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A 3D drawing of the eight arm rakes also suffer from a poorer downturn
on Ziemann Holvrieka’s 15.2m lauter factor so you could not put a three-
tuns at Cervecera de Coahuila in quarter length brew through if market-
Mexico. (Photo courtesy of Ziemann Holvrieka) ing suddenly decided to launch a short
run craft beer opportunity.
Nevertheless, the largest currently
available has a 24-tonne loading and
with a huge surface area for filtration,
a fine grind and only a few centimetres
of grain bed, it is possible to get 14
brews a day and extracts are around
103%. Detractors continue to ask
whether the 4% of extract contributes
a lot to the quality and cost of the
finished beer. Even if you do not col-
lect the last few drops of extract, the
squeezing of the grains does enhance
their co-product market value. It is
without doubt that the popularity of the
mash filter has spurred recent devel-
opments in lauter tun run off.
Ziemann (now merged with
Holvrieka under the Chinese CIMC
Group) has an 8.3m diameter lauter
tun at Bavaria (Bucaramanga in
Colombia) delivering 99.4% extract
and one at Radomyshl in the Ukraine
is turned around 14 times a day. The
largest lauter we can find is again by
Ziemann at Piedras Negras in Mexico.
This old Modelo site was sold to the
USA’s Constellation Group when all of
Grupo Modelo was subsumed into A-B
InBev. Slap bang on the Texan border,
it is now called Cervecera de Coahuila

The cutting edge

with a 15.2m diameter lauter. There
are four of them (soon to be six) which
are turned around twelve times daily.
This brewery has recently announced
an expansion to 27.5mhL per year
Inside the modern lauter tun – making it easily the largest in the
world.
By Roger Putman
The mash tun reigned supreme
In the UK, the mash tun reigned
Allowing rapid and maximum extraction of clear wort supreme for many years; Georges
from the spent grains, the lauter tun is the workhorse of (Courage) in Bristol had a 125 quarter
the world’s brewing industry. Particular design issues beast (19 tonnes). All went well until
the graining motor conked out and a
are associated with utilising rakes to aid the filtration and keen fresh-faced brewing student had
an underplate arrangement to avoid sucking the grains to help chuck the grains out by hand.
Thirsty work – helped along with stain-
down on to the false bottom. The process should be fully less buckets full of AK, the brewery
automated without the need for any operator intervention. allowance beer back in 1968!
A mash tun half that size was more
Indeed, at the CUB plant at Yatala (Queensland, Australia) usual in larger breweries at that time
by Briggs, the control room is not even in the brewhouse! but you had to be slick to turn them
around in eight hours to keep to a
three brews a day programme. The

T oday the alternative wort separa-

tion equipment would be the mash
filter. Tonne-for-tonne these would be
Cloths eventually wear out and any
with air-operated diaphragms would
carry the regular cost of replacement.
lauter tun offered a splitting of the
process’ unit operations; mash in us-
ing a separate stirred vessel to convert
more expensive than a lauter tun and The associated hammer mill to pul- the starch, raise the temperature to
would require more thorough clean- verise the grain does need extensive reduce the viscosity and then trans-
ing to avoid the filter cloths clogging. explosion protection and is noisy. They fer to a larger diameter vessel with a

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shallower bed and a raking device for

