Hofbräu München and Anton Paar: 

Brewing Classic Beer Together

Located in Munich, Germany, the “Hofbräu München” brewery brews the beer for the “Hofbräuhaus,” one of the world’s most famous beer halls. With Anton Paar’s help, it produces well over 340,000 hectoliters of beer annually.

A trust-based partnership 

According to Christian Beetz, brewer and deputy laboratory manager at the brewery, “With a reputation for producing stable, practical, and precise instruments, we knew we could trust Anton Paar.” So Hofbräu München has steadily expanded its measuring points with Anton Paar devices and built them into its QC network. “Since we had so many parameters we needed to measure,” remembers Beetz, head of quality assurance Thomas Brandt bought two of Anton Paar’s Alcolyzer Beer Analyzing Systems to automatically analyze alcohol and other parameters in our laboratory.” The brewery also uses inline sensors and portable instruments for the measurement of density (extract), dissolved CO2, and O2. 

One solution covers it all

With its Anton Paar instruments, the brewery can measure over 15 parameters, including original extract, alcohol, dissolved carbon dioxide and oxygen, total packaged oxygen, turbidity, color, and pH. It can do this inline, at-line, and in the laboratory. As one member of the QC team at the brewery points out, Anton Paar’s allin-one measuring solution is a major benefit for his team. “I only have to have contact with one to two people. All inline devices are compatible with the same software, and all of them are collected and visualized on the same user interface.” Moreover, Davis 5, Anton Paar’s data visualization software, lets him calibrate and adjust his inline devices with laboratory values at the push of a button.

Measuring total packaged oxygen 

Until recently, the lab team in the brewery had been using the caustic potash solution (KOH) to determine total packaged oxygen, which is an inconvenient, time-consuming technique that produces inaccurate, non-repeatable results. 

Since 2021, the brewery has been using Anton Paar’s TPO 5000 total packaged oxygen meter, which has made the measuring process more straightforward, faster, and more accurate. With TPO 5000, Beetz says, the team can “measure headspace and dissolved oxygen separately. It’s much easier now for us. I insert a bottle into the instrument and after just a few minutes, I get a reliable result that is fully comparable with other measurements made on other Anton Paar devices. That’s great.” 

Future challenges, future opportunities 

Hofbräu München has more beverage brands than ever, and its portfolio will continue to expand. For Beetz and his team, this means more effort in the laboratory and a higher demand for measurement technologies that are fast and practical. “Seeing what the future holds for automated measurements, particularly regarding speed. Getting faster in this area would be a fascinating development.” 

Another challenge is lowering oxygen values to ensure beer stability. Since beer is being transported farther than ever before storage times are also getting longer. “Because of this,” says Beetz, “we have to ensure only beer that is stable over the long-term is put into the bottles. This is critical so that we make sure every consumer gets that same Hofbräu beer taste that we are known for.” 

While the QC team at Hofbräu München acknowledge these obstacles for the future, the team is confident that the brewery will overcome them – just as it has for over 400 years. Every challenge is also an opportunity. And that’s how the QC team approaches its day-to-day work at Hofbräu München.

🔎 Learn more about the TPO 5000 🔗 https://loom.ly/w9H3xoc

Anton Paar Packaged Oxygen Hofbräu München