If we needed to boil craft beer down to 1 phrase, it could most likely be high quality. Ask any craft brewer price their hops what their most important mission is they usually’ll almost certainly reply that they’re making an attempt to provide the very best beer. Whether or not that’s the haziest double New England-style IPA, a session IPA, a DIPA, a barrel-aged magnificence, and even a slow-poured pilsner. What unites all these types is that by the point they attain your lips they style simply as contemporary, simply as carbonated, and simply pretty much as good as when initially brewed.
However oftentimes this is usually a tough problem.
Preserving Beer High quality with Flash Pasteurization
Simply take into consideration the journey of that may (or bottle) you’re about to pop. How did it get to your retailer shelf?
After being packaged, it most likely discovered its approach onto a pallet, made its approach onto a refrigerated truck, after which hopefully ended up in a retailer proprietor’s arms mere days later to stack on the shelf.
However every of these contact factors presents alternatives for oxygen or temperature to have an effect on the standard of the liquid inside. And that’s even when every little thing goes proper alongside the transportation and provide chain.
“The additional your beer is distributed from the brewery, the much less management you’ve got over how your beer is dealt with and cared for,” says Vince Polino, enterprise improvement supervisor for Alfa Laval. “It may sit on a heat shelf for months earlier than getting right into a buyer’s hand, and it may change drastically in that point from what a brewer initially meant.”
For that cause, to actually guarantee the standard of their product, some breweries use flash pasteurization, a expertise that kills any of these potential beer-spoiling micro organism earlier than packaging.
“It’s an insurance coverage coverage,” says Dan Gordon, co-founder and CEO at Gordon Biersch Brewing Co. in San Jose, CA, who has been utilizing flash pasteurization throughout a lot of Gordon Bierch’s merchandise for the previous 20 years. “We’re proud we function in a sterile [environment] daily however you at all times fear…[flash pasteurization] offers you security on shelf life.”
It’s why Gordon bought Alfa Laval’s Flexitherm over twenty years in the past. Which is smart as a result of for years Alfa Laval has led the best way in first-rate computerized pasteurization machines that scale back spoilage and protect beer high quality.
Breweries throughout the nation from Gordon Biersch to Jackie O’s in Ohio have benefited from Alfa Laval’s Flexitherm, bettering the shelf lifetime of their merchandise and in the end producing the very best high quality ales and lagers, barrel-aged beers, and extra.
What Is Alfa Laval’s Flexitherm?
To place it merely: Alfa Laval’s Flexitherm removes doubtlessly dangerous micro organism from a beverage-in-the-making, preserving its high quality.
“Flexitherm is an in-line flash pasteurization module designed to destroy spoiling microorganisms,” says Polino. “It may be used to increase the shelf lifetime of beer, wine, cider, kombucha, laborious seltzer, and different drinks.”
It’s a expertise that Alfa Laval has been offering to its brewery and beverage clients for over thirty years with lots of of installations globally at breweries each small and massive.
Gordon Biersch Companions with the World Chief in Flash Pasteurization
Twenty years in the past Gordon Biersch had an issue. “The day and age of chilly storage all through the availability chain had began eroding,” says Gordon. In different phrases, as soon as beer left the brewery, so many variables may have an effect on the shelf life and high quality that Gordon felt he needed to take issues into his personal arms proper on the supply.
As an example, Gordon Biersch produces a few private-label beers for giant retailers similar to Costco and Dealer Joes the place the availability chain just isn’t refrigerated in any respect. That posed an issue for Gordon Biersch as a result of the dearth of chilly storage may doubtlessly have an effect on their finish product.
So Gordon began surveying a couple of choices.
Not all seemed good: Tunnel pasteurization cooked beer for round forty minutes, accelerating the growing older technique of the product, and sterile filtration truly stripped a beverage of its taste.
