Congenial neighbours and clean wheat beer bottles
Early this year, the wheat beer brewery Kuchlbauer in Abensberg took delivery of something very sizeable. Under clear blue skies and against the artistic backdrop of the Kuchlbauer Tower, our staff were tasked with unpacking the new Lavatec E2 bottle washer.
The new Lavatec E2 has a capacity of 28,600 bottles per hour, and thanks to its Clean Design is simple to maintain and maximally efficient. The fresh-water and energy savings are also cogent arguments in favour of the machine since they render it far more sustainable in production. The single-end machine is in modularised construction and meets the very latest of contemporary requirements, enabling it to be optimally integrated into the modernised bottling hall.
Naturally enough, what is of particular importance for the Kuchlbauer Brewery (as for all our clients) is that the bottle washer gets the bottles thoroughly clean. That’s even more vital in this case because the brewery is noted not least for its legendary wheat beer – and that can sometimes prove to be a bit capricious during the washing process. “When choosing the bottle washer, we regarded several points as crucial. We bottle mainly wheat beers. Residues of the beer and of the yeast it contains remain in the bottle after it’s been quaffed, and may adhere to the bottle’s base. These residues have to be removed in their entirety,” explains Jacob Horsch, Brewmaster and Managing Director at Kuchlbauer. The initial advantages of the Lavatec were manifested for the brewery here. Because after residue draining, a pre-soak tank and an additional pre-caustic zone provide optimum pre-cleaning with a lengthy soak time and in each case double high-pressure jetting. Thus the Lavatec removes the yeast to optimum effect, rendering the bottles totally suitable for re-use.
The Kuchlbauer wheat beer brewery and Krones go back a long way together: in 2013, the brewery had already invested in a new fermentation cellar from Krones, and in 2017 in a new brewhouse. The collaboration has been a huge success – not least because our company headquarters are (almost) next door to each other. So communication could hardly be easier.
When it came to taking delivery of the machine, some intuitive ingenuity, in-depth logistical expertise and a pinch of physical strength were required, but this was no problem for the experienced team comprising staff from Krones and Kuchlbauer – for ingressing the machine, the gate was “simply” widened, for example. The bottle washer is meanwhile up and running in the hall and washing up to 28,600 bottles per hour in ongoing operation.
So let’s raise a glass of quaffable Kuchlbauer wheat beer.