a more rapid run off. The cycle time Sparging ring
came down to three hours and eight
daily brews were achievable. The new Lighting
arrangement had increased installa- Manhole
tion and operating costs and needed
extra space to place the two vessels.
Raking
machine
First experiences
I first came across a lauter tun with a
Ziemann block brewhouse dating from Spent grains
1959 at the Bass Cape Hill No. 3 Brew- Control valve flap and chute
ery in Birmingham. It was situated in a
lofty room with a control panel on one
Sight glass False bottom Spent grains
side and a tiled wall opposite hiding rinsing unit
the vessels with an open 16 tap grant hopper
in front. There was a horizontal cylin-
drical mash mixer (for seven tonnes
of grist) and kettle at ground level and
above those, a rectangular lengthy
lauter tun stretched across the two Lautering pump Lauter tun drive Mash inlet
lower vessels. The mash vessel dou-
Figure 1: Diagram of the GEA Lauterstar with associated equipment. IBD examination candidates might like to
bled as an underback until the kettle
add three or four rotary jet cleaning nozzles in the top
was empty. There was a single raking
arm which was pulled back and forth the meaning of something. Probably inside another Czech built tun else-
across the bed. All the vessels were both are derived from leuter, a Mid- where in Poland!
made in copper. There was a conical dle High German word meaning to
bottomed hop back hidden from view make something clear. At the risk of All stainless
around the back and a Boby mill right a challenge from German linguists, Today’s lauter tun will be made of 304
at the top. After ten years of opera- it appears to have the same root so a stainless or else 316 if there is a high
tion the extract and wort clarity were lauter tun is a clarifying tun and we level of chloride in the water. Some
inferior to the three nine- tonne mash ought to remember the umlaut and brewers have added copper outers to
tuns of No.2 brewery next door, but pronounce it accordingly! enhance the view for visitors and these
it did give an idea of how brewhouse The clarifying tun with a shallow help to give support to the insulation. A
turn-round times could be accelerated bed above the slotted false bottom number of brewers with copper outers
to a four-hour cycle. and some sort of raking apparatus have added stainless only versions; they
A move to Bass at Tadcaster in would have been essential to cope with say to allow visitors to contrast the ‘old’
1973 allowed me to play with the the produce of a decoction mash- and the new but more likely to keep
UK’s first Schock Gusmer lauter tun ing programme. Associated with a the capital costs in check! The ‘Lauters
which dated from 1966. This single- less well modified and lower-kilned Around the World’ panel shows the two
stream brewhouse mashed every three malt, the mash starts off at 35oC to GEA finishes at Plzen and Briggs’ latest
hours and with a single mid-week get the glucanase enzymes moving brewhouse with a 6m tun at Shiner
clean could produce around 30,000hL then a third is removed and boiled in a in Texas where the ‘old’ Briggs tuns
weekly. There was a running off slotted separate vessel. The returning boiled were beautifully shrouded in copper
panel above the grain bed in the side of portion raises the heat to allow prote- by Vendome. All lauter tuns will have a
the vessel but that was never used in olysis and a second decoction raises vent as the mash is transferred quickly
my day. This plant is still in operation the temperature for amylolysis. A third and opening manway doors to exhaust
and about to celebrate its half century treatment increases the heat to 76oC, displaced air is not a very sensible thing
– a true workhorse indeed! thus lowering the viscosity ready for to do. We shall consider the all impor-
transfer to the lauter tun. This process tant plates, run off points and raking
Clarifying tuns at the famous and still traditional Pils- gear shortly but you can see a diagram
There are references to ‘clarifying ner Urquell plant at Plzen in the Czech of the entire set up of a GEA Lauterstar
tuns’ in English translations of Ger- Republic takes four and a half hours in Figure 1.
man textbooks from the second half from the first mashing in.
of the nineteenth century. The Journal Briggs’ John Hancock remembers The mash
of the Institute of Brewing index first a visit to Poland in the early 1990s With improved strains of barley and
mentions a lauter tun in 1927 and where a 1970s vintage Czech brew- better control of malting parameters,
the next reference is not until 1961; house was decocting for 7.5 hours and decoction has largely been superseded
the first mash filter is discussed in the finished mash looked like ‘the mud by infusion mashing or else mashing
1896! The term Läutern is a special- in an East Anglian estuary’ – a mash in at 45oC for a short proteolytic stand
ist word in German now used only in with no buoyancy and clogged with and quickly raising the temperature
the brewing industry, although there break material – a challenge to the using steam jackets to 65oC for starch
is Läuterzucker, which means sugar rakes indeed. John also remarked on conversion. Classically the dry grist for
syrup and erläutern which means to top run offs through four swinging take a lauter separation would be finer than
clarify but in the sense of elucidating off points floating on the wort surface that for a mash tun with a husk portion

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Mebak - lauter tun grist composition Gentle mash handling

