NEWS
Traditionally pioneers since 1845
N°21
november 2014
Dear Readers,
As ever it is a real pleasure for me to present you with our latest
MeuraNews!
In our 21st issue, we take the opportunity to introduce you to three
of our recent projects, each being proof of our strong partnership
with our customers on all continents.
You will also discover how MEURA’s patented Aflosjets technology – one
of the secrets of the unequalled efficiency of our MEURABREWS – is also
amazingly efficient in the revamping of existing brewhouse vessels.
Finally we would be very pleased to extend a warm welcome to you
at our stand at Brau Beviale 2014, to explain our latest developments
in detail.
And of course, as always you will be greeted with a tasty selection
of our very best Belgian beers.
I wish you all pleasant reading and look forward to seeing you in
Nuremberg.
Sincerely yours,
Christian De Brackeleire
Chief Executive Officer
visit us !
7 – Come an d
Hall 7, Stand 54
CO NTE NT
Backus ATE Brewery
p2
Ledenika Brewery
p 4
VBL Tien Giang
p7
Current News
p 8
Backus ATE Brewery
Backus Peru
Not only famous for its Inca heritage, Peru is also
the home of the Backus breweries!
With 5 breweries located throughout the coun-
Among its numerous breweries, ATE Brewery, located in
the capital Lima, is the largest one with a current capacity
of about 9 million hl sales beer. The ATE brewery was built
as a greenfield plant in 1993.
ATE Brewery mainly produces the Cristal brand but also
brands like Pilsen Callao, Pilsen Trujillo, Cusqueña, Barena,…
try (ATE, Motupe, Arequipa, Cusco and Pucallpa
Breweries) the SABMiller owned Backus group is
by far the most important brewer in Peru, with
a market share of about 95 % of the domestic
production. The Peruvian beer market totals
some 14.5 million hl per year!
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MEURANEWS 21
Meura –Backus Milestone
The first Meura 2001 filter in Peru was installed in 1992
in the Rimac brewery. This mash filter has been relocated
to the Motupe brewery in 1996 and finally to the Cusco
brewery in 2010. After integration of the Meura2001 in the
Cusco brewery, that brewhouse became the brewhouse
with the highest extract yield of all Backus breweries.
After the revamping of brewhouse no.2 (14 brews/day)
and maintaining brewhouse no.1 (9 brews/day), the goal of
23 brews a day, 1000 Hl cold wort and 16°P is reality today!
Project and Equipment
The up-graded brewhouse is reaching all process guarantees
inquired by the brewery. The main obtained performances are:
Due to an ever increasing demand, the ATE brewery decided
to extend its production capacity. Meura was awarded
with the brewhouse up-grade allowing to increase the
capacity up to the required volume for the year 2020. The
main reasons to choose for Meura’s technologies was the
high productivity (14 brews/day) and the low total cost of
ownership of the Meura2001 filter. In addition, the brewery decided to install a Carbomill (hammermill under CO2
atmosphere) to further improve the flavor stability of the
final beer. Finally, to reduce the steam consumption of the
brewhouse the decision was taken to install an Ecostripper
(wort stripping), the first in a brewery of the SABMiller group!
Before Meura’s project started, the ATE brewhouse was
based on two brewlines equipped with lauter tuns and
producing 8-9 brews a day per line.
The major target was to maintain the existing capacity
of brewhouse no.1 of 9 brews a day, 1000 Hl cold wort
at 16°P and to increase the capacity in brewhouse no.2
to 14 brews a day, 1000 Hl cold wort at 16°P. This to be
achieved with some new key technologies:
• Very bright wort with a turbidity <10 mg/l
• Extract yield thanks to the fine milling and the Meura
2001 equal to the laboratory yield (2% more than with
the lauter tun line running at only 9 brews per day)
• 14 brews a day thanks to the Meura2001 filter
(occupation time of 100 minutes by average).
• Free DMS average <20 ppb thanks to the high
efficiency of the Ecostripper.
Meura wishes to thank the team
at the Backus ATE brewery for their trust
and for having awarded Meura
with this challenging project!
• Upgrade of the malt handling.
• Carbomill 12 t/hr. Meura’s hammermill with milling
and grist storage under CO2 atmosphere.
•M
echamasher 70 t/hr (mechanichal pre-masher).
•C
ereal cooker.
•M
ash tun.
• Double Meura 2001 Hybrid for 20 tons malt equivalent.
• Wort preheating system.
• Ecostripper (wort stripping).
MEURANEWS 21
3
Meura 2001 Hybrid equipped with a light curtain and a protection screen.
LEDENIKA BREWERY
The Ledenika Brewery is located in Mezdra,
a small Bulgarian city with approx.
