Commercial brewing

Alfa Laval’s commercial brewing expertise and equipment – developed over decades of delivering solutions for the sector – enables customers to make great beer while boosting yields and hitting sustainability targets. Commercial brewers need efficiency, reliability, and consistency on an industrial scale. We offer this, whether it’s through the supply of components and modules or by delivering turnkey projects, combining detailed process knowledge and unrivalled systems and technologies.

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Brewing on an industrial scale

From the brewhouse to packaging, Alfa Laval is driven to pioneer a positive impact, enabling commercial brewers to achieve viable, flexible and sustainable operations while adapting to ever-changing consumer demand. 

Understanding the many challenges commercial brewers face is key to Alfa Laval’s partnership working, as this leads to dynamic, targeted solutions, whether through the supply of new equipment or upgrading and servicing existing production sites. 

Partnering with Alfa Laval gives commercial brewers access to expertise and solutions that will open the door to scaled-up, diversified production and innovative circular systems to brew beer with maximum up-time, energy recovery and water reutilization.  

This fleet-footed and flexible approach gives a sustainable, competitive advantage, allowing customers to improve yield in an ever-changing marketplace, while still focusing on the continuous optimization of energy efficiency, carbon footprint, water use and waste. 

Brewhouse 

The drive for profitable and sustainable operations begins in the brewhouse, where Alfa Laval is continually innovating and optimizing its equipment. 

Commercial brewing faces significant sustainability challenges here, with the potential for high energy usage, ingredient loss, excessive water consumption and spoilage. Cleaning and fouling can also impact process times. 

Alfa Laval delivers the big solutions across the piece that pave the way to making great beer while tackling these major challenges to maximize water use and save energy. 

Using the latest technology, Alfa Laval decanters dewater spent grains, its plate heat exchangers power energy recovery systems, rotary jet heads improve efficiency and hygiene, and intelligent whirlpool systems improve wort clarity before cooling. 

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pouring beer from tap

Cold block 

Commercial brewing operations need consistent, reliable and effective equipment that will meet the challenges of operating at scale. 

Commercial brewers require consistently high-quality yeast and efficient hygiene control that will save on water and energy in the cold block, especially in the fermentation and maturation phases. 

Challenges such as foaming, process inconsistency, subpar hygiene, lengthy sedimentation time, beer loss and excess yeast can be effectively tackled with Alfa Laval’s world-class product portfolio of rotary jet heads, separators, coolers, tanks and more. 

Tank cleaning upgrade cuts water consumption by 17%

In light of increasing pressures on freshwater resources, a leading US based brewery group has committed to increasing water efficiency and cutting water consumption in its operations. One of the water-saving measures focused on optimizing the tank cleaning process. The installation of new rotary jet heads from Alfa Laval reduced water consumption for tank cleaning by as much as 17%.

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Royal Unibrew trusts Alfa Laval

Royal Unibrew is a European beverage group with an increasingly diverse product portfolio. To meet changing market demands, they have turned to Alfa Laval to deliver fully customized, complete system solutions to modernize their 120-year-old brewery in Faxe, Denmark. A number of successful installations has led to a growing partnership between the two companies and further projects continuously underway.

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How to avoid hop burn and hop creep with the latest technology?

For craft brewers experimenting with new recipes, this means controlling the various aspects and different types of process issues related to dry hopping practices. Not only is the question of how to dry-hop without contamination, but also how to get rid of hop burn and stop hop creep.

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Filtering and treatment 

With consumer tastes broadening and product offerings on the increase, the importance of spoilage and clogging prevention and effectively managing waste, water, and energy during filtering and treatment is greater than ever in commercial brewing. 

Alfa Laval understands the challenges of brewing a wide range of products, from non-alcoholic to strong beers and flavour-infused derivatives. 

Centrifugal separators from Alfa Laval’s Brew Series are unmatched in their flexibility and effectiveness and can deliver solutions to reliably and sustainably produce new products. 

The unique hermetic design of Alfa Laval separators also ensures gentle product handling and the highest standards of hygiene. Pasteurization or sterile filtration eliminates any micro-organisms to enhance shelf-life, product taste, and safety.  

Glasses with different sorts of draught beer

Producing alcohol-free beer with same flavour

As part of its Smart Drinking initiative, Asahi Breweries, one of Japan’s leading brewers, set out to create a beer with little to no alcohol content. Using the Alfa Laval De-alc module, Asahi now produces alcohol-free beer that retains the flavour, body and aroma of the original. De-alc effectively removes the alcohol content from the base beer while preserving its distinctive character, catering to evolving consumer preferences. It allows Asahi to diversify its offerings and expand into the low- to no-alcohol beverage without requiring major capital investment.

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Steps to climate proof your brewery

The adaptation to climate changes and their effect on the availability of water have become mainstream in the brewery industry. “Breweries are increasingly looking at climate proofing their plants – incorporating the risks of climate change into their mitigation and adaptation plans,” says Maria Lindmark, Head of Revos at Alfa Laval.

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Utilities 

The heating, cooling and cleaning of commercial brewing equipment is crucial to the efficiency and quality of operations. This can be water- and energy-intensive and high on chemical use, which is why Alfa Laval supplies innovative solutions to mitigate these impacts. 

Our tank-top systems streamline every stage of the process, and when partnered with the Alfa Laval CIP systems, brewers can optimize sequences, reducing overall water and chemical usage. 

beer glasses on dark table
4 types of seed for barley malt beer

Trends

Commercial brewing is a dynamic environment where new flavours and products are being developed against a backdrop of increasing sustainability demands, with a high priority on saving water and energy. 

Brewers are moving into areas beyond beer, including non-alcoholic brews and functional beverages, and increasing value is being seen in the spent materials from the process that can be extracted for other uses, such as health products.   

The need for an expert partner with a global reach is critical, and Alfa Laval is in place to arm its customers with unique insight and equipment that has been shaped by the very latest issues and drivers impacting the industry, allowing them to manage the different pain points and maximize opportunities. 

Brewers set their sights beyond beer to capture new markets

New ideas and innovation underpinned by experience and expertise across the whole brewing process will be essential for large and small brewers to succeed in a sector that has entered an energizing period of change and evolution.

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Upcycling sustainable protein from brewer’s spent grain

Sustainable sources of high-quality protein are essential in meeting the ever-increasing global demand for healthy, affordable, and nutritious food. Alfa Laval’s expertise within protein makes it an ideal technology and solutions partner in this field.

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Close up of beer poured from tap