Numerous guests had their first view of the brewing pilot plant at the inauguration ceremony. Credit: © Krones AG.

German bottling machine manufacturer Krones has opened a new pilot research brewery at its facility in Freising, Germany.

Called Steinecker Brew Center, the €2.6m pilot brewing plant will have a five-hectolitre brewhouse comprising five different vessels.

Krones also intends to provide an option for collaborative brewing, conducting trials and testing new technologies.

“We can combine different technologies, and are able to demonstrate the large bandwidth of solutions offered by Krones.”

Krones’ official Dr Konrad Müller-Auffermann said: “The system is small, that’s true, but it offers maximum flexibility all the same. Here, we can combine different technologies, and are able to demonstrate the large bandwidth of solutions offered by Krones.

“We can, for example, reproduce an ultra-wide range of internationally employed processes on the one hand while also familiarising our own commissioning engineers and clients’ staff with the technologies concerned on the other.”

The new brewing plant will be used by Krones’ staff and clients to conduct practical trials and identify suitable process-engineering solutions for the beverage production.

Krones’ Steinecker plant and breweries business line head Heiko Feuring said: “We were able to translate this investment project worth €2.6m into hands-on reality within one year. So we’re delighted that we’re now able to use our Brew Center.”

The Brew Center continues to work with Krones’ subsidiary Syskron, which has integrated its ReadyKit and Share2Act products into the new facility.