Scaling up craft beer production with uncompromising quality and sustainability

Today’s beer consumers demand variation: more brands, more types of beer, and more exciting flavours. This is an opportunity for breweries, as the new products are often premium-priced. It also brings new challenges to large-scale brewing processes. Carlsberg is one of the leading brewery groups in the world, ready to meet these challenges. With a flexible, high-performance separation process, the company can scale up production of craft beers – swiftly, simply, and without compromising on quality and taste.

DATE 2025-01-30

Challenges to overcome

Brewing craft beer at a large-scale production site, like the Fredericia plant, comes with a new set of challenges for the production process, compared to the more streamlined production of legacy products like pilsner:

  • The process and its equipment must be flexible enough to handle different recipes and ingredients without contamination between products.
  • Oxygen intake must be minimized to live up to high-quality demands, securing the quality and flavour of the different beers.
  • Separation before filtration must be highly efficient to prevent filters from clogging due to high loads of hops and other ingredients. 

Anders Kokholm, Brewmaster at Carlsberg in Fredericia, comments:
"It is challenging to handle several new products in a plant that is made for large-volume production of mostly pilsner. We are now making a number of craft beers in small batches, and rapid changeover is key. And of course, we can’t allow even a hint of flavour to cross over from one beer to another.”

“To adapt our production process, we needed to look for a centrifuge solution that could handle the heavy hop load of many craft beers – ensuring that downstream filtration is done efficiently, without leftover ingredients clogging the filters.”

Sustainability in focus

An efficient separation process can significantly impact the sustainability of beer brewing. Centrifuges often consume considerable amounts of energy. Separation also affects the downstream filtration process. Here, efficient pre-clarification prevents filters from clogging, which can interrupt the production process. Low maintenance requirements and efficient cleaning-in-place also help reduce the consumption of materials, water, and chemicals.

We quickly saw significant reductions in our power consumption with the new Alfa Laval separators. After commissioning, we monitored their power consumption closely to make sure that they delivered as promised, with both Hermetic Design™ and eMotion. I’m happy to report that the numbers we were given were correct. At our flow rates, separation now consumes roughly half the energy it used to.”

Many breweries rely on precoat filtration using kieselguhr. While this offers some advantages, it also has its drawbacks, especially regarding disposal. The team at the Carlsberg plant in Fredericia invested in a more sustainable membrane filtration solution, containing 160 filter cartridges.

Another sustainability advantage of a high-efficiency separator is its effect on the filter lines. Less clean beer would lead to more frequent cleaning and higher consumption of energy, water, and chemicals. If we can prolong the lifetime of our membrane filters by 25% and reduce maintenance, there are significant cost savings for us, and it is also a huge sustainability improvement”, Anders Kokholm summarizes.
quote carlsber for website

Evaluating the market leaders

Looking to upgrade their separation process to handle the new production demands, Carlsberg invited the leading separation solution suppliers and carefully evaluated their offerings.“We talked with both Alfa Laval and GEA, who had supplied our existing separation solution,” Anders Kokholm says.


"We could see that Alfa Laval, with features like UniDisc, precise haze control, and a recirculation loop, would provide a solution for handling heavy hop loads while maintaining high separation performance and minimizing product loss.”

At Carlsberg, quality is paramount. The Hermetic Design™ feature of Alfa Laval’s high-speed centrifuges would ensure zero oxygen pick-up, preserving the quality and taste of even the most demanding brews. Taking everything into account, we realized that we had a winner.”

A strong partnership

Alfa Laval and Carlsberg have cooperated closely for many years.

“This project with Alfa Laval went well from day one,” says Anders Kokholm. “They were very open to discussion and eager to understand the issues we were facing. We completed the entire installation in nine days, which to me was very, very fast. It’s not just about putting the centrifuge in place – you also need to prepare the surroundings and remove previous installations.”

"Alfa Laval has been there when we needed them – for example, in setting up programs for the different recipes that we run now. The 24-hour access to service that we had, starting with the commissioning, has also been excellent. They have brought people onsite when we needed assistance – and fast, too".

Anders Kokholm, Brew master at Carlsberg in Fredericia

Anders Kokholm, Brewmaster at Carlsberg in Fredericia

More exciting possibilities ahead

Final words from Anders Kokholm:

“Today, we see that the two separators we installed are performing well, and the cycle time on our membranes is increasing. We see some opportunities in connecting the filters to the centrifuges control-wise, giving us even higher flow through the membranes. This would boost hourly production volumes, at least of our standard pilsner products, which are still our bread and butter.”

“Based on this, I think I can say that we still produce probably the best beer in the world here in Fredericia,” Anders Kokholm concludes.

Related products

brew 750

Brew 750

  • Up to 1000 hl/h
  • Hermetic Design™ means practically zero risk of oxygen pickup
  • Low power consumption
  • Separator with complete associated system
  • Turbidity triggering of solids discharge
  • Capacity control by inlet turbidity
  • Siemens or Allen Bradley automation

Learn more about Brew 750

infographic brew
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Hermetic Design™

Alfa Laval’s Hermetic Design™ improves product quality by preventing air from entering the separator. Its sealed, bottom-fed inlet, hollow spindle, and discharge outlets provide gentler handling, better separation for shear-sensitive fluids, up to 60% cost savings, and higher quality than top-fed separators.

Learn more

eMotion™

Alfa Laval eMotion™ enhances hygiene, reduces motor load, and saves up to 75% in energy. By lowering air pressure between the separator bowl and frame, it minimizes friction and heat, resulting in a leaner, cooler process with less fouling, reduced product stress, and lower noise.

Learn more

UniDisc™

The Alfa Laval UniDisc™ is a groundbreaking disc technology that boosts separation capacity by up to 30%. Its easy-to-clean design and enhanced hygiene are made possible by small spacers pressed from the disc material, allowing more discs in the stack. The increased surface area and robust stacks optimize separation performance and flow capacity.

Learn more

 

Carlsberg in Fredericia

Carlsberg’s main production site in Denmark. Runs 24/7, normally with four co-workers manning the
brewing process. Yearly production volumes:
Beer: 3,000,000 hl
Cider: 3,000 – 4,000 hl
Soft drinks: 3,000,000 hl

Creating a sustainable separation system

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Scaling up craft to satisfy consumer demands

The brewing industry is shifting towards premium segments. Like Carlsberg, other breweries must scale up production while maintaining quality and delivering the right products for each market segment. Learn how centrifugation plays a crucial role in meeting these new market demands.

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AL Smart Separator 002

Meet the technology behind 

Discover how Alfa Laval and Carlsberg Fredericia overcame key brewing challenges to produce a broader selection of brands and flavours in a facility originally designed for traditional pilsner. Learn more about the essential technology for brewery centrifuges.

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