The brewery produces a range of beverages which are designed to be consumed with Indian street food, or on their own. The customer was launching a new lager product into the market, which it was planning to package into cans on its premises. The new development required a solution that would guarantee stabilisation of the lager, to ensure product quality and longevity, but which could be easily installed within its available site space. 

The Parker Solution

Initially, a filter skid was installed at the brewery site by Industrial Process Technologies (IPTL), an official Parker Distribution Partner. However, some initial operational challenges were encountered when using the filtration system, which would have delayed the launch of the lager. Parker’s technical team, working in conjunction with IPTL, was able to advise the brewery on the effective use of the system, enabling it to process the product on time for launch.

The three-stage filtration process began with a trap filter. The product was then passed though Parker’s PREPOR NG filter with a 0.5 micron membrane, which has been designed for pre-stabilisation in the beverage industry and offers fully validated yeast removal and bacterial reduction. The final filter used in the system was a Parker BEVPOR PW with a 0.45 micron membrane. This filter includes an integrated prefiltration layer and offers fully validated microorganism retention. The filter has been designed to stabilize beverages prior to packaging. Combined, these filters offered an optimum filtration solution for the brewery’s requirements.

Building on the advice already provided, Parker’s team developed a set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the brewery to support its team following the installation of the system. This included a SOP for Clean-In-Place and integrity testing procedures. Sterile filtration has numerous advantages over pasteurisation. By adopting a sterile filtration method, the customer was able to reduce the risk of oxidization occurring in the lager it was packaging, thus preserving its flavour qualities in the long term. With brewers facing high energy costs, a solution that could minimise energy consumption was highly desirable and sterile filtration provided this. The level of energy consumption needed to heat beer to the required temperatures during pasteurization is not required for sterile filtration. Another advantage is that the water consumption of a sterile filtration system can be significantly smaller than that of a pasteurisation system.

Beer losses when using sterile filtration can also be significantly lower than flash pasteurisation, as losses can occur if beer is dumped following a shutdown of a pasteurisation system if any abnormalities in pressure, temperature or flow rate are identified.

The Results

As an emerging player in the craft beer market, it was essential that the customer was able to launch its new product with confidence. Parker’s products and specialist technical support, delivered in partnership with Industrial Process Technologies, was instrumental in this, and made the process run smoothly for the brewery. By choosing a sterile filtration system rather than pasteurization equipment, the customer also had space to install a canning line on its premises, making operations more efficient and helping it to take its product to market more rapidly.