12.000 inhabitants, 100km North of Sofia.
It is named after the nearby Ledenika cave,
and passed on its name to its most famous
lager beer, Ledenika.
The brewery was established in 1964. The long relationship
between the brewery and Meura started in the 1980s with
the installation of a complete fermentation cellar including 12 cylindroconical tanks. Ledenika and Meura have
maintained a strong relation since, based on technological
trust and reliability.
In 2011, after a period of financial difficulties, the brewery was
shut down for almost 3 years. Having been acquired by Litex
Commerce in 2013, important investments were needed in
order to restart the beer production. The original brewhouse
was installed in the 1991 by a Czech supplier and in poor
conditions. The new owner contacted Meura and signed in
September 2013 the order for the brewhouse revamping.
Ledenika brewery is the third brewery in Bulgaria installing
Meura’s state-of-the-art technologies. Earlier, the Zagorka
brewery (Heineken), and the Astika brewery (Molson Coors)
decided to work with Meura for their brewhouse revamping
(including a Meura2001 filter).
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MEURANEWS 21
Before the order award, the brewery
requested Meura to audit the equipment and to propose the most suitable
revamping while keeping certain budgetary constraints in mind.
Three major issues were emphasised after the audit:
1. Poor performance of the mash tuns.
The mash tuns had a stainless steel
bottom part, carbon steel steam jackets and a copper dome. In addition
to the low heating speed, the double
jackets had some mechanical issues.
2. The lauter tun had a low extract
yield and was the bottleneck of the
brewhouse.
This Meura state-of-the-art patented
technology enables to heat mash optimally and quickly, irrespective of the
size of the kettle compared to a double
jacket technology and this without
any fouling issue.
We take the opportunity to thank the
new Ledenika team for its trust in our
equipement and team.
Installation of Aflosjets
on the existing mash tun
• Reduction of mash oxidation
and shear forces, thanks to a
gentle mixing
• Reduction of Strecker aldehydes.
• Excellent mash filterability.
• Only a weekly CIP required thus
lower amount of chemicals for
cleaning.
Drilling of holes into the mash tun
To achieve this, Meura supplied the
following technologies:
The patented AFLOSJET technology
works at a low steam pressure.
• Upgrade of the mash tun thanks to
the Aflosjet technology, new hydrator and new low shear agitator
Installation of Aflosjets
• Upgrade of the wort kettle with
an external boiler including
3 hop dosing units.
The function of the agitator with
the AFLOSJET system is no longer to
assure a heat transfer as it is the case
with a double jacket, but to make
sure the brew is homogeneous.
For this reason, the AFLOSJET system
requires a type of agitator different
from the double jacket system.
The automation works and the electrical installation supervision were
achieved with Meura’s partner, the
company Montelektro.
One of the most outstanding aspects
in this project is the installation of the
Meura Aflosjets.
• Ideal solution for a brewhouse
revamping.
Technical description
• A hammermill (Classicmill CLM3)
• M eura 2001 Hybrid mash filter
for throws of 8,5 tons malt (or
malt equivalent)
• R apid and constant rise in
temperature independent
from CIP cycles (equal mash
vessel occupation time all
week long).
• N o fouling issue
3. The wort kettle required a high
evaporation rate. Consequently
the high heat load was reducing
the flavor stability of the final beer.
Meura’s mission was to revamp the
brewhouse by improving the mash
heating, mash filtration and the boiling process. The final target was to
improve the productivity, efficiency
and flavour stability of the final beer.
The AFLOSJET system uses direct
steam diffusion that gently heats
the mash, providing numerous
advantages compared to a conventional system using double jackets:
The system is the ideal solution for a
brewhouse re-vamping. It is installed
without a long halt in production
and is an attractive economical solution compared to the installation of
new conversion vessels.
New mixing device for the mash tun
MEURANEWS 21
5
Today, the Ledenika
brewery is celebrating
its 50th anniversary
and we wish them
all the best for at least
the next 50 years!
Interview with
Miroslav Dinev,
project consultant during the
execution and currently Plant
Manager of Ledenika Brewery
Why did you decide to work with Meura on this project?
I was familiar with the Meura2001 mash filter technology. It was
the initial reason to contact Meura. An important advantage of the
Meura2001 was the opportunity to double the capacity of the brewhouse at a later stage. By choosing the Meura2001 we were able to
produce at least 12 brews a day. In future, we will extend the capacity
just by installing the Aflosjets on the second mash vessel and connecting the existing old wort kettle using a wort holding vessel. With
little additional investment we can easily reach a production of more
than 5000hl cold wort per day.
