UK Adnams Brewery produces award-winning, low-alcohol beer using GEA AromaPlus
Traveling back in time to 2005 , GEA had previously provided the flexibility demanded by Jonathan Adnams, chairman of Adnams Brewery in Southwold, UK, when he wanted to build a new brewhouse. And in 2014, GEA was asked to help with a new cellar project involving, among other things, the installation of a HOPSTAR® Dry, which thermally accelerates hop isomerization and reduces annual hop expenditure by 15–30 percent.
With a near fifteen-year relationship between them, Adnams called once more on GEA in 2018 to secure their support in producing the first Adnams Brewery low-alcohol beer with an ABV of 0.5 percent or lower.
With a long history of brewing cask ale beers, Jonathan’s great-grandfather and his brother bought the brewery in 1872. But, as he explains: “During the 1990s, we needed to modernize and adapt to current market needs. I wanted a new facility that could deal with a much wider range of raw materials coming into the brewhouse and, sustainably, produce a much wider range of beer styles.”
The new plant had to be built around the existing building while keeping the old brewery going at near-maximum production. EngagingGEA,Adnams selected an innovativeMILLSTAR® wet milling technology, which enabled the company to enhance its performance, introduce more flexibility and improve the quality of their beers. “I was confident that GEA could build this challenging installation in a short period of time,” notesJonathan, adding: “They also helped us to brew an English cask ale in a continental brewhouse and do flavor matching.”
Changing tastes
In 2018, the partnership was revisited when shifting consumer demand revealed a rise in demand fornon-alcoholic beer consumption (a compound annual growth rate [CAGR] of 6 percent between 2013 and 2018, according to Euromonitor International).
Adnams had been experimenting and producing low-alcohol beer since 2011, starting with Solestar, at 2.7 percent ABV. During the next 5 years, they managed to reduce the abv to 0.9percent but, says Head Brewer Fergus Fitzgerald: “We really wanted to drop below 0.5percent and get into that sort of proper low-alcohol territory”
“Since the installation of the new brewhouse in 2006, GEA has installed a lot of equipment for us. We have a really good relationship with them, so when we started talking about brewing low-alcohol beer, they invited us over to see their German customer, Andechs Monastery Brewery, who make a low-alcohol version of their wheat beer using reverse osmosis. The flavor was convincing!”- Fergus Fitzgerald, Head Brewer
- Fergus Fitzgerald, Head Brewer
Not missing out
Tom Evans, Low and No Alcohol Ambassador for Adnams, picks up the story: “An enhanced taste — like real beer — has certainly helped to drive the consumption of low- or non-alcoholic ales. Now, thanks to the new generation of low- and non-alcoholic products, consumers don’t have to lower their standards or simply miss out. Having a beer is a very sociable act and you don’t celebrate a victory with a sports drink — you want a beer!”
Fergus Fitzgerald explains that Adnams wanted to match the flavor and sensation of itsGhost Ship (4.5 percent ABV). “It’s a bestseller,” he says, adding: “It has a hoppy character and bitterness. With vacuum distillation, you're continuously applying heat, which alters the flavor too much.”
The decision to brew a low-alcohol version ofGhost Ship (0.5 percent ABV)is perfectly in line with Adnams’ strong health agenda. Environmentally, the company prides itself on beingthe first UK brewery to complete a full carbon and water lifecycle assessment on their beer range.
The GEA brewhouse bought in 2006 was already equipped with an energy recovery unit, so waste steam from the boiling process was already being used to heat their beer. Adding to that setup, Adnams purchased aGEA AromaPlus Membrane Dealcoholization Unitin March 2018 and, within three months, Ghost Ship Citrus Pale Ale 0.5 percent ABV was ready to market.
Grand results, reduced environmental footprint
Jonathan explains: “With reverse osmosis, we’re doing it cold. In our dealcoholization unit, we use a restricted fermentation brew, which means that we don’t use as much malt and there isn’t a lot of sugar for the yeast to ferment. Plus, we ferment at a colder temperature than normal and at lower yeast pitching rates. Basically, we do everything we can to slow down and restrict the fermentation process, then we add a lot of dry hop. In that way,we can filter out the alcohol and retain the full flavor of the beer.”
To offset the higher energy and water demands of the dealcoholization process, Adnams uses only green electricity. “In the future, we hope to produce our own electricity from our biodigestion unit and reuse the water from the dealcoholization process,” he adds.
So, how did the new brew fare? “It sold out within the first year,” Fergus remembers. International recognition soon followed; in August 2019, Ghost Ship 0.5 percent ABV won gold in the World Beer Awards. Keeping the beer on the shelves has proved to be a challenge, so they’ve nearly doubled their capacity in 2019 and expect to do so again in 2020.
