The country’s technical experts in brewing equipment have partnered with the country’s technical experts in hops to develop the Hoptimiser, a specially designed system to achieve safe, rapid and complete contact during dry hopping to reach the pinnacle of hop flavour without developing undesirable hop characters.

The system includes a pressurised container that feeds hop material into the beer stream before passing through a macerating pump. The resulting interaction with fine hop particles facilitates the uptake of key hop flavours while minimising astringency and hop burn.

Brewtique’s Managing Director Gavin Troxler said “After a number of iterations and improvements over the past 12 months, we’ve developed a really efficient and effective system. It can help brewers increase their lupulin utilisation by up to 25% and considerably accelerate tank turnover times. Not to mention it removes the need to work at heights.”

Brewtique has a track record of designing and manufacturing high-quality brewing equipment. Their experienced team of Master Brewers, led by Technical Director Neal Cameron, have installed 54 breweries across Australia to date The Hoptimiser was developed in collaboration with Hop Products Australia (HPA) based on the latest research in maximizing hop flavour in beer.

HPA’s Head of Sales & Marketing Owen Johnston said “We listened to the challenges our brewing customers are facing, both big and small, when dry hopping. This skid-mounted system has everything they need to dry hop their beers safely and easily.”

Merino Brewery Head Brewer Tim Howard helped conduct extensive testing of the system.

He said “Safety is always the number one priority working in a brewery. The Hoptimiser eliminates the risks associated with carrying kilograms of hops to heights or hop volcanos wasting litres of precious beer.”

Using the dynamic system, Tim was able to increase aroma terpenoids at a faster rate, and the accelerated recirculation times kept astringency and dry hopping rates down.

He added “For my brewery, which currently doesn’t operate a centrifuge, the macerated hop particles reduced residency time due to better flocculation.

The Hoptimiser has proven to be a great addition to the brewer’s toolkit, improving safety and quality, as well as reducing beer loss.”
Brewtique and HPA will be launching the Hoptimiser at BrewCon next week. Hop over to Stand 41 or Stand 101 at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre on the 22nd or 23rd of August to check it out.

About HPA

Hop Products Australia (HPA) is the country’s largest hop grower, backed by a team of experts in plant breeding, farm operations, customer service and brewing support. As sole custodians of their Aussie hops, and regional representatives of the global BarthHaas group, HPA supply a huge range of consistently high-quality local, international, and innovative hop products so their brewing customers can make consistently high-quality beers.

About Brewtique

Brewtique has been providing expert advice and proven equipment to the Australian and Pacific markets for over 18 years. From small craft brewery solutions through to large-scale production facilities, they have the right solution for every output requirement and budget.

Brewtique’s goal is to help their brewing customers’ produce great quality beer with their experienced team of Master Brewers assisting every step of the way, from inception to installation, commissioning and on-site training.