The Aflosjet technology was explained at the first meetings. We
immediately understood that this innovative system would lead to
savings and a higher profitability of the project.
Thus the performances of the technologies (especially the Meura2001
and Aflosjet) convinced us to decide working with Meura.
How do you evaluate the co-operation with Meura’s team
on this project?
The project went very well. Each of Meura’s specialists was available
at the right time and the co-ordination went very well. Thanks to
the teamwork and the professionalism, the project was launched
on time. After the commissioning we experienced good follow-up
by Meura’s specialists as well.
What is your overall opinion of the project?
The most important thing for us is the positive reception of the
“Ledenika” beer by our customers. They like the beer produced
with the new Meura technology and the new recipe too. That
is the reward for our professionalism and the hard work of all
those involved in the reopening of the brewery and the relaunch
of the Ledenika brand.
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MEURANEWS 21
nam B
iet
wery
re
V
Vietnam is the third
largest beer producer
in Asia, with an annual
production of about
30 million hectolitres
per year!
One of the largest and
fastest growing brewing
groups in the country is
VBL (Vietnam Breweries
Limited), the first in
the premium sector!
VBL Tien Giang
VBL, created as a joint venture between
Heineken (majority shareholder) and
Saigon Trading Group (Satra), owns a
total of 4 breweries including 2 equipped
with a complete Meura brewhouse: VBL
Da Nang (2011) and recently VLB Tien
Giang (2014).
VBL Tien Giang was previously
equipped with an old brewhouse that
no longer could meet the increasing
demand, nor provide high quality of
the end product. The brewery therefore decided to renovate its equipment
and called Meura. The VBL group had
already entrusted Meura with the
order of VBL Da Nang’s new brewhouse
and was highly satisfied with its brand
new equipment.
Meura supplied a turnkey brewhouse
of 440 hl cold wort at 17.5°P, of course
equipped with a Meura 2001 filter. Meura
was supported by Boccard Shanghai in
this project (Meura’s Chinese subsidiary)
that took charge of the equipment for the
raw material handling and an important
part of the brewhouse vessels. The automation supervision based on Brewmaxx
was installed by Montelektro.
VBL Tien Giang has now a capacity of
1.8 million hl and is one of the largest and
most modern of Vietnamese breweries!
We would like to thank VBL for its continued trust in Meura’s team and technologies with this article and we all wish them great success for the future!
MEURANEWS 21
7
Current news
Craft Brewers
conference
Drinktec India
Brau Beviale,
Germany (Nuremberg)
11-13 November 2014
Jeroen Vandenbussche, Chief Commercial
officer, and Mark Plutshack, sales representative attended the Craft Brewers Conference
organised in Denver, USA in April. It was a
great opportunity to meet a lot of American
Craft Brewers and to present our Meura
2001 Micro and Meura 2001 Craft Junior
especially developed for them.
MBAA Bahamas
In March, Christian De
Brackeleire, CEO and
Raul Martinez, Area
Sales Manager, took to
Nassau to participate in the Master Brewers
Association of the Americas convention.
Many interesting contacts were made there!
WDSC Glasglow
Future Events
Jeroen Vandenbuscche, Chief Commercial
O f f icer, accompanied by Wouter
Vermeersh, Area Sales Manager, have exhibited at Drinktec India held in Mumbai.
They shared the booth of Praj Industries,
Meura’s Indian partner and both companies had a successful fair!
China Brew China
Beverage 2014
IBD,
Mozambique
(Maputo)
1-6 March 2015
Craft Brewers
Conference,
USA (Portland)
14-17 April
EBC,
Portugal (Porto)
24-28 May 2015
The China Brew and Beverage fair is held
every two years in Beijing and took place
on 13-16 October 2014. Noah Zhai, Sales &
Marketing Manager of Boccard Shanghai
and Guy Depraetere, Business Unit Manager
of Boccard Shanghai, exhibited there and
had a lot of very interesting meetings!
David Clifford, UK Operations Manager and
Jeroen Vandenbussche, Chief Commercial
Officer, exhibited at the Worldwide Distilled
Spirit Conference organised in Glasgow in
September. This 3-yearly event is the ideal
place to show how Meura also can be a reliable partner to the distilling industry.
Editorial Department :
Editor-in-Chief :
Jeroen VANDENBUSSCHE, Chief Commercial Officer
Managing Editor :
Bénédicte Everaert, Marketing Communication Manager
Design, layout & printing :
Ex nihilo - Belgium
Traditionally pioneers since 1845
Meura S.A . Rond-Point J.-B. Meura, 1 - B-7600 Péruwelz (Belgium) - P: +32 69 88 69 88 - F: +32 69 88 69 80 - [email protected] - www.meura.com