In cooperation with the City of Hamburg, Carlsberg commenced the search in 2013 for a new location suitable for its brewing business. An ideal site was found on the opposite bank of the Elbe in Heykenaukamp, an industrial zone in the Hausbruch quarter close to the A7 freeway. “This location gave us the chance to build a brewery incorporating the latest features and state-of-the-art technology”, explains Holsten’s Manufacturing Manager Malte Groth in retrospect. The autobahn link is also ideal, but the main advantage is that the brewery is now no longer located in a residential area, so any conflicts with local residents are avoided.
Years of cooperation in research and development
Carlsberg awarded the contract for the complete brewhouse to Ziemann Holvrieka GmbH for one simple reason. Both partners have worked closely together for many years in researching and developing cutting edge brewing plant and technology.
“We were, therefore, familiar with the performance capability of the company and its innovative products. The decision was a pretty easy one to make”, concludes Groth. The contract awarded involved a lauter tun brewhouse designed for a maximum of 12 brews a day, each with casting volume of 265 bbl of hot wort.
The specific plant ordered encompassed two Colibri mashers with a diameter of 3.20 m, a Lotus lauter tun with a diameter of 7.20 m, a Shark wort internal boiler with a diameter of 3.80 m and a hop dosing system with two vessels. Added to this were a biological acidification plant, a whirlpool with a diameter of 4.40 m, the wort cooling and aeration system and a CIP system with all required tanks and utilities. A turnkey project was transacted, including engineering, project management, installation, automation with ProLeiT brewmaxx, commissioning and training of operating personnel.
First brew on July 30th 2019
The groundbreaking ceremony was held in Hausbruch in October 2017, with installation of the brewhouse commencing in July 2018. This first involved positioning of the vessels and, subsequently, completion of the building around these. This approach was adopted because installation of the brewing vessels would otherwise have been impossible, or at least extremely complicated.
Completion of construction was followed by successive installation, piping, automation and commissioning of the brewhouse. Holsten’s initial test wort casting then occurred on July 30th, 2019. Downstream departments were then activated consecutively until everything was ready on November 4th, 2019. The new Holsten Brewery was dedicated in a festive ceremony. An impressive industrial building measuring up to 15 meters in height and covering 25,000 m2, all on a site encompassing 67,000 m² and equipped with the very latest production, filling, packaging and storage technology. From now on, up to one million hectoliters of beer will be produced and delivered here from Monday to Friday in three shifts. Capacities for three million hectoliters were available in Altona, but these had not been fully exploited for years.