However flash pasteurization, however, used a really fast, mild heating course of (usually thirty to sixty seconds) to kill any potential beverage-spoiling micro organism. The least damaging to beer high quality, flash pasteurization additionally saved a whole lot of the beverage’s taste intact.
It kind of appeared like a win-win.
Selecting flash pasteurization, Gordon began searching for a reliable firm, one which made a high-quality flash pasteurization machine that will go the additional mile; he didn’t want to look lengthy.
“In the beginning, you don’t need to go along with something however the perfect once you’re placing your livelihood within the arms of a producer,” says Gordon. “On the time, [Alfa Laval] was the world chief in flash pasteurization.”
Since buying Alfa Laval’s Flexitherm, Gordon says, “we by no means regretted doing this as soon as.”
Gordon Biersch Finds Alfa Laval’s Flexitherm Timeless and “Fool Proof”
In over twenty years, Gordon says he has but to want an improve on Alfa Laval’s Flexitherm.
Which he thinks ought to converse volumes, particularly since Gordon Biersch makes use of the Flexitherm each single day, in response to Gordon.
Whenever you’re buying such a big piece of apparatus, you need to just be sure you make an excellent funding. And in response to Gordon, Alfa Laval’s Flexitherm is as trusty and nicely made because the beer and drinks he’s producing with it day by day. “It’s timeless,” says Gordon. “I don’t assume they do something however high quality.”
One of many largest fears and misconceptions when utilizing a flash pasteurizer is that it’ll change the flavour of the beer.
“There’s a stigma that flash pasteurization may negatively impression the flavour or aroma of your beer or beverage,” says Polino. “I feel folks could be stunned what number of great beers they’ve had that had been pasteurized—of all types!”
Gordon agrees, “We’re working lagers, ales, you identify it [through it] and we see equally good outcomes flavor-wise throughout the board. From a lay particular person’s standpoint, no client can ever inform it’s been flash pasteurized.”
Past the reliable development and persistently profitable outcomes, the Flexitherm is straightforward to make use of and person pleasant. Or as Gordon likes to name it, “fool proof.” All the pieces is automated and entered and tracked digitally. “It actually takes the concerns out,” says Gordon.
Plus, as Gordon has found over time, the functions of the Flexitherm are countless.
Gordon Biersch Makes use of the Flexitherm Throughout a Number of Drinks
Initially Gordon used flash pasteurization on the brewery’s beers.
And it labored like a appeal. However as everyone knows, at the moment’s craft beer trade is about a lot extra than simply beer.
“This can be a piece of apparatus that may value you your online business if it doesn’t work accurately…however we use it in so many alternative functions,” says Gordon, who notes he now runs Gordon Biersch’s spiked seltzer, non-alcoholic (NA) beer, and even laborious cider by way of the Flexitherm.
“If I can clear up apple juice with microbes efficiently each time, that claims rather a lot,” says Gordon.
As a result of every beverage has its personal challenges. “Should you’re making a non-alcoholic or low-alcohol beer or kombucha, alcohol is usually a preservative and chances are you’ll have to take further precautions at very low alcohol ranges to make sure shelf stability,” says Polino. “Or when you’re back-sweetening a cider or laborious seltzer, you run the danger of introducing fermentable sugar to a product with residual yeast—even one yeast cell is all it takes to kick off a brand new fermentation.”
Operating every little thing from kombucha to laborious cider by way of the Flexitherm eliminates these pesky issues and proves the flexibility of Alfa Laval’s expertise.
And Gordon hasn’t been the one one to search out success with the Flexitherm. Midway throughout the nation in Ohio, famend barrel-aged brewery Jackie O’s discovered a completely totally different software for Alfa Laval’s revolutionary expertise.
