Feature Story:

Raising a glass to beer's sucess

BEER HAS RECENTLY BEEN RECOGNIZED AS THE WORLD’S MOST POPULAR DRINK. PAUL SYLVESTER TAKES US THROUGH BEER’S EVENTFUL JOURNEY FROM ‘LIQUID BREAD’ MADE 6,000 YEARS AGO TO TODAY’S MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY.

Sharing a beer with friends is a common theme across the globe
Where and when brewing began has been the subject of much discussion over the years by
academics, historians and archaeologists. The truth is that no single civilization can claim to have invented beer – or ‘liquid bread’ as it was once known – as it was certainly being produced in many different countries across the world from about 4500BC onwards and possibly even before then. And therein lies the beverage’s essential beauty: every country has mastered its own beer with its own distinctive characteristics and taste. That’s still the case today, even with the world’s superbrewers spreading their reach to the furthermost parts of the globe.

Early ‘bread ’ beers
But let’s go back to the beginning. Beer, the world’s oldest man-made drink, is the product of
fermentation of sugar into alcohol by yeast. Art from 4500BC showed the Sumerians (who lived in what is now Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers) drinking beer communally through a straw, and that early spirit of people sharing a drink lives on to the present. Sharing a beer with friends is a common theme across the globe. And throughout the centuries beer makers have tested out new recipes and refined the process. The Babylonians (rulers of Mesopotamia), who derived their culture from the Sumerians, were among the first people to develop the science of brewing: there is evidence from that period of 20 different recipes using wheat, barley and honey to make cloudy and unfiltered beer ... Download the Magazine (below) to read the complete article

GEA and the brewing industry


For today’s big brewers – and smaller brewers to a lesser extent – growth in beer sales is no longer enough. Using new technology to improve the manufacturing process, reduce production costs and exploit synergies are all crucial. This is where GEA comes in. GEA’s range of companies make it a big player in the brewery industry, supplying everything from brewhouses to individual components and process engineering expertise.

GEA’s Process Engineering Division includes GEA Huppmann and GEA Tuchenhagen Brewery Systems, both German-based companies and international players. GEA Huppmann is one of the world’s top three suppliers of brewhouse manufacturing equipment and technology: recent projects include supplying new systems to brewers in China, Russia and Europe. Huppmann’s expertise is in brewing’s hot process. GEA Tuchenhagen is a specialist in building and supplying equipment for the cold process: recent projects include brewery plants in The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Russia and Spain. The two companies work together to give breweries tailored solutions that match their individual needs.

As well as being specialists in brewing equipment, a number of GEA companies (GEA Diessel, GEA Ecoflex, Grasso International, GEA Tuchenhagen and GEA Westfalia Separator) supply component parts for the manufacturing process that include compressors, heat exchangers, valves, pumps, separators, decanters, process units and refrigeration systems.

As a result of GEA’s excellent reputation and unrivalled engineering expertise, all the world’s major brewers are GEA customers.

www.gea-brewery.com

 

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