High capacity, small footprint: GEA develops 20-hectoliter brewhouse for up-and-coming craft brewers

Top performance in a flexible, affordable package

The new brewhouse is a cost-effective alternative to standard GEA brewing systems without compromising on quality and technology. “Demand for this size of brewhouse has taken off. And, unsurprisingly, the source is customers who want to expand their capacities and place great emphasis on batch consistency. But there are also customers who prefer a smaller plant for conducting research based on scalable results and, for instance, developing recipes,” says Andreas Holleber, who heads the brewery business at GEA. “Successfully scaling down the sophisticated technology typical of large breweries, in which GEA has specialized for decades, into this small format is by no means an easy feat.” In fact, the new unit shares the same strengths as the CRAFT-STAR® XL, which delivers a standard cast-out volume of 40 hectoliters. Both make efficient use of raw materials, achieving an extract yield of up to 98 percent while keeping water and energy consumption low. Thanks to the oversized vessels, external wort boiling and addition of a trub dam, craft brewers have the flexibility to create popular highly hopped beers with an elevated alcohol content.

Even the three-vessel standard configuration has an output of four brews per day. “With two brewing days a week and 45 production weeks annually, you’ve already reached a volume of 7,200 hectoliters of wort a year. Increase brewing to four days a week and you will produce 28,800 hectoliters of beer in the same amount of time,” says product manager Markus Kunz. Since the brewhouse can be expanded to five vessels, each with its own whirlpool, plus an additional wort pre-run tank, it’s even possible to produce twelve brews per day. Using this constellation to brew for four days a week over 45 weeks will generate an impressive 43,000-hectoliter volume of hot wort annually.