The aroma of Southern German wheat beer or “weissbier” is less dependent upon on the concentrations of individual substances and much more on the interplay of these substances and their overall composition relative to one another. The interplay between esters, higher alcohols and other key components, such as 4-vinyl guaiacol, determine which notes dominate in weissbier. The desired aroma profile (estery-fruity, yeasty, clove-like or neutral) can be achieved by guiding the formation of the respective aroma compounds through technological means. However, some knowledge of the composition of these individual substances is essential. In order to provide breweries with an understanding of how this can be done, the Weihenstephan Research Center for Brewing and Food Quality has offered the “aroma profile” analysis package for several years now.

Have you ever wanted to explore the wild beers of Belgium? Perhaps it’s a bit challenging attempting to drive the highways or take trains and buses around the byways of the Belgium in search of the breweries still producing authentic lambic? What if you could taste all of them – most of them on tap – at one location with like-minded individuals in an agreeable venue? If this is what you seek, then the Weekend der Spontane Gisting (Weekend of Spontaneous Fermentation), organized by the Opstalse Bierpallieters, fits the bill perfectly.

In the previous installment in this series, we discussed the art and science of coopering and choosing the best wood for constructing barrels as well as the contributions of wood to the flavors and aromas of the beverages stored in them. The third installment in this series serves as an introduction to the influence of the microbes living in oaken barrels and to the recent adoption of barrels and other wooden vessels by craft brewers.

International corporations are frequently not only characterized by their size, but by their complexity. Spread over multiple culturally and economically diverse countries, with production plants which have grown heterogeneously over time, beverage manufacturers often face unequal levels of performance and unequal degrees of automation. To achieve global harmonization, corporate standards are rolled out step by step.

The strains used in breweries and their metabolism and metabolites were covered in detail in the article dealing with beer fermentation. This part of the series discusses a different issue relating to yeast i.e. yeast management, in particular for smaller breweries.

In recent years definite changes have taken place in the international beer market. Breweries have tried to expand their outlets and to exploit new markets, which leads to expanded routes of transportation and massively shorter circulation rates of empties. This has a huge impact especially on the sector of draft beer. The following article shows the importance one way kegs have in this context.

Canned beverages are popular worldwide and are enjoying a general growth trend. For perfect filling of any type of can, the KHS Innofill DVD offers a computer-controlled volumetric filling system that has already proven itself worldwide for many years. While retaining a comprehensive list of advantages, the Innofill DVD has undergone further development. Increased availability thanks to minimization of changeover work, faster sanitizing cycles, hygienic design and enhanced automation – these are just a few of the features the new Innofill DVD design boasts.

Japan, the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’, is the forth-largest island state in the world after Indonesia, Madagascar, and Papua New Guinea. The Asahi Group acts as a ‘big player’ within the Japanese beverage market and also in the food and health sector. The company philosophy of only supplying top quality to consumers has hitherto been realized for example by means of KHS equipment, recently in the area of filling, pasteurizing and keg technology.

Since early 2006, the Turkish Süral Group, which operates a chain of hotels on the Turkish Riviera, has been brewing its own beer and indeed bottling it for consumption not only in its own hotels but also for the free market, both national and international. At the beginning of the year 2006, Süral installed a complete Krones beer line for handling both returnable and non-returnable glass bottles. The line has been dimensioned for a speed of 24 000 0.33 l or 0.2 l bottles an hour, and for 20 000 0.5 l bottles an hour.

In March 1992, three Romanian businessmen established a small brewery in Targu Mures – under the name of S.C. Bere Mures S.A. Currently, the company is moving towards 1.5 million hl annual output. The newly installed equipment is geared to reflect this development and to cater for the planned market extension.

The new Tuchenhagen Eco-Matrix piping system described here provides levels of cost effectiveness and savings hitherto not achieved, as well as new efficiency in process plant engineering.