It has probably not escaped your attention that I have strong opinions when it comes to bottling beer. I have been known to rant about bottle-conditioning done badly. It’s not that I hate the practice of bottle conditioning. Not at all. But bottle-conditioning is an art – it’s not an excuse to carbonate your beers on the cheap. So unless you can bottle-condition a beer like a Belgian can, I’m all for force carbonation.
Your beer is awesome and deserves to be bottled awesomely!
I recently retasted a beer from a Western Cape brewery. They used to bottle-condition and the first time I had their beer, I couldn’t finish a taster. They invested in a bottling machine from TEM (Toscana Enologica Mori SA) and I’m happy to say that the next time I got hold of their beer it ended up in my tummy rather than being fed to Lionel, the beer-loving Love Palm plant that lives on my office windowsill. At R43 000.00 (inc shipping, exc VAT), the four-line pressurised bottle-filler seems like a major investment, but in the long run, buying quality equipment is going to save you some cash. Think about the sound of flat, sour or clumpy beer being poured down my drain – that’s the sound of your customers deserting you in favour of one of the many other breweries popping up in South Africa.
TEM doesn’t just offer bottling lines though – their catalogue includes brewhouses large and small (from 30 to 5000-litres), shiny stainless steel fermenters, kegging setups, filters, labelling machines and fully automated bottling lines. If you’re starting a brewery from scratch and are seeking expert help, they can guide you through the entire process, from your liquor license application right through to complete installation of the brewery – plus you get a lifelong after sales service with the qualified in-house brewmaster and his team.
If you need a little help manning the kettles, TEM is now offering three-day brewing courses with their brewmaster. Courses take place monthly, starting from June 2015.
The South African craft beer scene is taking off, and as competition increases, drinkers are bound to become more discerning. Investing in high-quality equipment is a solid step towards ensuring that your beer doesn’t end up watering the lawn – and that your brewery doesn’t end up on Gum Tree!
TEM, 9 Cincaut Avenue, Saxenburg Park 1, Kuilsriver; www.tem-sa.co.za; 021 905 9705
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- The automated Spadoni MBS2500 brewhouse
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- Your beer is awesome and deserves to be bottled awesomely!
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- Start small with a 50-litre system
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- Fermenters range from 50 to 10,000 litres
Is it an issue of the process of bottle conditioning like the Belgians (and Germans), which I understand is mainly done through krausening – or is the issue about sanitation during the bottling process followed by brewers that bottle condition (in SA)?
A follow on question – is a beer that has been bottle conditioned properly (i.e. good sanitation, right amount of added fermentables, correct storage after bottling) going to be any more or less susceptible to poor cold chain management than force carbed beers?
I think these bottling machines clean your bottles, so sanitation should be a non-issue….and just for the record, if i went commercial I would force carb most of my beers….