PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2016

BOTTLING / FILLING 34 PET planet insider Vol. 17 No. 09/16 www.petpla.net SPONSORS The China Road Show Far Eastern Industries part 2 Sino Belgium Beer On the site of Far Eastern Industries, there is also a brewery with an annual capacity of about 3m hectolitres of beer (at 4.5% alcohol). It was founded in 2007 in cooperation with the Belgian Martens brewery. Unlike the usual procedure in China, the beer does not flow into cans or glass bottles, but rather into PET bottles. A Sidel machine does the blowing, internal coating and filling. The concept of the brewery and bottling plant came from Belgium. Two stretch-blow SBO 20s each feed two Sidel Actis 48 plasma coating machines, which maximally produce 60,000bph. From there, the bottles travel to an installed filler with a capacity of 40,000bph, optionally also into intermediate storage. Mr C.J. Lee, who is responsible for the brewery, has the beer filled at 500ml and 660ml there – depending on the target market, into green bottles with green screw caps, or into transpar- letiser. The main product is the 500ml bottle, for which the weight of Coca Cola bottles was the inspiration. With its weight-saving Ecobase design it weighs in at 22.28g. In the super- markets, the retail price is RMB 5 (EUR 0.67), whilst discount brands are RMB 3-4 (EUR 0.4-0.5). Foreign beers start at about RMB 10/0.5l (EUR 1.34). Beer production is virtually con- tinual. Meura machine has a special kettle for every processing step. The recipe stipulates a mixture of 70% malted barley and 30% rice. The malt and rice are mashed and cooked in individual vessels, then mixed in-line, and continued dextrose and maltose steps in the following vessel. The spent grain is eliminated using plate filters. After the addition of hops and after cooking, the wort goes into a sedimentation tank, in which the hot trub is eliminated. Here, Lee would prefer more of a classic whirlpool, as the sedimentation process is not always stable. After this, the daily production reaches one of the fourteen 4,800hL large fermentation tanks. About 7% of alcohol is brewed in. The brewery’s yield is 80%.The green beer remains with the yeast for 18 days before it reaches a bottling machine through Pentair cross-flow membrane filters, in-line dilution with deaerated water to a reduced alcohol content of 3.5 to 4.5% (which is normal for China). Depending on the target market, the shelf life is either six months for the local market, or nine months for exports. www.martensbeer.com.cn F.l.t.r.: C.J. Lee and Alexander Büchler at the brewery house ent bottles with golden caps. The closures are the Super Shorties by Bericap, with their inserted liners which eat away the oxygen. Just before labelling in the Alfa Labeller, the bottle must be warmed up slightly so that no condensation will precipitate onto the bottle, which would interfere with the application of the paper labels. This is followed by two packers and one Sidel pal-