Summary

Brand Bierbrouwerij B.V. produces a wide range of lagers and seasonal and special beers. The most important process stages are, in order: coarse grinding of the barley malt (extraction), brewing, fermentation, storage, clear beer filtration, and bottling. The brewing process starts with so-called "mashing", when the malt extract is mixed with hot water. The starch in the grain is dissolved in the water and converted by the enzymes present into sugars. This produces a coating consisting, on the one hand, of a "sugar solution" (wort) and, on the other hand, of the remaining indissoluble barley parts (the draff). The draff is separated from the wort by filtration. The wort, which is subsequently boiled and cooled by a plate filter, forms the basis for the fermentation process.
With the plate filters which were commonly used in the past, the draff still contained appreciable wort components. As a result, it had to be rinsed with relatively large quantities of water. The new compression mash filter, fitted with membranes, makes leaching with these large quantities of water largely superfluous and allows brand to produce a larger quantity of beer from one brewing. Since the same production volume can be achieved with less energy, energy consumption per hectolitre of beer is reduced.