The mash must be transferred equally
EBC
carefully to the lauter tun. The under-
Sieve Number Opening mm % of Total Grist plate area must be filled with hot liq-
uor and the plates covered to 1-2mm
1 1.27 18-25% depth to provide a cushion to avoid the
2 1.01 <10%
mash particles being forced into the
3 0.55 35%
4 0.25 21% slots in the false bottom. If the plant is
5 0.15 7% being started up from cold, the under-
6 PAN <15% letting can be supplemented by some
sparge water to get the temperature
Total: 100% up so the mash does not lose heat on
transfer. Some brewers will have the
Figure 2: Some data from Briggs showing the MEBAK sieve
fractions for a typical lauter tun grist lauter base lagged but it is common Figure 3: The side mash inlet on a large Briggs
practice in distilleries where the mash lauter tun
of 15%, coarse grits of 5%, fine grits at at 65oC takes place in the same vessel to the complexity. Those not keen on
30% with another 30% as flour. Com- and you would not want to lose heat on these inlet valves suggest their rela-
parable mash tun figures would be 20, a chilly Highland morning. tively narrow bore increases the shear
35, 35 and 10%1. Typical EBC (MEBAK) Briggs uses two entry ports on op- on the mash and any agitation could
figures for a lauter tun grist are shown posite sides of the tun with the plates increase oxygenation, so it is essential
in Figure 2. The use of wet milling or at a tangent to the pipe cross section to programme the flow to be low until
even steam conditioning ahead of a dry as in Figure 3. The mash quickly finds the valves are completely covered. GEA
mill makes grist assessment by siev- its own level even on its 12.8m tun at places the inlets at 0.71 of the radius
ing rather difficult; a 22-hour run off Shenandoah (MillerCoors, Virginia, where the area towards the centre is
would no doubt be investigated without USA) which is the largest the Burton- the same as that outside towards the
delay but a steady drop off in extract based firm has ever made. Ziemann periphery. A cross section of a valve is
yield might not be as readily notice- will also use side entry, pointing out shown in Figure 4. Krones uses single
able so it is worth inspecting the spent that the installation is cheaper, you side inlets up to 3.5m diameter and
grains for whole corns on a regular can rake during filling and cleaning introduce a double bottom inlet up to
basis. the mash pipes is easier. The proto- 5.0m, then four at the bottom up to
The liquor to grist ratio would be type Krones Pegasus system had four 13.5m and six beyond that. Either way
3.0-3.5L/kg for a brewing mash (the mash inlets directed outwards over the the mash must not splash in from a
total plus underlet and sparge could plates from the wide central upstand high level which can block the bottom
be as low as 6.0L/kg for ultra high or ‘dome’. Early work at Freising con- slots and also lead to increased levels
gravity brewing but classically some cluded that the centre of a lauter bed of oxygen in the mash.
7.5L/kg could go through the bed). did not allow ready extraction of wort Much research has been conducted
A distilling mash would be nearer as the arms moved too slowly to allow to indicate that mashing under an inert
3.8. Comparable figures for a mash the sparge to leach the sugars so the
filter would be a total water usage of first Pegasus incarnation removed the
5.5L/kg. High-gravity brews can be centre altogether leaving an annular
achieved with modern lauter tuns us- area for extraction and a useful dry
ing collected weak wort for mashing volume in the centre under the dome
in. The grain should be treated gently for services etc. 
in the mash conversion vessel with The current Pegasus C has a
specially designed vessel agitators to carefully designed run off matrix in the
ensure minimal shear stress (GEA) or centre of the tun with a higher density
else Ziemann’s Colibri agitator with of run off points and rakes to ‘force’
spiral anchor-shaped arms providing the wort through the central section.
more rapid heat transfer than with a Both measures, higher density of run
traditional stirrer. Otherwise there is off points and the knife distribution
the Krones Shakesbeer which applies allowed the dome to be removed from
resonant vibration and claims a reduc- the centre and at the same time solved
tion in mash oxygenation, intensified the problem of ineffective extraction.
enzymic catalysis followed by easier
lautering and improved extracts. Inlet through the plates
There is not a lot of difference in The only other way to get the mash
wort viscosity between 76 and 78oC into the lauter tun is to have mash inlet
but anything higher might encourage ports spread throughout the vessel
the leaching of unwanted polyphe- base. Each needs an actuator and
nols and there is a school of thought an effective rinse after the mash is
that says the more thermally stable transferred so that they reseat flush
α-amylase is still chopping up dextrin against the false bottom area – this
chains within that temperature range could mean using proximity switches
and thus, even at this late stage in the to ensure closure so if there are six or Figure 4: Diagram of a bottom mash inlet
process, contributes to the extract. seven mash inlet valves this will add valve from GEA

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atmosphere or else bubbling nitrogen

through the lauter bed can lead to 8 brews
lower levels of oxygen pick-up which 10 brews
infers a better oxidative stability on 12 brews
the finished beer. We are not aware
of anyone trying this on a commercial
level; there would be safety issues
of removing a large volume of gas
as the vessel fills, particularly if the
brewhouse is open to visitors and
anyway, gas is expensive. However,

