Karbach Brewing Co. was founded in Houston in 2011. Since then, the brewery has been writing a remarkable success story. After two years, the brewery produced 20,000 hectoliters of beer; for the third year an annual output volume of 40,000 hectoliters was forecasted. At about 47,000 hectoliters the brewhouse reached, however, the limits of its capacity. Consequentially, the brewery decided to expand the capacity by building a new brewhouse and by extending the cellar. Since the end of 2014, both investments have proved themselves in daily practice.
“First of all, we wanted to have more capacity,” summarized Eric Warner, co-founder and brewmaster of Karbach Brewing. “With our 35-hectoliters brewhouse we have been producing beer 24 hours a day, seven days a week. At the same time, we were looking for a brewhouse with higher yields.”
The factor “yield” plays an important role for craft brewers due to the high hop dosing rate.
Warner explained: “In the USA, we are producing very strong beers with cone hops or pellets. Thus, the trub content is correspondingly high. Most whirlpools have difficulties to separate this trub from the wort. With extremely hopped beers, we sometimes had wort losses in the double-digit percentage range.”
From Denver to Houston via Weihenstephan
Eric Warner is a true veteran of the craft beer movement. In the 1980s, Warner, born in Denver decided to jump across the pond to Freising in Bavaria. There, he studied brewing technology at the Technical University of Munich/Weihenstephan and graduated as diploma brewmaster. Afterwards, he held positions in renowned breweries in Germany and the United States. The experience gained in Germany was later reflected in his books “German Wheat Beer” and “Kölsch” — both are now classics of the literature for craft brewers.
Eric Warner is also known for his work at the brewery Flying Dog Brewery in his hometown Denver. There, he brewed successful beer specialties like Snake Dog IPA, Double Dog Double Pale Ale, Gonzo Imperial Porter and Dogtoberfest Märzen, from which the output volume of the brewery quintupled during that time. When Flying Dog moved its production facility to Maryland, Warner decided that it was time to meet new challenges.
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At Karbach, Warner started with three beer types. First, this was Hopadillo IPA with an original gravity of 15.5° Plato and 65 bitter units. Today, Hopadillo is the main brand with a share of approximately 35 percent of the total output. Second, the Weisse Versa Wheat, which is fermented with a German wheat beer yeast and flavored with coriander and citrus peels, like a Belgian Wit. Third, the Sympathy for the Lager — a hopped, German-inspired bottom-fermented lager. Meanwhile, the standard portfolio has grown to five brands. The last one, a Kölsch-type beer, was introduced last year. In addition, two strong beers called “bombers” are offered all the year round. Karbach’s portfolio is completed by seasonal beer specialties, like the Oktoberfestbier and an experimental range of beers, aged in Bourbon or wine barrels. With this portfolio, Karbach Brewing has become a fast growing brewery. Warner explained: “We benefit from the major trend that the Americans do not consume a larger quantity, but a higher quality. This applies to wine, coffee as well as to beer. In this respect, a sustainable change of the consumer behavior can be noticed.”
An interesting detail: Karbach is one of those craft breweries, which mainly uses the 0.33-liter can in a six-pack as packaging instead of the ubiquitous bottle. For Warner, there are many arguments in favor of the beer can. The can is easy to transport, protects the beer against sun rays and does not need a label. Last but not least, Warner is of the opinion that the beer can matches perfectly with the Texan lifestyle: “Texans like to be outdoors.”
Brewhouse equipped with the latest brewing technology
Karbach did not hesitate to equip its new brewhouse with the latest state-of-the-art technology and did not choose equipment and technologies, which have already been on the market for quite some time. The brewery decided in favor of the latest innovations. Warner mentions good reasons for choosing this innovative equipment: “The main craft beer type in the USA certainly is the IPA. But the growing breweries also offer Belgian- or German-style beers. Modern brewhouses provide you with the required flexibility to carry out the optimal brewing processes for all beer types. You are able to produce a classic English Ale with an isothermal infusion process just as well as carry out boiling processes with part of the mash or keep complex rests. All this is possible with highest possible constancy and yield values.”
The brewhouse is designed for a maximum of 12 brews per day, with a cast-out wort volume of 140 hectoliters. With the new tank farm consisting of six CCTs, each with a capacity of 700 hl, the annual production capacity of the brewery is increased to almost 120,000 hectoliters. By retrofitting additional tanks, the capacity of the brewery can be expanded to an annual output of up to 400,000 hectoliters. In addition to the brewhouse and the tanks, the project also included the automation of the plant and the integration of the malt handling.
