Salzburg brewery replaces 120-year-old cooling ship

Augustiner Bräu in Salzburg-Mülln has installed a new traditional cooling ship, replacing a vessel that had been in use for about 120 years. The brewery’s unusual installation preserves Austria’s only cooling system of this type at a brewery of its size, ORF reports.

The stainless-steel basin has recently entered service and is filled twice a day with more than 11,000 litres of hot wort from the brewing room. The wort cools in the open vessel, allowing gases to escape. Brewmaster Hansjörg Höplinger said the process was an important step towards making traditional beer.

As the wort cools, protein and hop residues settle out and it absorbs oxygen, Höplinger said. He said this benefits the beer’s flavour and subsequent fermentation, producing beers with a more pronounced, robust taste.

Many breweries now cool wort more quickly using closed heat-exchanger systems. Augustiner Bräu instead gives it more time to cool and release vapours, Höplinger said.

A company in Bamberg, Bavaria, built the replacement as a special design. Its two halves were lifted by crane into the brewery building two weeks ago, following extensive planning and calculations. Heat from the cooling process is now used to produce hot water for the brewery.

Höplinger said the new equipment should not change the beer’s taste. The first opportunity to assess the result will come shortly after Christmas, when the newly brewed beer is served.