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The first US craft brewery with the newest ZIEMANN technology was put into operation on schedule.

Karbach Brewing Company in Houston is producing its first beers on the new brewhouse supplied by ZIEMANN. As part of Karbach’s capacity expansion, ZIEMANN also supplied the new fermentation tanks and a state of the art automation system.

Brewmaster and Founder Eric Warner from Karbach Brewing Company explained: “The ZIEMANN team showed a lot of flexibility in the project phase to adapt to our requirements. The equipment design is versatile and we are seeing exceptionally good yields and improvement in wort quality. This shows that the ZIEMANN innovation process is driven by their profound process knowledge and by the requirements of craft brewers.”
ZIEMANN brewhouses for craft brewers are designed with a high degree of prefabrication to be installed in less than a month.
The brewhouse for Karbach Brewing Company was designed for 12 brews per day, with a cold cast-out volume of 120 bbl. The impressive yield improvements are based on the latest innovations of ZIEMANN. The “Colibri” mash mixer provides a thorough and homogeneous mixing of the dry grist with the strike water, even for very concentrated mashes. This is the ideal preparation of the mash for the “Lotus” lauter tun, which was designed with a focus on achieving exceptional extract recovery for high gravity beers. The “Shark” wort boiling features a 2-phase internal calandria that provides a gentle boiling with low energy input and excellent trub formation. Finally the ZIEMANN Whirlpool with its inverse conical bottom does a superior job in separating the trub from the wort. As Eric Warner explained: “Our yields have improved dramatically. This ZIEMANN brewhouse technology and this unique whirlpool design help us to get the last drop of wort out of the trub, even with the Rodeo Clown, our Double IPA with an OG of 21.5°P and 85 Bitter Units.”

Initial laboratory results on test brews also show an improved chill haze stability and Eric expects a substantial improved shelf life of the product, which is very welcome considering the ambitious expansion plans. After all this ZIEMANN brewhouse is designed for a final capacity of approximately 350,000 bbl per year.

ZIEMANN also supplied six fermentation tanks with a net volume of 600 bbl, including catwalk system and spiral stairs. The outdoor tanks are placed on support rings with the cones in a closed operator room. All the equipment was manufactured in the Ziemann workshop in Buergstadt, Germany. From this workshop ZIEMANN has delivered over 300 large fermentation and bright beer tanks to US craft brewers in the last years.

In addition to the brewhouse and the tank farm the project also included the automation of the control system with integration of the new malt handling.

In the next weeks Karbach Brewing will ramp up production and finalize the construction of the new brewery restaurant. The official inauguration of the whole expansion project is scheduled to take place in the second quarter of 2015.

ZIEMANN provides innovative and tailor-made solutions for craft breweries from the malt intake to the bright beer tank cellar. ZIEMANN plans, engineers and automates all production areas, including the installation of process pipework and the integration of all required utilities. For modernizations, capacity expansions as well as for completely new brewery plants – ZIEMANN provides innovative solutions and is a valued expert.

Last but not least, ZIEMANN is a competent and reliable partner in the field of research and development. With its own state of the art pilot brewery in Ludwigsburg ZIEMANN tests new developments and supports its customers, for example, in developing individual beer recipes.

For further information, please contact:
ZIEMANN International GmbH
Schwieberdinger Stra?e 86
71636 Ludwigsburg, Deutschland
Lucas Goebel
Phone: +49 7141 408 377
E-Mail: lucas.goebel@ziemann.com

Caption

The new brewery of the Karbach Brewing Company is designed to produce twelve brews per days with a cold cast-out volume of 120 bbl. The brewhouse is equipped with the latest ZIEMANN innovations, e.g. this agitator system Colibri.