Beer and world class sampling valves and bags
“You need to wake up from your dreams in order to make them come true. Bryggeriet Skands is the result of a dream twenty years old that has finally manifested itself,” says Birthe Skands, Technical Manager
Application: Beer
Customer: The brewery “Bryggeriet Skands”
Country:Denmark
Keofitt products: Keofitt Aseptic Sampling Bags and Keofitt W9 Sampling Valve
Living the dream
Birthe Skands and her husband Morten Skands established the brewery, Bryggeriet Skands, in Brøndby, Denmark in 2003. At this time Birthe Skands had worked as a brewmaster at different breweries such as Carlsberg for a number of years, but her dream was to run her own brewery providing the opportunity to brew many different varieties with new tastes and specialties such as the traditional English ale and top-fermented Belgian beer.
“During the first year, which included testing new ideas at a 50 Liter pilot brewery, we had a 15 HL brewhouse and fermentation and storage tanks installed from 300-year-old Kaspar Schulz in Germany. This means that many more can enjoy our brews and that variations in taste are diminished significantly. Our priorities are creativity and flexibility, so there is always something new and exciting for the consumers to look forward to. Our annual production capacity is 250,000 Liter and we do not plan on getting bigger,” Birthe Skands reports.
World class valves
“Sanitary conditions are crucial to brewing beer and being able to take completely clean samples from the fermentation and storage tanks during fermentation and storage is essential. Consequently, the tanks were traditionally equipped with two sterilizable sampling devices – one for chemical sampling and one for microbiological sampling. However, from my time as brewmaster and head of product development where I was responsible for the testing of new equipment I knew of former Carlsberg brewmaster Kai Ottung, who had invented the Keofitt sterilizable sampling valve combining the two functions. The valve is manufactured by the Danish company Keofitt A/S, established in 1980. We spent much time testing new equipment at Carlsberg and we found that the Keofitt valves were the best by far. They are quite simply world class valves. The best there is in sampling valves. Although not standard on Kaspar Schulz tanks we had these valves installed on our fermentation and storage tanks. At first glance the valve may appear to be too advanced for a small brewery such as ours, but I am confident it will pay off in the long run,” Birthe Skands explains.
One valve for the food and beverage and the biopharma industries
“The Keofitt sampling valve is a unique valve that is easily sterilized and conforms with sanitary as well as process design demands. As a result, efficient cleaning and sterilization of the valve can be carried out between random samples independently from the production process stage and without compromising the process. The valve is 3-A authorized and EHEDG Type E1 certified. It is used in many different processing industries such as breweries, dairies, the pharmaceutical and the biotech industries,” says Susanne Søvsø, Product Specialist at Gustaf Fagerberg A/S, Keofitt's distributor in Denmark.
A unique valve design
The valve has been designed for frequent, random, representative sampling. Accordingly, the valve is designed for frequent and efficient cleaning, sterilizing and sampling without interrupting the production process.
The sterilizing procedure can be carried out flushing the valve with alcohol and steaming the valve using the valve's steam inlet. It is the perfect, hygienic design and the smoothness of all inside product contact surfaces that enable the sterilizing of the valve. According to a test based on EHEDG requirements performed by The Biotechnological Institute in Denmark, only one minute of steaming at 121 C/1 bar(g) will suffice to sterilize the valve. Upon sterilizing the valve can be opened and the sample collected from the lower hose piece.
Apart from valves, Keofitt A/S manufactures a wide range of other products and accessories for sampling including the Keofitt Aseptic Sampling Bag. This is a pre-sterilized single-use sampling bag which is used for collecting samples of up to 2,000 ML.