With some 100 employees and a fully automated process plant, the Schneider Weisse brewery in Kelheim produces its classic top-fermented “Original Weissbier” and other wheat beer specialties with a total volume of 250,000 hl/year. This is Bavarian beer, “Bairisch” with an old-fashioned “I”, as master brewer Hans-Peter Drexler states with a twinkle in the eye. Like his predecessors, he has remained faithful to the 150-year-old original recipe of founding brewer Georg Schneider, because the authentic processes make a glass of Schneider Weisse a very special treat: In the fermenting cellar, the brewers scoop off the rising yeast in open vats where they can closely observe the fermentation process that much determines the aroma of Bavarian wheat beer. The green beer is then not heat-treated as usual, but instead is mixed with active yeast and unfermented wort for weeks of secondary fermentation in the bottle. Only when the cap is already in place does Schneider Weisse gain its desired alcohol and carbon dioxide content – and its important typical sensory characteristics.

For the last three decades, in his function as master brewer and production manager at Schneider Weisse, it has been up to Drexler to meet these challenges. He recognized the advantages of the modular GEA VARIVENT® valve system at an early stage, having heard good things about it while equipping a brewery in Greece. The Kelheim brewers, however, initially held back with far-reaching investments, even though sales markets and production volumes were growing all through the 1990s and logistics were becoming more complex. Around the turn of the millennium, the first additional varieties named “Helle Weisse”, “Kristall Weissbier” and “Leichte Weisse”, were established in the Schneider Weisse portfolio, and the introduction of a dealcoholized variant with a corresponding additional process stage was already being considered. Process modules and pipe connections had grown organically over the decades, while a concept for all this did not yet exist. For Drexler and the process expert Anton Ladenburger, who supported the brewery company as a GEA consultant, the realization was dawning that the Kelheim plant had to be completely rethought in order to meet the increased demands for sterility and safe CIP capability.

In recent years, the brewery has continued to invest and added a new yeast propagation unit and a new bottling plant. The suppliers were directed to specifically use CIP systems with GEA VARIVENT® valve clusters for these stations, too. “Our own yeast is particularly important for our beer,” as the brew master points out. However, ensuring a reliable process there is not the only reason for the brewery to favor the valves from GEA’s Büchen manufacturing plant: “Of course, it has by now become a strategy for us to stick to the system and not just use other components. This is a question of cost-efficient service and spare parts management – our maintenance team puts a strong emphasis on this.” GEA technicians carry out maintenance work according to cycles that have been precisely calculated from comprehensive operating data. These are continuously transmitted from the valve control heads to the electronic plant control system – an additional important protection against failures and malfunctions.