260 kg/m2

230 kg/m2

195 kg/m2

220 kg/m2

190 kg/m2

180 kg/m2

210 kg/m2

180 kg/m2

170 kg/m2
if the lauter could be sealed and the
inflowing mash pressurises it, there
could be some mileage in pressure
lautering with faster run offs and drier Steeping cond. MILLSTAR™ Cond. dry milling Dry milling
grains. Current thinking suggests
that the lauter tun void is just under Figure 5 from GEA shows the maximum dry goods loading is affected by the type of milling
80oC which will reduce the amount of another brew or two over their two- eight daily brews, dry milling would al-
oxygen present and besides, the mash row cousins but thirteen or more daily low 180kg/m2 but 220 with a wet mill –
is introduced gently at a low level. A brews are exceptional. Yet whatever over 20% more or over three tonnes in
typical mash pump would exhibit low the frequency, the extract should be a 10m tub. At twelve brews, wet milling
shear, a slow speed and high volume approaching 99%. would allow just under four tonnes
using 150- 350mm pipes. These are The yield should also consider more loading. Briggs uses a similar
designed to handle suspended solids clarity and suspended solids going to chart which shows that three brews a
without damage and other industry the wort kettle. The MEBAK standard day could have a grain load of 500kg/
examples include moving beetroot and for German lauter tun states the wort m2 (about 95cm) but twelve brews
even transferring goldfish! should be below 40oEBC for 75% of the would be down to 120kg (roughly
The mash should transfer within run, a modern tun can easily achieve 23cm) with a dry mill. The huge laut-
6-10 minutes including flushing. below 5oEBC for 90% of the run and ers at Coahuila use dry malt milling
Recirculation can commence after 5-6 below 20o for the rest of the time. It is and are loaded at around 135kg/m2.
minutes of transfer and finish 3-4 min- a fact that some malt whisky distiller- Thus a steep milling system becomes
utes after the mash is all in. This five ies eschew bright worts and with a essential to take advantage of modern
minute vorlauf should be reintroduced much thinner mash, no adjunct, fine lautering. At low grain depths there
on top of the bed, below the wort Scottish malt, higher sparge tempera- is not too much leeway in the bed if
surface and as far as possible from the tures (up to 85oC) and no extraction something goes wrong. Note that the
top of grains below. Designers should flavour issues should make lauter conversion from kg/m2 to a rough grain
take note of different vessel loadings tun turnround very rapid indeed. John depth in millimetres is to divide by
for different wort streams to ensure Hancock explained that there is an 0.522.
this condition is always met. Without a extensive recovery of weak worts lead-
rest, the wort can then go forward. The ing to extracts sometimes in excess Start with the batch size
initial haze may be 50o EBC but it very of 101%. For a given grain load, the So the design of a lauter tun starts
soon reduces. brewer only runs off half the volume with the brewer’s batch size in tonnes
that a malt distiller would. In practice, and the number of brews a day he
Tuning the operations the operation is usually linked to the wants. The engineers then use a stan-
It is by pruning the times of all the an- spirit duties of the team and accelera- dard kg-per-square-metre loading to
cillary operations; underlet, filling, last tion to less than a seven-hour still work out the diameter bearing in mind
runnings (draining), grain removal and cycle is pointless unless the turnround the theoretical loads caused by dif-
rinsing etc. that has allowed a more could be halved to allow two mashes ferent raw materials like rice, maize,
rapid vessel turnaround without undue while the stills are running. However, barley or wheat and the type of milling
cutting of the all-important lautering this would demand a higher cooling system (dry, conditioned or wet) as
time which should be from 95 to 100 water flow as the wort cooler is linked well as considering the desired first
minutes for a 10m tun. With the mash directly to the lauter run off on the way wort concentration (low, middle and
in the lauter tun this is perhaps a good to the wash backs. An independent high). This specific load for the false
point to discuss current sizing and spirit north of the border persists and bottom (kg/m²) decides the diameter.
throughput. Most plants will manage a number of distillers say they do not Due to limitations in the fabrication
over ten brews a day, the exception be- appreciate having brewing technology shop, GEA will produce tuns by adding
ing where mashing with high adjunct foisted upon them! an extra 300mm to the diameter so you
levels slows operations to around six So lauter tun operation is a three- can only have 7m, 7.3m, 7.6m etc etc.
per day but that does save on expen- way compromise between throughput, It almost goes without saying that
sive barley malt. Mash filters are often extract and clarity. As the demand for the base and plates of a lauter tun
a more attractive proposition in such more daily brews increases so has must be absolutely level. This puts
situations particularly if sorghum is the vessel diameter if the mash size some pressure on the tolerances for
the main adjunct. Conversely, in North remains the same. Figure 5 from GEA steelwork and associated foundations.
America, the use of six-row barley shows the maximum dry goods loading The grain removal operation does put
with relatively more husk might allow is affected by the type of milling; at a degree of twisting force on the sup-

