Welcome, centrifuge!
Introducing our new centrifuge – a very cool, rather loud, exceedingly shiny (and expensive…) thirst-inducing machine!
Essentially, what this piece of kit does is spins beer round, really, really fast. This speed pushes any denser material in there outwards, separating any “bits” from the liquid, which in the case of beer means removing yeast and chunkier pieces of hop matter. This vastly reduces the potential for sedimentation and minimises less desirable flavours such as hop or yeast bite, ensuring a cleaner flavour profile. Previously, when a beer had finished fermenting, we had to wait for the yeast to drop out, which was reliant on gravity. The centrifuge adds G-Force in line, so what previously took 48-72 hours now happens as we’re moving the beer from tank to tank – meaning we can make more beer!
This is having a significant impact on how we produce our Brewers Emporium beers, providing greater consistency and a cleaner flavour profile from pint to pint, can to can, keg to keg, and batch to batch, which is great for the drinker and also for our Lab Manager Christie to get that all-important data analysis, woooo! Yields have improved, which are not only a benefit to our business as a whole, but is also a step towards us becoming more environmentally friendly too as our water usage is diminished. More beer out = less wastage, and more pints to enjoy!
Whilst quality and consistency is of course something which we have always meticulously focused on throughout our thirty-year history, one element we have previously not had the kit or ability to have full control over has been the level of haze in our more modern style beers. The centrifuge gives us the power to do this, meaning we can ensure all our beers present in the glass exactly as intended.
A key impact the centrifuge has had has been on Heresy, our lager. As well as all the benefits above, being able to run Heresy through the centrifuge means we can achieve a bright, visually enticing, clean and consistent foamy lager, without the use of the finings we had previously needed to rely upon, meaning Heresy is now vegan friendly!
Evolution not revolution, this is Heresy 2.0! It’s the same beer brewed to the same recipe, but with a tweak to our process meaning it’s not just more accessible but tasting better than ever, and it looks fantastic, too! It’s received unanimous positivity from the brew team (Christie describes it as “still Heresy, but like the best pint of Heresy you’ve ever had!”) and judging by the pints on the tables of our little suntrap terrace at the taproom you all seem to really like it too. It will take a little while until our can labels reflect this change, so please get in touch if you would like to check if a particular batch (identifiable by the best before date on the can) is suitable for a vegan diet.
As centrifuging the beer removes the yeast, which cask beer relies on to condition as well as generate the natural carbonation our consumers expect and want, the process outlined above is currently only applicable to our keg and can beers – so real ale fans, don’t fret! The cask beer which forms the very heart and soul of our business is still the living product you all know and love.
Our centrifuge came from and was commissioned by Alfa Laval – so a big thank you is due to Praveen, Mark and Richard (who was part of our brewteam in the early 2010s!) for all their support in commissioning our new best pal.
Consumer feedback is, as always, really important to us – so please do let us know how you’re finding our most recent Brewers Emporium releases… especially Heresy’s glow up!
Cheers!
Team Abbeydale
Bonus snap of delivery day… precious cargo!
