The Need for Speed: Brewery Boosts Throughput with Centrifuge Technology

Rhinegeist upgrades to a vertical disk stack centrifuge that speeds up its brewing process while enhancing product quality and consistency.

Flottweg centrifuge
Since using the Flottweg AC 2000 centrifuge, Rhinegeist has been able to shave at least a week off of its brewing process, producing 3,400 barrels of beer a week.
Photo courtesy of Flottweg.

Rhinegeist knows all too well that patience is often required when brewing high-quality craft beers, a process that can take anywhere from two to four weeks. But the Cincinnati-based craft brewery can throw some of that patience to the side, now that it has been able to shave at least a week off of its brewing process after investing in a vertical disk stack centrifuge system to filter its beers. The new centrifuge has helped the company boost throughput while improving the consistency and quality of its beers to meet increasing production demands.

Rhinegeist has experienced exponential growth since it opened in June 2013. The craft brewery initially produced 11,500 barrels of beer that year and four types of beers. Today, Rhinegeist makes more than 100,000 barrels of beer and about 150 types of beers. They include seven beers available year-round, including Rhinegeist’s popular Truth IPA and Uncle British mild ale; seasonal offerings, such as its Kalmer Kölsch and Calfé coffee milk stout; and limited editions, like the Alpha Squid hazy imperial IPA and Bogbeast, a wheat wine ale aged in Scotch barrels. The company distributes its beers to grocery stores and restaurants in Ohio, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Indiana and Tennessee.

That growing demand prompted Rhinegeist to install the AC 2000 centrifuge from Flottweg to bring speed and efficiency to its filtration process. After primary fermentation is complete, the beer is pumped to the centrifuge to separate the yeast, hops, proteins, and other particulates from the liquid. Once the mixture reaches the bowl of the centrifuge, the distributor gently accelerates the bowl to full speed. The product enters the disk pack, spreading out into many thin layers. The centrifugal force expels the solids to the edge of the bowl. The collected solids then run off through a separate outlet. Meanwhile, the clarified liquid flows from the disk stack to a peeling disk, where it is discharged from the centrifuge via a centripetal pump under pressure to a Brite beer tank for carbonation and packaging.

Optimizing operations

Rhinegeist credits the Flottweg centrifuge for tightening up its production schedule by at least a week. Prior to using the centrifuge, the company would have to wait several days before separating the liquid from the solids. After primary fermentation, the beer was cooled to about 30°F. The drop in temperature caused the yeasts and other solids to settle to the bottom of the tank over several days. Once the solids reached the bottom of the tank, the clarified beer was pumped to a Brite tank. However, with the new centrifuge, Rhinegeist can separate the liquid from the solids immediately after primary fermentation. 

“We don’t have to wait for [the particulates] to settle all the way out of the beer. We can spin all the beer through the centrifuge, and that centrifuge will collect all that yeast and any other proteins and haze … mechanically instead of waiting for time and gravity,” says Cole Hackbarth, director of brewery operations at Rhinegeist. “It saves us about seven days of tank residence time.

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