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Muntons wins Global Brewing Supplier of the year award Muntons has been announced as the winner of the Global Brewing Supply Awards 2022 at the 11th RMI World Barley, Malt and Beer conference held in Antwerp, Belgium in March. The award highlights excellence in the supply of malt products to the brewing industry throughout the world and is highly competitive. Muntons was selected in recognition of its outstanding programme of sustainability commitment and action. The company started its sustainability journey back in 2007 because it was the right thing to do and has
Sustaining the ‘pour’ and saving water with the Vegapoint 21
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continued momentum ever since. In the past few years, it has invested in a biomass plant at its Bridlington site, an anaerobic digester at its Stowmarket site and this year has opened the doors to a new biomass energy centre at its headquarters in Stowmarket. Once fully on stream, the firm anticipates it will have decarbonised its maltings by a staggering 83%*. Muntons is not only limiting its actions to its own business but working collaboratively across the supply chain. Developing partnerships with UK farmers to grow 100% sustainable barley and working with them and global brewers, Heineken, to pioneer
Vega’s innovative new point level switch, the Vegapoint 21, has been installed at Bell’s Brewery in Comstock, Michigan, in the first installation of its kind in the US. The switch solves a major issue for brewers while being kinder to the environment. With every batch, beer ingredients ferment, and as they ferment, carbon dioxide (CO2) forms. The right amount of CO2 is good for beer. It’s a sign of healthy fermentation, which turns sugars into alcohol and gives it the sudsy quality we all know and love. During this process, however, excess CO2 forms, and it needs a place to go. That’s where the foam trap comes in. The CO2 gas can’t be directly vented into the cellar space where people are working because it would create a dangerous work environment. The CO2 can’t be directly vented outside, either, because beer foam commonly travels with the gas. Instead, as pressure builds in the fermentation vessel, the excess CO2 and some foam travel into the foam trap. As the excess CO2 and the foam fill the foam trap vessel, the foam is suppressed by spraying water on top of it with a spray
Summer 2022 | SIBA Independent Brewer | www.siba.co.uk
regenerative agriculture trials with the aim of growing carbon negative barley. Mark Tyldesley, Group Managing Director of Muntons, said: “This is an award that recognises the outstanding achievements we have delivered together in sustainability so far and gives us every incentive to do even more. Everyone who works at and with Muntons should be very proud of the work we have all done. The leadership and example we have been able to show on sustainability is inspiring our entire industry.” *Scope 1 & 2 emissions Find out more at www.muntons.com
ball. At the same time, a valve at the bottom of the vessel opens and drains the excess water. Without any instrumentation on this vessel, the spray ball would constantly run water, whether excess foam was present or not, only to eventually flow down the drain. Operating the foam trap this way wastes water, and Bell’s saw this as an opportunity to reduce their water consumption. To achieve overall control of the process, they needed two point level switches – one that could switch the spray ball on when it sensed the foam was too high and another that would switch the spray ball on if the water level dropped too low. At the same time, Vega was preparing to launch a new set of compact, affordable point level switches specifically designed for the food and beverage industries. The Vegapoint series of capacitance switches hadn’t been launched yet, but Vega Americas had a few early samples available. After learning about Bell’s Brewery’s latest challenge, Vega recommended the upcoming Vegapoint 21 to ensure the water level remained at a safe level. Find out more at www.vega.com/uk
