As the saying goes, it’s not the size of the brewhouse that matters, it’s the level of efficiency. Oh, you never got that one? Well, doesn’t make it any less true, which is why we wanted to highlight a couple of these less heralded but ultra-efficient brewing systems that just may lead to the process gains and savings your fledgling brewery needs.
For the high efficiency brewing system (HEBS), the name says it all. The system comes in four sizes (1 hl, 20 hl, 30, hl and 40hl), but the 20 hl is the most popular among customers, According to Jeffrey Gunn, president and CEO for IDD Process & Packaging, this 20 hl system (about 17 bbls) will match up favorably with an equivalent 30 bbl system due to its innovative construction — and can just about double in output to achieve up to 100,000 bbls per year.
“We use 60% less water than a typical mash/ lauter tun brewhouse; we operate with a 95-98% mash efficiency, much higher than mash lauter tun systems,” said Chris Anderson, chief operating officer and brewmaster of Coachella Valley Brewing, which has a current annual capacity of around 7,500 bbls annually. “The boil kettle is jacketed and has an internal collandria, so the boil is quite intense, and we often boil for just 45 minutes without any DMS issues. Obviously with a shortened brew day, the gas consumption to operate our steam generator is lessened by roughly half the time.”
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Coachella is using a 20 hl brewhouse that yields between 40 and 80 bbl batches. Anderson says they have three 40 bbl fermenters and two 40 bbl bright beer tanks, as well as three 80 bbl fermenters and one 80 bbl bright beer tank tank.
“We have achieved the goal of flexibility in our beer production, bettered the expected mean-time between batches and get all our work done with myself and two brewers,” echoes Scotty Morgan, head brewer at Rocks Brewing Co., located in Alexandria, Australia. For Morgan, as great as the mash efficiency is the bonus of brewing flexibility. “There are no 5 a.m. starts and late finishes. My two brewers complain if we are only doing one brew in a day. We deliberately compress all brewing in the early part of the week so we can go eat Pho on a Friday lunch time.”
Pho Fridays are something to celebrate. Morgan and Mark Fethers, owner and founder, got there after eschewing the traditional system they were using, which needed about 270 to 290 minutes in between brews, for their new HEBS, which only needs 130 to 180 minutes.
“We are no longer wort production slaves,” Morgan said. “Coming from a homebrew background, 99 percent of the focus is making wort and the mash tun, with little attention to fermentation and packaging. On the pro scale, you spend an enormous amount of time trying to get wort out, and it can be the greatest bottleneck in the brewery when you are under pressure. What the HEBs does is restore the balance and normalizes wort production, with greater time allowed on downstream activity where we have plenty to do to get the best beer to market that we can.”
Mash filter efficiency
The key to the HEBS is the mash filter. Traditional mash lauter tuns incorporate water and grain together, then the mash sits for an hour saccarafication rest, during which time the grain settles on the screen and allows for the layer of grain to act as a filter bed. The liquid is recirculated to develop clarity and lessen turbidity of the wort. At that point, the wort is run to the kettle and the sparging or rinsing of the mash begins. This will continue until most of the sugars have been rinsed from the grain bed. Some sugar and water are left behind in the grain and discarded in the form of spent grain.
The mash filter is a simple pneumatic press. With a mash filter, HEBS users don’t use a screen. “We mix the grain and the water, however, the grain is ground much finer — we grind our mill to .45 thousands, which is basically equivalent to flour,” Morgan said.
This mash mixture is stirred thoroughly for 45 minutes while saccarafication occurs, and then the team begins to pump the mash into the filter. The filter is setup with a membrane and a companion. The membrane is equipped with essentially a water bladder that, when actuated, will squeeze the grain against the companion sheet and recover almost every drop of wort and doing so at a crazy high level of efficiency.
Morgan said they produce really brite worts, sitting at 91 to 93 efficiency for wort extraction.
“We could probably achieve higher rates, but we are not chasing extract at the moment,” he noted. IDD claims up to 98 percent extraction.
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Rocks Brewing’s big time-saver comes from a 30 minute pass of the wort through the press and into the kettle.
