Future-ready brewing, rooted in history.
By reimagining its brewhouse with GEA, Roman Brewery has embedded resource-efficiency into centuries of tradition—cutting water, gas and energy use, reducing operating costs, and brewing more efficiently for generations to come.
Roman is Belgium's oldest family brewery — and one that today is decisively brewing for the future. Building on nearly five centuries of craftmanship, the brewery has significantly reduced the resources required for every brew thanks to GEA technology. Cutting energy for wort heating and boiling by around 60%, lowering gas consumption by 30%, and using 2.0 liters less water per liter of beer produced in the hot block, turning efficiency into real savings. Led by brothers Carlo and Lode Roman, the brewery continues to honor time tested brewing traditions while embedding measurable efficiency gains that secure quality, sustainability and performance for generations to come.
Launching an ambitious expansion and renovation project in 2019, Roman set the bar high, aiming to modernize the hot block, without compromising its brewery heritage. GEA stood out as a trusted partner of choice to achieve some challenging goals, and in 2023 the companies inked a collaboration to configure a fully automation, six-vessel brewhouse from GEA's COMPACT-STAR® family.
A modern brewhouse for a historic home
Fitting a state-of-the-art brewhouse into Roman's 1930s buildings was no mean feat. The historic façade had to remain untouched, while the building's interior was gutted and completely rebuilt. GEA worked in exceptionally close cooperation with Roman to ensure that space constraints did not compromise the ability to design, configure and operate the new brewhouse.
Over the course of nearly a year, GEA and Roman together designed and built bespoke vessels and tanks with customize dimensions that would fit in with the restricted area of the building. Roman emphasized how GEA's flexibility and responsiveness during this phase set them apart from other suppliers.
Designed to elevate brewery performance and product quality, and address sustainability goals, the installed brewhouse integrates the GEA MILLSTAR® mash tun, cereal cooker, LAUTERSTAR®, prerun tank, wort kettle, whirlpool, water and clean-in-place (CIP) systems, together with an advanced energy recovery solution. Engineered to deliver up to 12 brews per day with 150 hl of cold wort per brew, the brewhouse combines efficiency with uncompromising quality and has allowed Roman to achieve significant reductions in water, gas and energy usage, together with less waste.
“From the very first negotiations, we were impressed by the professionalism of the GEA team — a feeling that only grew stronger throughout the project, especially during installation and start-up. The quality and robustness of the equipment confirmed that partnering with GEA was the right choice. We look forward to a durable collaboration in the years ahead.”
Jasper De Mullier, Production Manager, Roman Brewery
Built for performance
Understanding the need to reduce delays as far as possible, GEA ensured that every vessel and water tank was delivered in one piece, which minimized installation time. Installation began in July 2024, and by the end of November that year Roman was celebrating the first successful brew in the newly modernized facility. Watching the brewhouse take shape inside the restored building was a moment of pride from the entire project team — and the results speak for themselves.
Energy savings that matter
A standout feature of the project is the integration of GEA’s energy recovery system (ESS). Combining this system with the new wort kettle design delivered remarkable reductions in energy and resource consumption:
• ≈60% reduction in energy required for wort heating and boiling
• 30% reduction in gas consumption for the steam boiler
• 2.0 liters less water used per liter of beer produced in the hot block
• Evaporation rate reduced from 7% to 4%, with equal or improved wort quality
These improvements significantly lower operating costs while supporting Roman’s long-term sustainability goals.
A partnership built on trust
With a future-ready brewhouse now seamlessly integrated into a historic setting, Roman Brewery is poised for many more decades — and many more exceptional beers — to come. The combination of GEA process, engineering and industry expertise with Roman's brewing heritage and hundreds of years' knowhow were instrumental to the project's success. By working together to understand and achieve expectations and goals, and address challenges head on, the partners achieved an impressive and modernization that would mirror Roman's overarching philosophy.