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Figure 6A: The left hand side of this diagram from GEA shows how the grain can be Figure 6B: Careful design of the conical section allows a more even
compacted above the run off points when wort tends to rise up before flowing down flow
the old pipes
leys. At one outlet for every two square sparge going through the periphery
metres of plates, the holes would be leading to uneven extract recovery.
up to 1530mm apart (Shenandoah) in
the valley base. Underplate jetting is Lower underplate volumes
facilitated by using flexible hose con- The lower the underplate volume,
nectors leading to strategically placed the more opportunity there is to put
spray heads with a flow directed down the water volume saved through the
the valleys. Rob observed that fewer bed as sparge to recover more final
and wider runoffs are easier to clean extract – a key factor say narrower gap
and less prone to blocking. The whole manufacturers, as much high-gravity
tun is supported by sitting on steel brewing is conducted at 17oP and
rings secured under the valley apices. energy costs cannot allow extra boiling
Figure 6C: Photo by Krones showing the The outlets can have a wider of excess water to reach that gravity.
carefully designed profile of a Pegasus run diameter as they are 30mm below the GEA counters this with a design which
off cone plates thus avoiding any suction on the has a 30mm gap and it advises brew-
ports and the tubular vertical supports grain bed above. Other designs with a ers to tighten the mashing rate into
seen in many German brewhouses flat bottom which might be as little as the lauter which will return to normal
cope better than a simple steel frame. 20mm below the plates have to use hy- once the vorlauf is underway and the
The steelwork must never sag and draulic modelling techniques to design extra 5mm of water finds its way on
larger tuns, which are usually fabricat- a suitable funnel shape which will stop top of the mash early in the lautering
ed and then chopped into halves, thirds the tendency of the wort to rise up at process.
or even quarters for transportation, the lip of the runoff port and affect the Some brewers will collect the final
need to be re-welded on site to very suction on the bed above as shown in flow of weak wort and use it as part
tight specifications. Brigg’s Technical Figure 6. of the next mash but that could give
Director Rob Buxton thought that the Spacing may be as high as 1.2 - problems with mixing different wort
extra cost and risk of these operations 1.5 holes per square metre. Krones streams, keeping the recovered worts
might outweigh the savings in having told me that as the flow conditions free from contamination and deciding
larger capacity tuns in the first place – at the run off points and in the wort what to do with the stock if there is a
an early decision for the preconstruc- collecting ring are very homogenous break in brewing. According to Briggs,
tion design phase.. and slow so they are able to operate the practice is by no means universal.
Briggs tuns utilise the valley a quite small gap of approximately The run off collection mains are
bottom principle inherited from the 20 – 25mm. This reduces the amount designed to balance the pressure drop
Schock Gusmer design which Briggs of water for the underlet and there- across the whole bed and facilitate an
took over in 1983 when it founded fore provides some more leeway for even run off. Manufacturers use ring
its US division, which is still based sparging. With a concentration of run mains while the GEA Lauterstar has
in Rochester in NY State. A 12m tun off points at 1.4 per m2 for the main ‘spokes’ which brings the wort to a
would have four concentric valleys. The part of the base, this is decreased to central chamber. With lesser distance
apex between them would be some 1.2 in the outer area where the knives between the plates and the bottom,
10mm below the plates, be 1500mm are not traversing so frequently but there has been a tendency to increase
apart with large (62mm) run off outlets they are slightly closer together. This the intensity of run off points to as
in the bottom of the 20mm deep val- arrangement will discourage too much high as 1.5 for every square metre with

