Beer production
Beer production is continually evolving as customer tastes shift and product variety expands. What remains constant is the drive to make great beer while saving on costs, water and energy in this resource-intensive industry. Alfa Laval has the beer manufacturing equipment and expertise, developed over decades in the sector, to empower customers – from established industrial producers to pioneering craft breweries – to safely meet these challenges.
Benefits of Alfa Laval’s professional brewery equipment
- Improved control and flexibility to brew a broader range of beers
- Yield boosted by up to 10%
- Reduced water usage in brewing processes by up to 80%
- Reduced energy and waste – from 50% to 80%
- Maximized uptime and serviceability
Whether it’s for the benefit of the world’s largest commercial beer producers or for a family-run craft brewery, Alfa Laval has the know-how and technologies to enable customers to deliver a high-quality beverage, while achieving profitable operations that save on water and energy.
Alfa Laval understands that energy efficiency and responsible water stewardship are central to brewing operations and leverages its decades of experience and expertise to pioneer a positive impact with its unrivalled technology and service.
Brewing smarter: Boosting quality, efficiency, and flexibility
Alfa Laval has a proud history of supporting the very best beer production, and its equipment can support prime performance from the brewhouse to the packaging.
Whether upgrading existing infrastructure or constructing a new facility, by partnering with Alfa Laval, customers will get a competitive advantage from the collaborative development that is geared towards boosting yield and quality while continuously optimizing energy efficiency and minimizing water footprint.
This can help in implementing innovative circular systems to brew great beer with maximum up-time, energy recovery and water reutilization, opening the door to scaled-up, diversified production.
Diversification is important as brewers face the challenge of generational changes among consumers, with an expectation of a wider variety of beers, including an increasing interest in low, non-alcoholic and functional beverages. Flexibility is key, and the Alfa Laval portfolio of world-class equipment, combined with a culture where experts live and breathe the daily challenges of customers, ensures that fleet-footed solutions are delivered continuously by Alfa Laval teams across the globe.
Case stories
Insights
Learning their craft: How Alfa Laval works with brewers to meet industry challenges
Brazil has ~2,000 breweries taking sour and fruit beers mainstream. France is bucking the low-ABV trend with 8% IPAs. And Sweden's craft crowd is brewing under 4% just to keep the party going. Global Sales Manager Joakim Grell has spent years tracking these wildly different craft beer cultures, and what he's learned about staying relevant in a market that reinvents itself every few years might surprise you.
Commercial Brewing Equipment: What Breweries Need for Efficient Production
In the multibillion-dollar commercial beer industry, efficiency is king. When producing at scale, any weaknesses in the brewing process are magnified and can have significant wider impacts; and if production is inefficient, then operations are set on a downward spiral that will not end well unless the issues are addressed.
Optimizing brewery operations
The brewers winning tomorrow are making different decisions today. Water is scarcer. Energy costs more. Consumers want something new. And the margin for inefficiency is gone. This is what operational excellence looks like when the pressure is real, and what the right technology partner makes possible.
The future of beer production
As demand diversifies and sustainability expectations grow, beer production must adapt. Explore how innovative processing solutions are helping brewers reduce resource use, improve yields, and stay competitive in a changing market.
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Questions and answers about beer production solutions & equipment
How can breweries improve recipe reproducibility across flagship, seasonal, and limited-release beers?
Breweries can improve reproducibility through automated process control for separation, yeast handling, carbonation, and blending. This helps ensure consistent quality, flavour, clarity, and alcohol content across batches while providing the flexibility to adapt processes for seasonal and specialty beers. Alfa Laval brew centrifuges support consistency by removing solids without filtration or oxygen pickup, improving yield and helping preserve the character of beers ranging from clear lagers to hazy IPAs.
How can breweries handle more challenging beer styles and increasingly complex recipes?
High hop, ingredient-rich, and specialty beers require precise control of solids, haze, and oxygen. Alfa Laval solutions help breweries manage hop extraction, mixing, contact time, and beer recovery, enabling consistent quality, higher yield, and efficient.
How can breweries bring new beer recipes to market faster?
Breweries can accelerate production by reducing clarification and maturation time. Alfa Laval craft brew centrifuges help accelerate the transition from fermentation to finished beer while freeing up tank capacity, and ProCarb inline carbonation supports faster production with consistent quality.
How can breweries diversify beyond traditional beers into low-alcohol and health-conscious products?
Breweries can expand their product portfolio with de-alcoholization technologies that enable the production of low-alcohol, no-alcohol, and other fermented beverages while preserving flavour, aroma, and mouthfeel. Alfa Laval offers both membrane filtration and stripping-based solutions, helping breweries efficiently enter and scale in the growing low- and no-alcohol market.
How can breweries produce premium beers with consistent quality?
Consistent yeast management, clarification, and hygienic processing help breweries maintain flavour stability, product quality, and shelf life. Alfa Laval solutions support reliable brewing through efficient clarification, yeast management, and hygienic processing, helping breweries achieve consistent flavour, improved shelf life, reduced product loss, and high-quality results batch after batch.
Which process solutions give breweries more flexibility for recipe changes and product innovation?
Breweries gain flexibility through process solutions that support different beer styles and production goals. Alfa Laval's portfolio includes centrifuges for gentle beer clarification, yeast management systems for consistent fermentation, dry hopping solutions for controlled hop extraction, ProCarb inline carbonation for precise carbonation, and de-alcoholization technologies for low- and no-alcohol beverages. Together, these solutions help breweries innovate faster while maintaining quality, consistency, and production efficiency across a wide range of products.
How can breweries reduce energy consumption across the brewing process?
Breweries can reduce energy use through heat recovery and energy-efficient process technologies. Key opportunities include wort boiling, cooling, separation, and de-alcoholization.
For example, Carlsberg reduced steam consumption by around 10% by recovering heat from wort vapour to pre-heat the next batch. Alfa Laval brew centrifuges can reduce energy consumption by up to 60%, or up to 75% with eMotion™. At Royal Unibrew, heat recovery in the de-alcoholization process captures up to 90% of available heat, helping achieve energy consumption below 0.4 kWh/hl.
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