Meur@news 8 - Meura

The Centro Brewery
Polar
has been convinced by the Meura
mash fi ltration technology for
more than 10 years!
With 72 % of the Venezuelan beer market, Polar can
be proud to be the leader in one of the biggest Latin
American countries in terms of beer consumption
with 80 l/capita/year. Besides their presence in
the brewing world, Polar is also a familiar name in
the food and beverage sector in general.
Concerning their entrance into the brewing world, the story of the
Polar Company goes back to 1938. One year later, they erected their fi rst
brewery plant. Since this date, Polar has never stopped developing and
today it operates four breweries in Venezuela, namely: the Centro Brewery
located in San Joaquin, the Los Cortijos Brewery located in Caracas, the
Modelo Brewery located in Maracaibo and the Oriente Brewery,
located in Barcelona.
Over the years, Polar has made large investments in beer
and malt production plants in order to keep up
with growing demand. Willing to offer the
best quality products to their consumers,
Polar has always wanted to use state-ofthe-art
technologies. That’s why Polar
adopted the mash fi lter
back in the early nineties.
Polar and the
mash fi lters
Beer quality being a priority, Polar turned to Meura
when they had to expand their capacity.
•The Centro Brewery:
In 1992, the Centro Brewery of San Joaquin installed a double
mash fi lter with a total capacity of 22 tons. At that time
the Centro Brewery was producing about 6 million hl/ year. Year after
year, Polar continued to grow in the beer sector, which forced them to
continue investing in order to be able to meet an increasing demand
for their products. In 2004 and in 2005, Polar invested in a second and
third double mash fi lter both with the same capacity as
the fi rst one. Today, the Centro Brewery is assured of a capacity of 11 mil-
lion hl/ year thanks to its 3 brewhouse lines, each one equipped with a
double mash fi lter.
Besides the mash fi lter, Polar has also opted for Meura’s
Carbomill technology and ordered two Meura CARBO with a
capacity of 20 tons/h each. The CARBO is indeed the ideal complement
to the . The CARBO , as the ,
leads to the production of a clear wort with low fatty acid content and
a higher yield, at least equal to the laboratory yield. In addition, the
CARBO has the specifi cations for working in a CO CO2 atmosphere
in order to assure a non-oxidized fi ne grinding, which improves the
mash fi lterability as well as the fl avour stability of the beer.
• The Los Cortijos Brewery :
The Los Cortijos Brewery worked with 4 lauter tuns
dated from the 1950s. Using different types of malt, the lauter tun
had several well-known disadvantages (insuffi cient productivity and
high losses of extract yield). To counter these disadvantages, Polar
changed its technology to the mash fi lter. In 2004, the
Los Cortijos Brewery replaced two lauter tuns by a mash
fi lter with a total capacity of 9.1 tons. Again in 2006, Polar decided to
replace its last two lauter tuns by a new mash fi lter.
As in San Joaquin, Polar bought in addition a 12 tons/hour
CARBO to assure the obtaining of a non-oxidized fi ne grinding. The
Los Cortijos Brewery now runs at full capacity with the
mash fi ltration technology.
Whether it was to replace the existing lauter tuns or for a brand new
installation, Polar has always trusted in Meura and given them the
responsibility for all those changes. Convinced by Meura, Polar has now
adopted the mash fi ltration technology-associated with
the CARBO - which has become their new standard.
Conclusion:
How does the CARBO work?
The
mash fi lter of the Los
Cortijos Brewery.
Polar, a well-known company, has made the production of good
quality products its priority. To achieve this, Polar has put its faith
in Meura’s technologies. We would like to take this opportunity to
thank them for their continued trust in Meura and to congratulate
Polar on their continued success.
The CARBO consists of a rotor made of plates with pins to carry the hammers. Grinding is a result
of impact between the hammers and the particles that are propelled onto the breaking-plates. Prior to
start-up, the CO2 (or N2) is injected in the grist bin to provide a gas blanket.
During milling, the malt grist falls into the grist bin and pushes the CO2 back through the hammer mill and
the malt feeding system. In this way, the air surrounding the malt grains is replaced by the gas, protecting the
malt grains from oxidation before entering the mill. The milling itself also occurs under a CO2 atmosphere.
The malt grist then falls directly into the grist bin where it can be stored under CO2 between brews.
During the emptying of the grist bin CO2 is injected into it to replace the grist.
The CARBO of the Centro Brewery.
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