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a gap under the plates of less than might fall showed similar properties
25mm. Conversely GEA with a 30mm to those at the top even though the
gap can decrease the number of run particle size was a lot bigger.
off points.
There is an interesting new de- The plates
velopment from Ziemann Holvrieka Some 20mm or so above the base
called the Lotus lauter tun which was of the tun are the plates. These can
designed after extensive work on an be machined from sheet steel with a
existing 8.6m tun dating from 2011. 55mm long and 0.7mm wide slot as
Someone had noticed, on taking the shown in Figure 7. The slot extends
plates up, that the whole inner ring of some 1mm deep and then the gap
run offs had become blocked but the opens out into a curved rebate. This
extract was not affected. So outlets arrangement gives a void area of some
were systematically closed off and the 10% of the total surface. The slots fol-
effect on efficiency and clarity was low the vessel radius within 10o so that
measured. Surprisingly, the project the grain ploughing proceeds across Figure 7A: Steel plate being machined to produce a false
ended up with a single ring of run off the slots and does not clog them. The bottom at Briggs
points towards the periphery of the plates are supported on short legs or
vessel which runs to a single collection small pegs set on the vessel base. Set-
main saving 50% on pipes and many ting them in rings allows for a degree
fewer welds. Employing only 24 run of expansion tolerance and the final
offs instead of the original 84 without plate edge is always adjusted on site to
altering time, yield or clarity leads to make sure of a snug fit. Ziemann also
a considerable reduction in manufac- mills the plates from sheet and claims
turing costs, vessel complexity and 15% free passage.
the underplate jets can operate from Wedgewire offers a greater void
the centre to the periphery with fewer area of 20-25% as there are no gaps
incumberances2. in the slotted area but the wires have
The latest 11.6m design which to be welded to a support framework
would originally have had 150 openings which increases the weight and an Figure 7B: The profile of the Briggs slot showing
the shallow cut and the rebated cross section
over the 106m2 now has only 46, saving individual plate may have to be smaller
some 50% of the underplate water to allow manual handling during the strong wort runs off and thereafter it is
volume which is now available to go six-monthly underplate inspections synchronised with the wort collection
across the top of the bed. The first Lo- for any blockages and pressure jetting flow rate keeping around 25mm above
tus at Straubing in Germany, installed of the slots. The Pegasus has 24% the top of the grain. At a recipe-driven
in 2013, successfully copes with a 70% voidage wedgewire while GEA has a point, the sparge is shut off and the
wheat malt grist and further exam- patented design which welds the wires remaining wort drained to avoid reach-
ples have been installed at Karbach at a slight angle which allows the grain ing the cut off gravity with an overly
in Texas and Faust back in Germany. plough even less opportunity to drive wet bed.
Ballast Point at San Diego in California residues into the plates as the profile The rakes are designed to keep the
has recently taken delivery of a 7.6m presented to the graining direction is porosity of the bed high by cutting it in
Lotus. narrower than the actual gap as shown order to open channels and keeping it
Such work may stimulate other in Figure 8. buoyant by lifting it. Once upon a time,
suppliers to reconsider the basic Buyers should note that some brewers would run the strong wort
design as might some work by TUM suppliers will quote voidage figures off as gently as possible until the wort
Weihenstephan where Jörg Engstle over the machined area only and not viscosity dropped and then sparging
has used a 50L glass vessel to study include the bits at the edge of the and raking could be exhaustive. Today
the cake which is formed by sedimen- plates. However, the gaps in the bot- the strong worts are raked and the
tation with each layer having its own tom offer little resistance to wort flow run off is slowed in the later stages to
characteristics3. He used a cutting de- compared to the grain bed above so a facilitate the flow of sparge into the in-
vice to separate six layers for further void area of 10% can cope adequately terstices of the bed to recover the final
analysis. Layer porosity was measured even though the wedgewire seemingly few percent of extract and leave grains
gravimetrically and filter cake resist- offers a faster run off. The voidage on a below 80% moisture.
ance was detected by filtration with classic mash tun with a 1mm wide slot The side profile of the lauter tun
constant pressure. Laser diffraction would only have been around 4%. must allow the raking equipment
spectroscopy and sieving were used to to be raised above the highest bed
determine particle-size distributions The sparge and run off
and X-ray microtomography allowed The sparge water is applied either
a three-dimensional analysis of the through a low-pressure ring main Direction
cake structure. He confirmed that the with nozzles directing spray in a wide
jelly-like top layer (the classic oberteig) arc over the whole surface or else
was the most difficult for wort to get sprayballs which may also be used
through but interestingly layer six deep for the weekly CIP clean. The sparge Figure 8: The wedgewire bottom of a GEA Lauterstar shows
down (the unterteig) in the bed where provides a high initial flow to replenish the wires are welded at a slight angle which allows the grain
any under-modified parts of the corn the hydraulic head as the last of the plough less opportunity to drive residues into the plates

