Brewing 101: Filtration of beer

If one asks a group of beer drinkers about their preferred beer type – filtered or unfiltered –, the overwhelming majority almost always expresses a preference for unfiltered beer. But if one then asks them about their buying habits when it comes to bottled beer, one learns that the exact opposite is the case. Most consumers prefer to buy filtered beer. An attentive reader might want to know the reason for this. In any event, we cannot adequately deal with this question within the framework of Brewing 101. Let’s just take it for granted. However, this implies that we have to also get to know more about the filtration of beer.

Khmer Brewery takes off

Founded in 2011, Khmer Brewery Ltd. in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh is the brewery from Cambodia for Cambodia. A subsidiary of the Chip Mong Group, it’s firmly in Cambodian hands. Peter Leang, senior executive vice-president of Khmer Brewery, sees his company “clearly as the brewery for our country and its people”. This is also evident from the corporate philosophy: For example, the Beer Cambodia brand gives the people of Cambodia the taste they want from their beer, and the team of employees is 99.99 percent Cambodian. All the campaigns are fully suited to the country and its people. The young brewery invested in no fewer than three KHS turnkey lines: a canning line, a glass line, and a keg system.

High-quality, hygenically designed: The new Innofill Glass Micro

A high-quality bottling machine which is hygienically designed, easy to operate and service, extremely flexible, compact, and robust with a long service life: this is just what small and medium-sized breweries and soft drinks manufacturers want when they invest in new filling technology. And this is exactly what KHS can offer them with the Innofill Glass Micro. Plants that invest in this innovation profit from KHS’ extensive knowledge of high-performance filling technology, among other things, and in conjunction with this from tried-and-tested, low-oxygen filling techniques and proven components which are now being used in fillers in the low to medium capacity range.

People are our greatest asset

The annual office party season is upon us. In the old days, office parties at breweries were raucous affairs. Booze would flow so freely that invariably some would get so drunk that they would snog behind the filing cabinet and pass out under a desk, all the while the boss gave his usual soul-stroking speech about “we are all a big family here”. Did anybody honestly believe him? For the most part, probably not. Fast-forward twenty years and it has become even more of a cliché, rendered hollow by brewers’ changing corporate cultures.

Keg system availability increased

With the patented Innokeg Till One4Two treatment head, the brewer Heineken uses a KHS development which, when properly integrated into the keg washing and racking heads, allows the processing of two different fitting types. This had not been possible in the past: A company with kegs with different fitting types in its range always had to replace the centering cone and fitting plunger in both the washing heads and the filling heads, when it changed from processing kegs with basket fittings to kegs with flat fittings or vice versa – a laborious activity which was very time-consuming and required subsequent CIP cleaning. Heineken has used the KHS Innokeg Till One4Two system at its Volga Brewery in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod for the first time.

Mexico: A country with a lively brewing history

Mexico can look back over a long and eventful brewing history. Many of the beers brewed there can be found on the far corners of the earth. Brewing is known in Mexico since the 16th century, and a large number of breweries have been founded since then. A small fraction of those breweries still exist in Mexico today.

Crown-Baele signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Nanjing Lehui Light Industry Equipment of China (Lehui Group). Under this three-fold agreement, Lehui will manufacture and sell Crown-Baele’s bottle washers worldwide under license; Crown-Baele becomes the sales agent for Lehui’s bottling equipment in Europe, Africa and the Arabic countries and Crown-Baele will be Lehui’s installation and services partner in these same regions.

A rising star in the volatile Swiss beer market

The success story of the beer from the Burgdorfer Brewery is linked to a long local brewing tradition: At the end of the 19th century, three breweries supplied beer to much of Switzerland, Italy and France, giving rise to the town’s nickname of “Little Munich”. Eventually these breweries closed and after a long beer drought in the 1970s, a handful of enthusiasts founded the Burgdorfer Gasthausbrauerei AG, a brewpub, which has flourished beyond all expectation. The foundation of its success has been an extensive customer base, an honest brewing philosophy and a boost from the burgeoning beer renaissance. The renewed emergence in appreciation for hand-crafted beer has led to a 300 percent growth in Swiss breweries.

Sidel has refined its aseptic Combi Predis FMa technology to answer the growing demand of aseptic filling of teas, juices, nectars and isotonics. The new high-speed version will be capable of handling up to 48,000 bottles per hour for small containers of up to 700 milliliters, used mainly for on-the-go consumption. The new High Speed Combi Predis FMa is the ideal solution for markets that require high output and for countries where water resources are scarce.

Determining filtration characteristics of beer and filter aids using the „Filtercheck“

Ever since high-performance filtration of beer has become the norm, filterability of beer has been under discussion by researchers and brewers. In 1990, a “simple new method for evaluating filtration characteristics of beer“ [1] was introduced, this became known in brewing analysis as the “Raible-Test”. Ten years later, a commercial-scale evaluation took place together with a historical review [2,3,4]. The authors came to the conclusion “that the results of laboratory filtration with the Raible apparatus, known meantime as “Filtercheck”, can indeed be regarded as equivalent to commercial-scale filtration so that predictions about the course of filtration can be made”.

New solutions for increased line availability

Lines must run and run and run – often in three-shift operation and with as little downtime as possible. KHS GmbH, Bad Kreuznach, Germany is continuously developing solutions to further increase line availability. The latest developments in this regard are the CleanCycle CIP concept and the accelerated product changeover for the Innopro Paramix C – CSD dosing and blending system (carbonated soft drinks filler). Both new developments contribute considerably to speeding up the processes and therefore to increased line productivity and significant cost reductions.