Jackie O’s Makes use of the Flexitherm to Protect the High quality of Its Barrel-Aged Beers
A number of years in the past, Jackie O’s President Artwork Oestrike had an issue. The brewery’s barrel-aged beers had began to grow to be contaminated. “Barrel growing older beer is a fickle enterprise,” says Oestrike. “You are taking this large lovely imperial stout or barleywine, throw it right into a freshly dumped bourbon barrel, let it sit in our warehouse for ten months, twenty-four months, thirty-six months, and a 12 months and a half after packaging they began to show; they turned bitter after they weren’t presupposed to.”
After the entire laborious work the brewery had put into producing what ought to have been barrel-aged beauties, micro organism and microbes spoiled the get together, forcing the brewery to recall twelve totally different merchandise.
“It was disheartening,” says Oestrike. “I didn’t need to have any extra sleepless nights questioning whether or not these merchandise had been going to show, in the event that they’re going to show, or how they’re going to show.”
So Oestrike began to have a look at his choices to forestall this downside from taking place once more.
And identical to Gordon, he discovered the most effective computerized pasteurization machines within the trade.
“We glance to essentially the most modern leaders within the trade when it comes to what they’re doing to assist breweries alongside the best way,” says Oestrike. “Once we noticed the expertise and the best way the Flexitherm works, it was a no brainer.”
Since investing in a Flexitherm, Oestrike can relaxation straightforward at night time figuring out that after sending Jackie O’s barrel-aged beers by way of the machine, “they’ll be good for years to come back,” says Oestrike. “The Flexitherm Mini flipped our barrel growing older program on its head. We don’t have points anymore. I actually want we had bought that three or 4 years earlier than then as a result of it alleviated a few of these complications that we discovered alongside the best way.”
Based on Polino, Jackie O’s isn’t the one brewery that’s run into this downside with barrel-aged beers. “After the headache and price of recall, the funding in a flash pasteurizer begins to look fairly good,” says Polino.
Oestrike actually agrees, “In the long run the Flexitherm has given us the power to really feel extra snug enjoying round with our barrel-aged merchandise and have that rather more confidence on the finish of the day that these merchandise will likely be shelf steady and scrumptious.”
Alfa Laval’s Flexitherm – An Extraordinarily Power-efficient Flash Pasteurizer
Name this the icing on the proverbial cake, however the Flexitherm is likely one of the most sustainable choices in the marketplace.
“Clearly sustainability is a trademark of all Alfa Laval merchandise and applied sciences both in product design or product function,” says Polino. “Moreover separators or centrifuges, Alfa Laval core applied sciences additionally embody warmth exchangers and fluid dealing with tools like pumps and valves. We use our data and experience of these core applied sciences to design and optimize Flexitherm. Though flash pasteurization is usually a large utility demand in a manufacturing facility, Alfa Laval’s design is extraordinarily energy-efficient, whereas additionally offering mild flash pasteurization of every kind of drinks.” .”
It’s this smaller power footprint that truly tipped the scales for Oestrike at Jackie O’s. “We actually worth power consumption, so once we seemed on the power utilization of the Flexitherm we went in that course as a result of it aligned with how we really feel about sustainability and environmental stewardship.”
The Way forward for Flash Pasteurization with Alfa Laval
For Gordon, flash pasteurization began with preserving the standard of Gordon Biersch’s beer, however branched out into so many different functions. It’s an indication of the way forward for this expertise.
“One fascinating factor is the truth that the [Flexitherm] is over twenty years previous and continues to be related,” says Gordon, who notes that though they’re nonetheless utilizing the very same piece of apparatus they purchased 20 years in the past, Alfa Laval has labored with them to create extra fashionable functions. Equivalent to spiked seltzer, NA beer, and laborious cider. “They’re on a steady enchancment program and we need to make the most of their advances over the past twenty years,” says Gordon.
It’s an encouraging and telling signal, one which prompts the query: What’s the way forward for the Flexitherm?
The reply? Nicely the probabilities are actually countless.
One query that does have a definitive reply: “If we had been to get one other unit, would we purchase one other Flexitherm?” says Gordon. “Completely sure; there isn’t any cause to not stick to a winner.”