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Raking arm 3
Raking arm 2
Raking arm 4
Raking arm 1
Figure 10: Possible arm layout as postulated by
Briggs’ Andrews and Wilkinson back in 1996
Figure 9: Diagram showing how each of the four arms in a GEA Lauterstar cuts different similar. This is achieved by position-
sections of the grain bed ing straight knives on the forward
depth which also dictates the height system allows full control of both ro- side of the arms and zigzag ones
of the rakes. There will be a central tation and raise/lower speed across fitted behind, and for lauter tuns over
drive shaft driven by two motors; for the full speed range. 5.5m diameter Krones also employs
rotation (covering both lauter and Briggs has a rule of thumb sug- diagonal cross lifting edges spanning
discharge) and raise/lower, each with gesting that each square metre of every other knife towards the base of
energy saving variable speed drives bed should have 1.4 rakes. Rakes the vessel to have an increased bed
(typically operating between 2 and 87 cannot be closer than 150mm for lifting effect and prevent channelling.
Hz) and separate motor driven cooling fear of initiating a ploughing action The number of Krones arms, rakes,
fans. The top shaft bearing should be on the bed, thus you can work out run off points are fixed for each
above mash level and allow accurate the number of rakes and note that diameter but they are always closer
lauter machine alignment. above 4m diameter you need four together towards the periphery as
This bearing takes a consider- arms, six above 8m and a very heavy here they traverse more surface and
able force from the arms and avoids eight for anything larger than 12m. the density is calculated based on the
imposing excessive load on the The Pegasus uses more rakes (2.0 – lauter surface being covered.
gearbox bearings. Older systems 2.4 knives per m²) but the increase The knives on the arms are
had separate discharge and lauter in arms as the diameter increases designed so that the knife on the fol-
motors (with secondary gearbox), (two up to 3.5m, three up to 5.0m, lowing arm cuts the bed remote from
plus a hydraulic raise/lower system. four up to 7.0m, six up to 11.5m and the cut before and so on until the first
The modern electro-mechanical eight for all larger diameters) is arm comes round again (Figure 9). The
old Velo Helios lauter tun had a split
arm which allowed the knives to move
in and out and thus cut the bed more
exhaustively with an infinite variation.
Briggs built a five-arm lauter for the
old Tyne Brewery in Newcastle back in
1994 where the end of each arm split
11B shows the Briggs device with flights towards the periphery rather like a
tuning fork to obtain a more frequent
cut around the outermost grains
effectively using ten arms. During
lautering the arms will advance at only
half a revolution per minute on smaller
units and perhaps as slowly as 0.2rpm
on large ones with more arms. Other
specially-designed branching exten-
sions are possible (see Figure 10) but
probably offer no advantages beyond
multiple arms attached to the centre
spindle.

Modern rakes
Older rakes would have been cast
in bronze or gunmetal. Today they
are fabricated in the workshop. The
Figure 11A shows the GEA zig zag knife 11C shows Krones zig-zag arrangement behind a grain blade profile could be a plain metal zigzag
with its two feet in the upright graining position which offers more cutting edge in a

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Figure 12 shows the run off profile at Grolsch in the Netherlands with a 10.9m GEA tun at 10
brews a day with a lautering time of 105 minutes without a deep cut
given height and are said to reduce open to the atmosphere. The run off
the chance of wort ‘channelling’ control software has seen considera-
too quickly compared to a straight ble development by all suppliers of the
vertical knife. These latter have equipment to attain full automation at Figure 13: This shows the Krones Pegasus copper graining
welded winglets which are angled maximum efficiency. The programme blades and the top mounted plough sections. The drawing
at 6o upwards towards the back of will be recipe-driven but able to cope shows the arrangement for a three arm Pegasus tun. (Photos
the knife when earlier tuns would with variations to the expected volume courtesy of Krones)
have worked well with 3o. Sometimes collected, flow rate, sparge rate, rake the leading side of the arms amongst
called ‘flights’, these would be fixed speed and height, differential pressure the straight knives and these run
closer together towards the bottom above and below the plates as well parallel to the plates during run
which cumulates in a shoe. At mini- haze and wort gravity. Simple exam- off. For grain removal, the arms are
mum rake height there would be a ples would be that as the differential raised and the motor reverses, the
10-20mm gap above the plates which pressure increases, the rakes go down bed resistance pushes the hinged
would allow a small amount of wear and go up if the differential decreases; section into an upright position and
on the central spindle. Briggs keeps if the clarity deteriorates the run off their motion directs the grain towards
the distance between each knife the rate is slowed down etc. the outside and thus supports the
same across the arm. GEA splits the There is often a deep rake after the grain plough which comes down into
knife into two staggered legs about strong wort is off but otherwise such the bed from the top.
150mm from the base and fit each raking is to be avoided as it should be There is a curved section in the
end with a ‘shoe’ either in stainless followed by recirculation to clear the
or brass to get more intense lifting worts and that would increase the pro-
near the plates. I was told by Kom- cess time. Grolsch at Enschede in the
pania Piwowarska in Poland that the Netherlands with a 10.9m GEA tun at
shoes offer the chance to leach some 10 brews a day has a 189kg/m2 loading
sacrificial metal ions to enrich the produces a kettle full at 14.2oP with a
wort when the Reinheitsgebot (500 lautering time of 105 minutes without
years old this year) precludes the a deep cut (Figure 12).
brewing water salt additions which
the rest of the world is allowed to Removing the grains
make. I am afraid that the casting In earlier designs, the rakes could be
process renders the brass chemi- turned to create a barrier to facilitate
cally resistant and you are unlikely grain removal. Some lauter tuns had
to get any leaching of zinc unless semi-circular hinged grain shoes
you employ a particularly acid CIP which trailed behind the rakes. On
regime! Figure 11 shows a selection reversing the direction of motion, the
of knives. shoes would swing back and bridge
The wort flows from the collec- the gaps to act as a plough. The
tion mains to a pump via a loop which Pegasus also reverses the direction of
prevents it dragging the grains down the arms to remove the grains. There Figure 14 from Briggs shows a plan of the S-shaped
towards the plates, but is no longer are hinged copper blades mounted on graining plough