“We have a 10 minute vorlauf step with approximately one-fourth of the mash going into the press, cycling wort back to the mash tun,’ Morgan said. “From there, we close the valve for the vorlauf and pump to the kettle. The key thing is as the mash starts to populate the chambers and it runs off and into the kettle at the same time in 20 to 30 minutes.”
The mash is thin, depending on the amount of grist — a 5.5-7:1 liquor to grist ratio enables it to pass through the diaphragm pump to the filter. For Rocks, standard mash in is 1800-l, and then 600-l is passed through as a sparge.
“With that step done, we run the squeeze, which means the press chambers fill with water and literally squeeze the malt. We end up with a near dry biscuit of grain with little retained water or heat,” Morgan said. “From there, we are at boil within 15 to 20 minutes of the kettle being full, and the process is as normal.”
This type of system also allows for higher amounts of gelatinous grains like rye and wheat, which has brought out creative beers from Coachella Valley Brewing Company, like a wheat/rye wine composed of 96% rye and wheat.
“We regularly run various citrus, dates, berries, yams, pumpkins, nuts and lots of other fruits and vegetables through our mash filter,” Anderson said.
Staff, production improvements
Squeezing more production in a more concentrated period of time creates staff flexibility as well. Coachella Valley Brewing Co. currently runs with two brewers and a cellarman for its 7,500 bbls on two brewing days a week — brewing five batches in a day. Rocks Brewing brews between five to 12 batches a week, using its mix of 40- and 60-hl tanks to brew a single or double into a 40-hl tank, and a double or triple batches into a 60-hl tank.
“We did this so we can be flexible on our beer volumes and work toward selling a tank worth in 3 weeks,” Morgan said. “Production-wise, we are at about 300,000l per full time employee, which is pretty bloody good as at the plant I first started working at was at 80,000l per employee [and keeping in mind a higher cost of doing business in Australia]. On average we run sequential batches in at about a 135-minute intervals.”
Recipe adjustments
Using a unique system like a HEBS, which does things differently, even if it produces efficiency gains, may mean a new approach to brewing your trademark recipes. For example, IDD claims 20 to 35 percent less water usage, 10 to 15 percent less grain used, rapid starch conversion (less than 40 minutes) and 10 percent better hop utilization. If all that comes to pass, you will have a wildly different brewing experience on your hands.
Coachella said there was definitely a learning curve.
“We did have to adjust many of our recipes because the efficiencies were much higher the intensity of the boil certainly had us backing down on hopping as well,” Anderson said. “A lot of brewers are afraid of tannin extraction, and our temperatures and water volumes are very critical and must be precise to prevent any excessive tannin extraction.”
After a few months, the Coachella team was able to dial in processes and procedures to ensure smooth sailing for the first year.
“Since then, our growth has been exponential, and without the HEBS, it flat out would not have been possible,” Anderson said. “We trained many of our brewers on operation of the HEBS upon purchase, and it’s essentially something we have worked hard with IDD in to ensure that others have a greater understanding of this system’s operation, and the do’s and don’ts so they may feel comfortable operating their own system and do so with confidence.
“I want all the craft brewers out there to know that there is another way to make craft beer beyond mash/ lauter systems,” Anderson continued. “There is no need to be afraid of this technology, with some simple know-how and a solid approach, anyone can make solid beer using a mash filter equivalent in quality to any mash/lauter tun brewed beer and brewed in less time, using less raw materials and with a much lessened OH.”
The HEBS is skid mounted, prepiped, prewired and tested at the IDD facilities.The sticker price is definitely higher than comparable systems, but the bet is on the ROI.
For more info, see all the HEBS links on the IDD Process & Packaging website and check out this video link.
For more CBB brewhouse features, check out some of the links below:
Brewing Vessels Reviewed: Commercial lauter tuns with Wolfgang Roth
Bright beer tanks reviewed with Stone Brewing’s Mitch Steele
Brewing Vessels Reviewed: Cylindroconical fermenters remain a craft beer staple
Ninkasi Brewing Co. starts brewing with GEA brewhouse that boasts higher-level of sustainability
