A new modular measuring system determines °Brix and CO2 content of non-alcoholic beverages as well as alcohol, extract, original gravity, CO2 content and other important quality parameters in beer, without prior sample preparation. This article describes the instrument design and the functional principle, using examples of measurements.

Cold Aseptic Filling (CAF) requires a filling plant that operates aseptically, with complete absence of germs in the filled containers and plant peripherals ahead of the filling plant that render the product to be filled completely germ-free thermally and keeps it such for a long period of time, before passing it on – cooled down again – to the filling plant. This is the only way of reliably achieving the increasingly long shelf lives of soft drinks, combined with the convenience of light plastic packaging, without addition of preservatives.

Beer drinking enjoyment depends on temperature and appearance, as well as on good taste. Dispensing from kegs has become established practice but damaged kegs or those handled incorrectly during transport can considerably diminish enjoyment of beer and lead to complaints and claims. This report is meant to show up weak points and describe possibilities of integrating a well functioning maintenance and control system in the plant.

Egg Brewery, located in Egg/Vorarlberg Austria, fills beer and lemonade in five different bottle types with various types of closures. The new BKM Varifill 24/KK/6/SV6 short-tube filler provides significant advantages for this medium-sized brewery. Together with data on commissioning, these are presented in the following contribution.

A sensible approach to maintenance is important for preservation of value and improvement of availability of machinery and plant in breweries. Correct decisions within the conflicting pulls of economics – safety – availability assure that costs are minimised and availability of plant is maximised. This involves an optimal mixture of clearance of outages, preventive, condition-orientated and anticipatory maintenance.

Breweries are currently increasingly confronted with a new challenge arising from continuing efforts of marketing departments to achieve greater product differentiation. Individually styled bottles on the market for filling the various products of a brewery create new framework conditions for handling of empties. In this article, a new integrated sorting line from Krones is presented.

The filling process has to be organised that way that the qualitative properties of the product are possibly not altered. Thus, at least the original product quality is maintained during shelf live. Further criteria of filling technology are the filling velocity, which is decisive for production of filling machinery, plus the filling accuracy, which has to meet legal requirements and which has to avoid loss of product due to filling surplus.

As a systems and solutions provider, Krones AG of Neutraubling will show strength in depth at drinktec. International beverage producers are increasingly looking for continuous production plants and a centralised product management. In addition to filling and packaging, Krones will, in future, also focus on offering its competence ranging throughout the whole of beverage production.
As Krones has supplemented its previous main filling and packaging business lines by life cycle service, process engineering, IT, intralogistics and factory planning, customers can now select a competent supplier of complete systems as a partner for major projects. This competence in finding solutions is reflected by the design of the exhibition stand.g. easy operation. ...

KHS has developed a completely new concept for filling non-alcoholic beverages in plastic bottles. This is in the form of a package concept consisting of rinser, filler and closer unit. The system is already configured to handle very diverse plastic bottle sizes. Starting with 0.25 I and going up to 3.0 l, filling capacity ranges from 9,000 to 60,000 plastic bottles per hour. The concept makes it unnecessary to have a classical pre-filler table. All elements previously integrated in the pre-filler table are now part of the modern filler design. Screw conveyors are no longer required. After the infeed starwheel, a feed plate takes over conveying of the PET bottles in the direction of the rinser. The same principle applies to the exit of the PET bottles from the closer area. ...

The objective of filtration is to provide customers with a product which is clear and has a long shelf-life. Kieselguhr, as a conventional medium, is still required for particular applications. In this paper, the development of kieselguhr-free processes and filter equipment will be examined in more detail. Ongoing developments in filtration will continue to occupy many engineers and researchers in future.

Times past, beer was clarified only by natural means, precipitating yeast and haze particles. Towards the end of the 19th century, filtration equipment developed rapidly. An advertisement from 1875 still publicised wire mesh filter sieves (Fig. 1), these could be easily sterilised. Problems associated with contamination spoiling the beer were known in outline. 3). ...

Side impact sensitivity is an important quality criterion of bottle closures, especially for ­carbonated beverages. Bottle closures together with the materials they are made from may differ substantially in terms of side impact sensitivity. Warsteiner Brauerei Haus Cramer KG, Warstein, has ­developed a new test method for measuring this important parameter in the packaging area.

Lateral impact sensitivity of closures may cause leakages when bottles topple over during transport in the filling process or at customers’ premises, e.g. when being transported horizontally in cool bags or when placing them in ice boxes and refrigerators. Up to that time, no generally valid, reproducible test method existed.g. beech).g. beech) (closure pointing downwards). ...