New FlashPAS System
Expanding the Ingredient List Often Means Additional Equipment
Dragon fruit, prickly pear, soursop, elderberry – the weirder the fruit the better! Fruited kettle sours, Milkshake IPAs and other artistic varieties of craft beer are growing in popularity. Maintaining the shelf life and beer quality of these latest styles is a whole new ball game.
Pasteurization has been widely used in the beer and beverage industry for over 100 years to effectively extend the drinkability of beer and to maintain beverage quality over longer periods. Based on extensive observation, the heating of beer and other beverages to a minimum of 140°F (60°C) for a specified range of time will effectively eliminate potentially harmful bacteria that grow during the brewing process.
Depending on the exact ingredients, some beers may need to be heated longer than others. The brewing industry measures the amount of time to heat beer and kill bacteria in Pasteurization Units (PU) – each minute the beer is held at 140°F is equivalent to one PU. Therefore, holding the beer at 140°F for 10 minutes would be 10 PU’s of treatment.
In the craft beer industry, most breweries utilize the Flash or HTST (High Temperature, Short Time) Pasteurization method vs. the large, bulky tunnel pasteurizers due to space constraints and footprint restrictions. Additionally, tunnel pasteurizers are not effective on kegs.
ProBrew developed its latest line of HTST Flash Pasteurizers dubbed “FlashPAS” to meet craft brewer’s needs. These inline systems run 5 – 30 gallons per minute with options for up to 3 different hold times and popular upgrades like an integrated inline ProCarb carbonation system.
During the pasteurization process, the beer passes through a heat exchanger where it is heated to 158°F–162°F (70°C–72°C) for the desired time, then glycol swiftly cools it back down enough for packaging. The beer is never exposed to oxygen, meaning the beer maintains industry-low DO levels throughout the course of pasteurization.