Click Next for more on specialty dosing, the trub screen and how to get higher yields
Specialty dosing vessel and additional trub screen
The brewhouse was designed with a special focus on the specific requirements of craft brewers. Warner pointed out: “In the planning and design phase, the Ziemann team was very creative and open-minded to our requirements. In our project, for example, a specialty dosing vessel was installed for the first time, with which we cannot add only cone hops, but also dose automatically ingredients like coriander seeds or citrus peels.”
In simple terms, this system consists of a larger dosing vessel with an integrated hop strainer. The hops or the ingredient is placed in this hop strainer, and the vessel is flooded from the bottom to the top with hot wort. After a selectable leaching time, the flavored wort runs off and the hop cone or other solids are reliably maintained in the strainer.
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The dosing can be carried out at different times. At Karbach, the dosage can be carried out during the wort boiling process, during the transfer from the wort kettle to the whirlpool or during the transfer from the whirlpool to the wort cooler. The entire process is fully automated. Only the respective ingredients must be added or removed manually.
A second individual craft brewer solution is the strainer station, installed between the whirlpool and the wort cooler. This station was developed for Karbach as once a year it brews an extremely hopped beer. For these brews, the additional strainers act as a security equipment, which reliably keep back the hot trub from the wort cooler. Thus, high yields can be achieved in this extreme separation process without running the risk that too much hot trub enters into the fermentation cellar. This strainer station operates fully automatically. A pressure transmitter is installed in this strainer unit. If the transmitter gives the signal for an exceeding of the specified limit value, the station switches to the second strainer and the first one is backwashed.
What about the practical experiences? Definitely good!
In addition, Warner pointed out the very short implementation period due to the very high degree of prefabrication in the Ziemann workshop in Germany: “We had a very tight time schedule. The kickoff meeting took place in November 2013. The contract was signed at Christmas 2013. The brewhouse was delivered in August 2014, and the first beer was brewed in November 2014.”
It was one year from the kickoff meeting to the first brew, and what were some of the practical experiences gained in between? Well, the Colibri mash mixer provides a thorough and homogeneous mixing of the dry grist with the water. This is the ideal preparation of the mash for the Lotus lauter tun, which at Karbach must cope with enormous challenges. “We brew beers with an original gravity between 11 and 22 °Plato and the associated malt charges, which also include significant amounts of wheat malt,” explained Warner. “For this purpose, we need a lauter tun, which is able to meet these requirements. With the Lotus, we have the ideal equipment.”
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The Shark wort boiler once again proved itself through its gentle boiling with its controlled energy input and an excellent trub formation. These observations were verified analytically during the technical acceptance of the brewhouse, which the VLB Berlin carried out under the direction of Dr.-Ing. Roland Pahl. For the acceptance test, three Hopadillo brews were analyzed in terms of the performance characteristics and wort parameters according to DIN 8777:2010.
In 80 to 90 percent of the lautering time, the wort turbidity of the analyzed brews was below 40 EBC. This is far better than specified in the standard. The same applies to the solids content. This value was, on average, 50 mg/l and thus significantly less than the maximum value of 100 mg/l, specified in the DIN standard.
With a TBI increase of less than 15 during the actual boiling process and less than 10 during the whirlpool step, only about 50 percent of the allowed values were measured. According to VLB Berlin, these values document a very gentle boiling process. The DMS values between 40 and 50 ppb also meet very well the DIN specifications.
Higher yields, perfect flavor matching and the next expansion stage in sight
The proven whirlpool design with inverse conical bottom and 2° slope also provided an excellent service. During the technological acceptance test, the values for the solids content at the outlet amounted on average to 48 mg/l. For comparison, the recommended maximum value amounts to 70 mg/l. Warner also focused on a second parameter: “Our yields have improved dramatically. The brewhouse technology and the unique whirlpool design help us to get the last drop of wort out of the trub, even with Rodeo Clown, our Double IPA with an original gravity of 21.5° P and 85 bitter units.”
With the new brewhouse, the objective of more yield was achieved, but what about the taste and flavor matching of these successful beers? It must be taken into account that the exchange of the brewhouse and the cellar plant is similar to open-heart surgery. For Warner it wasn’t a big issue: “We managed it very quickly, without many optimizations. Now, the beers even have a rounder, more harmonic taste. In addition, the automated processes ensure a higher quality consistency.”
All in all, it was a long but rewarding step for Karbach Brewing into the 21st century of brewing. Finally, Warner announced that this isn’t the last step: “We are already tackling the next expansion phase and have ordered six additional tanks at Ziemann. At the end of 2015, our annual output was 65,000 hectoliters. Even in the land of opportunity, this is an extraordinary story. A few weeks ago, we celebrated only our fourth anniversary.”
