The craft beer market in Japan

In 1994, the year the Japan Craft Beer Association was founded by Ryouji Oda, the Government of Japan eased restrictions on the lowest limit of annual beer production per one brewery from 20 000 hl to 600 hl. As a result, more than 310 microbreweries newly opened and the total annual production of craft beer reached approximately 150 000 hl by 1998. It seemed that craft beer business would expand more and more in the future. However the economic depression restrained overall consumptions of beer. In addition, traditional beer customers who were familiar with “thin” light lagers by mega-breweries resisted to drink flavorful, hoppy, malty and bitter craft beers from microbreweries. Consequently, 25 percent of microbreweries were obliged to withdraw from the craft beer market again.

Producing 81 000 PET containers an hour with a single blow-moulding machine, and dressing and filling them as well in a monobloc comprising a blow-moulder, a labeller and a filler: this is currently the highest output worldwide that a beverage machinery manufacturer can offer. Krones AG already has this output up and running in several beverage plants.

Budweiser Budvar invests in KHS turnkey canning line

Budweiser Budvar brewery is one of the best known breweries in the Czech Republic. It’s also the only brewery in the country owned by the state. According to Petr Samec, PR manager at Budweiser Budvar, “what’s especially important to us is our clear principle of maintaining our premium beer quality – as we have done for centuries. Our great flexibility is another great plus point, enabling us to react to consumer demands very fast.” The most recent example of this can be found in the great growth potential the can holds on both a national and international scale for the brewer. Adam Brož, the master brewer and director of production and technology at Budweiser Budvar, is convinced that the new KHS turnkey canning line keeps them in safe hands concerning flexibility, product quality and sustainability. The Czech state president Václav Klaus could experience this first hand when attending the opening ceremony.

Little Creatures – the brewery on the seafront

Little Creatures has since the turn of the century been driving forward the craft beer movement in Australia. At the facility in a picturesque fishing port, Little Creatures uses Krones technology throughout its entire brewing operations. All the kit has been integrated in a beer hall with a restaurant. Because the beer is so popular, a second brewery is going into operation this year, this time on the south-east coast, a mere 3400 kilometres away from Fremantle, once again featuring Krones technology throughout.

Lambic – the enchanting beer from Belgium

With its roughly 11 million inhabitants, Belgium is one of the smallest countries in Europe; however, despite its size, Belgium’s cultural heritage looms large. Comics by Hergé (Tintin and Snowy), Morris (Lucky Luke) and Peyo (The Smurfs) are popular the world over. Its gastronomic contributions are equally famous, if not more so: pommes frites (french fries), Belgian waffles and pralines and not least the astonishing diversity of its beer culture are all part of the diminutive kingdom’s national treasure it has shared with the rest of the world. Belgian beer flows not only out of the massive kettles and tanks of the giant conglomerates but from innumerable tiny breweries, which have nestled nicely into the “niche of microbreweries”, producing a range of remarkable beer styles. Without a doubt, the exhilarating brewery Cantillon belongs to the latter, at home in the country’s capital of Brussels. An inimitable elixir is formed in its wooden barrels, a sour beer known as lambic, to be savored in a number of distinct variations.

Rapid 3D image analysis of malt raw materials

Raw materials used for the production of beer are natural agricultural commodities. Slightest impurities infect quality and need control such as high speed dynamic 3D image analysis. Impurities can be stones, rice, corn, bugs or any kind of dirt. Shape analysis is often the tool to discriminate them. This article describes the rapid 3D image analysis used by Microtrac Europe GmbH, Meerbusch, Germany.

Model-based efficiency analysis for beverage filling plants

Filling and packaging of beverages and food is one of the last steps in the value added chain in food production. Filling and packaging plants are highly complex linked production lines with individual units achieving outputs of up to 90 000 packs per hour. Stochastic upsets and interruptions cause upsets time and again, leading to downtime of the central unit due to congestions and shortage of material. Plant operators would like to have automatic evaluation of operational data, making direct classification of causes of downtime of the central plant unit possible. Two successive collaborative research projects were carried out in order to get closer to fulfilling this objective. This article explains the project goals and the approach to find a solution. It provides a first overview of results.

Technological acceptance testing and microbiological considerations relating to beverage filling units

Parameters for filling units to be used in acceptance test runs have been set out decades ago in DIN 8782. The definition of effective output in par. 4.3 is given as: “effective output = number of units in perfect condition outputted during the general run time by the machine per unit time on average”. Apart from the legally applicable criteria stipulated in the Pre-Packed Products Regulation, particularly the fill quantity, determination of contractual conditions (relating to what constitutes perfect condition) is a matter to be agreed by the contracting parties in the case of beverage filling units. The important points arising are covered in the following article.

Sustainability and cost reduction by saving compressed air

Energy quotas are already in force in some Asian and Arabic countries today, and this topic will be of great importance in the future. With Airback Plus, KHS Corpoplast has developed a system which helps to reuse much more compressed air from the stretch blow molding process than was previously the case.

“I brew only what I like to drink”

It is not easy to track down a brewery in Austria which can be described as a craft brewery. “What do you mean by craft breweries? Strictly speaking, craft breweries do not exist in Austria”, according to information initially received from the Verband der Brauereien Österreichs (Association of Austrian Breweries), at least not as they exist in the United States, Belgium or Holland. “But there are already a large number of breweries with a creative assortment of products, each with their own taproom and an interesting story,” comes the reassuring response. Small, emerging breweries, some of them with quite innovative beers, are coming out the woodwork. Since the year 2000, the number of small breweries in Austria has almost doubled. About three years ago, the brewery “Schwarzbräu” joined the ranks.

Easy and reliable detection of beer spoilage bacteria

Beer-spoilage bacteria may be the reason