Beer & beer mix beverages
Alcohol-free beer
It’s now widely accepted that keeping an eye on what - and how much - we eat and drink is important for everyday health, and many of us think about moderating our intake of sugar, fat, and alcohol. So, while the global market for many types of beer is rising fast, consumer thirst for alcohol-free, or low–alcohol options is also on the increase. Industry has answered the call, and developed recipes for alcohol-free beers that should satisfy just about every palate. And in today’s competitive markets, breweries are keen to ensure that a lack of alcohol doesn’t mean lower quality, or compromising on taste.
Alcohol-free beer
Keep the Taste
Modern processes may use one of several methods to either completely remove or significantly reduce the amount of alcohol in beer. Primarily, these methods involve either stopping the fermentation process using a centrifugal separator (mechanical separation) that swiftly removes the yeast from beer at the right moment or using techniques such as evaporation (a thermal method), or membrane filtration (mechanical separation), to remove the alcohol.
Here at GEA, we offer the industry technologies backed by 145 years’ of experience in end-to-end brewery processes. Today we are one of the most experienced manufacturers of both mechanical and thermal separation solutions for producing dealcoholized or alcohol-free beer. Breweries around the world trust GEA to provide solutions and support for every stage of the production process. Using tailored, cost-effective GEA systems, breweries of any size can look to optimize their existing processes, and innovate with exciting new recipes to generate market-winning filtered, and unfiltered alcohol-free beers that will become firm favorites with consumers.
Importantly, we don't just offer technologies for removing or reducing the alcohol content, we use our in depth knowledge of the brewery industry and its processes and markets, to help ensure that our customers invest in the best solutions for their products, and to match business expectations, existing plant setup, and capacity.
In a nutshell, we provide:
- GEA beer separators that are used to remove the yeast from the alcohol free beer after a short contact time between yeast and beer. The fermentation then is stopped. These machines can be used multifunctional for green beer or mature beer clarification
- GEA reverse osmosis, cross flow membrane filtration systems, that work at low temperatures, so they are really gentle on the product, and generate both the alcohol-free beer product, and also an alcohol solution that can be used as a basis for other, flavored beverages.
- Gentle evaporation systems that work at relatively low temperatures, and which help to ensure efficient recovery of key aromatics, to help ensure that alcohol-free beers retain the taste and aromas that discerning consumers expect.