. A basic criterion for the choice of the most suitable measuring principle is the medium to be measured. Depending on that, further factors such as measuring or switching and contact or non-contact sensors play an important role.

Gentle Boiling, that is careful wort boiling at low steam pressure and downstream wort treatment using vacuum evaporation. Results presented in part 1 (BRAUWELT International No. 5, 2010, p. 304 – 307) related to downstream wort treatment using vacuum evaporation and to technical-technological results obtained on a commercial scale. In ongoing technological discussions with customers, it emerged on the basis of the very favourable results obtained in production of premium worts that it was worth considering whether gentle wort boiling with low steam pressures, and the associated low wort temperatures, could have an additional positive influence on production of top quality worts.

Gentle Boiling is the long-term systematic development, combining vacuum evaporation technology and low vapour pressure boiling, with vapour pressure in the wort copper during boiling operated at ≤ 0.8 bar g. This system has become established in the brewing industry since Ziemann Ludwigsburg launched it in 2000. This first part of a two-part publication deals with technology of vacuum evaporation. Part 2 will cover the new generation of internal boilers and their influence on the boiling process in modern breweries.