Think Swiss, think high mountains, chocolate, cheese and watches, spick and span villages with cuckoo clock houses where ZZ Top lookalikes play the Alphorn while the little gnomes of Zürich shunt their gold to and fro in the vaults under Bahnhofstrasse. Don’t we all love these tired and trite clichés about Switzerland, which give us a healthy dose of patronising amusement at the twee-ness of it all? Swiss stereotypes capture much of what Switzerland was and still is – but miss out what it has become: a nation of garagiste brewers. In a country of 7.8 million people there’s over 340 of them already – and rising. When it comes to putting the romance back into the beer, these newly converted show great stubbornness and perseverance. But isn’t that another typecast?

The plastic packaging specialist GIZEH has succeeded in manufacturing multicolour PET bottles on conventional stretch blow moulding machines. For the first time, a conventional two-stage stretch blow moulding plant was equipped with infrared heating in such a way that perfect results could be obtained with the blanks. Up to now these special preforms could only be processed on stretch blow moulding machines with microwave heating. Even heating of the different colour components was only considered to be feasible with this special heating system.

In introducing a platform-based machine concept KHS is launching the next generation of filling machines for glass bottles. The optimized Hygienic Design concept has enhanced the filling quality and line availability through short cleaning times while reducing the cost of maintenance, power, water, and cleaning agents. These achievements are made possible by the use of modern, extremely low wear, and lubrication-free components which have been developed in close cooperation with highly specialized partners.

Water is a major component of food and is fundamental to a multiplicity of industrial processes. However, as less than one percent of the total amount of water available worldwide is suitable for drinking or for food production, industry and private users compete for “clean” water. Depending on the source of raw water, pre-treatment and requirements of particular plant units and also the time of year, the composition and particle content of water to be treated varies. After positive pilot plant testing, the Pall AriaTM FB 12 from Pall GmbH was commissioned in November 2009 as the first unit of its type in a brewery to meet requirements for cost savings in water treatment and filtration.

Committed to quality for 150 years – that’s the König brewery’s philosophy in a nutshell. König Pilsener, König Pilsener Alkoholfrei (alcohol-free) and König Pilsener Radler (shandy) are three premium products on the market which have to satisfy the company’s own high quality requirements. With the latest investment in shrink packer and tray shrink packer lines for the existing canning line, the brewery again chose KHS technology, because, as Guido Christiani, König brewery Production/Engineering Director explains, this includes both know-how and customer service.

Beverage packaging must be practical, hygienic, free of defects and safe. It must also preserve the integrity of the product while meeting the needs and desires of customers and consumers. But this is not all: The environmental impact of beverage packaging has become a decisive factor in production, use and disposal. Technological developments continue to make ongoing optimization possible. Trends in the further improvement of environmentally friendly beverage packaging include conserving the use of raw materials, increasing the reuse of packaging and boosting the portion of recyclable materials in packaging. In addition to this, techniques using high-pressure in conjunction with sustainable materials have been employed.

Just the refreshing “zish” on opening a beverage can transforms it for many consumers into a cult object. Many brewers look upon the round metal packaging as a “mini keg” – protected from light and oxygen, it protects the quality of the beer. It is no surprise that the beverage can is becoming increasingly popular for consumers, also in the German market. In the past year, countrywide can sales increased by 46 percent to about 930 million. The popularity of the beverage can is not only its ability to rediscover itself anew. Cans are more practical nowadays, they offer more stylish designs and have better environmental properties compared to their predecessors of some years ago.

Against the backdrop of the economic crisis, the returnable keg has oftentimes been critically appraised. Breweries are reluctant to commit to relatively high long-term investments. Worries about increased keg prices arising from fluctuations in stainless steel prices, together with increased transport costs, have also led to an examination of cost-effective disposable solutions. The keg maintenance backlog underscored the search for alternatives. A look at the drop in the share of draught beer in some markets appeared to some to indicate that the returnable keg was threatened with extinction. But the situation has changed again recently. This article deals with the background and measures that help to maintain the functionality of returnable kegs at a high level.

The Privatbrauerei Raab in Hofheim, Lower Franconia, Germany, has proved once again that a small, private brewery can also contribute to resource conservation and environmental protection while brewing an almost CO2 neutral beer. So that the “solar beers” not only taste great but are also visually appealing to customers, one year ago, the Privatbrauerei Raab installed a new labeling machine manufactured by Gernep GmbH in Barbing, Germany.

In the BRAUWELT anniversary edition [1] Prof. Dr. Frank-Jürgen Methner reported on the development of beer filtration over the past 25 years and gave a synopsis of the status quo and the prospects for the future for this sector. In BRAUWELT International no. 6, 2011, Alfons Witte will report on practical experience in depth filtration with Becopad [2]. Read the following article and find out how the Greenomic technology has developed since its introduction [3] and in practice.

With its Innokeg Till CombiKeg KHS has launched a compact keg washing and racking machine to the market that houses not only the systems for washing the kegs inside and out and filling them, but also the media tanks, controls, and conveyors. Shipped fully assembled in a standard-size container, the compact keg line can be commissioned in the shortest time.