LoopulEX – External Dry Hopping

Dry hopping beer without adding hops to the tank while minimizing beer losses with the BANKE LoopulEX system The BANKE dry hopping system LoopulEX sets new standards for hop extraction efficiency, while also reducing beer losses while simultaneously maintaining a consistently high and reproducible hop aroma quality in the finished beer – whether one is adding 100 kg or 5000 kg of hops per batch. This is achieved through external hop extraction, i.e. the hops are extracted outside of the fermentation or maturation tank under optimized extraction conditions, allowing an entire batch to be dry-hopped in less than six hours. The particulate material from the hops is immediately separated after extraction through the application of HopSteiner curved screen technology or by means of a hygienically optimized decanter, depending upon individual process requirements. Dry hopping is usually associated with substantial beer losses. With the LoopulEX system, this can be reduced by up to 96 %. At the same time, the extraction process occurs in an oxygen-free atmosphere within the LoopulEX system and are removed immediately after the hop extraction. No particulate matter from the hops escapes from the LoopulEX system into the beer during this process, thus avoiding further problems downstream, such as the blockage of centrifuges or double-seated valves. The release of excessive amounts of sediment into the wastewater is also avoided. Furthermore, this new method enables a reduction in the quantity of hops necessary for dry hopping by up to 30 % while also identically matching the hop flavor profile produced using the previous method. Due to the significant reduction in beer losses, the extremely efficient aroma extraction and the savings associated with the lower quantity of hops used for dry hopping, an agreeable return on investment can be achieved with a volume of as little as 75,000 hl of dry-hopped beer. Please contact us for further information.