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l BREWHOUSE

Figure 15A shows a drawing of a Lauterstar arm with the graining plough in the up position. GEA simulate an S-shape with a pair of V-shaped
ploughs with 135o internal angles as in Figure 15B which is at the Würzburger Hofbräu. The positioning of the two feet on the end of the knives is
also clearly visible. (Photos courtesy of GEA)
vessel centre to direct the grain with each blade covering its own and perhaps even a further clamp
outwards and an angled section to ‘ring’ of the vessel bottom. Although in case the power supply fails. After
push them down the discharge hole. copper ions help to disperse sul- every grain removal, the underplate
Both the copper blades and the top phury aromas, once again I am told volume must be jetted and residues
mounted plough sections are shown the blade surfaces are not suffi- run down to drain. Figure 17 shows
in Figure 13. Up to a diameter of ciently large to gain any significant the underplate spray arrangement in
7.5m there is only one plough, for leaching of the ion. GEA’s Lauterstar. These jets are also
bigger diameters there are two of Other modern lauter tuns use employed during a weekly detergent
them. A six-arm 10m tun would have a separate plough with a shallow clean which would also include the
six copper blades some 840mm long, S-shape profile which sits above the use of three rotary spray jet devices
these are positioned as in Figure 13 top of the rakes and is dropped down (like the Toftejorg TZ74 which works
to the top of the grain bed to start the up to 5 bar) set around the perimeter
removal process but in the same direc- in the vessel top above the raking
tion of arm travel as during lautering. machinery.
A plan of the arrangement is shown in Modern lauter tuns are not about to
Figure 14 from Briggs. GEA simulate be superseded by filters; they operate
an S-shape with a pair of V-shaped at high extract efficiency at low cycle
ploughs with 135o internal angles as in times with easy cleaning. The worts
Figure 15. There would be two plough are clear, free of solids and suitable
bars for a six-arm lauter tun. Grain for high gravity brewing.
removal from a 10m-diameter lauter
tun would start at 4-5rpm and increase References
to a maximum of 8rpm at the end but 1. O’Rourke T, Back to basics 12, Brewer
the power on the drive would be moni- International (2003), 2, 57.
tored to protect against a blockage and 2. Becher T, Biechl C and Wasmuht K,
Figure 16 shows the four-valley 12.8m Briggs Shenandoah MBAA TQ (2015) 4, 202
lauter tun base in the fabrication shop. There are four an overload on the motor. A large tun
3. Engstle J, Foerst P and Kuhn M, slides
800mm grain discharge points. (Photo courtesy of Briggs) might have four 800mm grain outlets,
from Brewing Summit (MBAA and ASBC)
two at the periphery on each opposite presentation, Chicago, June 2014.
side to complete the removal in 8-10
minutes. Figure 16 shows the four- Further reading
valley Shenandoah lauter tun base in Brewing Science and Practice, Briggs,
the fabrication shop. Thus the number Boulton, Brookes and Stevens (2004) pp
of grain ports is linked to the diameter: 203-211.
one up to 6.5m, two up to 12.0m and Technology – Brewing and Malting, Kunze
four for the bigger ones according to (2010), pp296-310
Freising. The Practical Brewer, MBAA (1999) pp122-138
The hinged port is heavy and cov-
ered with a false bottom so that run Acknowledgements
off is not impeded. It swings into a D- The author would like to record his
shaped tube leading to a grain dump thanks to Thurid Heyse, Ray Anderson
tank, one on each side of the tun. and Johannes Tippman as well as a
Gone are the days of the Ponndorf air number of engineers in the industry
transport to the spent grains silos who freely shared their knowledge.
being the rate determining step. A Rob Buxton and John Hancock from
grain slide opening during lautering Briggs, Rudi Michel from GEA,
is not desirable so the port is rinsed Matthew Hadwen and Ralph Scheid
Figure 17 shows the underplate spray arrangement in GEA’s carefully to ensure it seals prop- from Krones and Tobias Becher from
Lauterstar erly; a locking bolt is then engaged Ziemann Holvrieka.

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BREWHOUSE l

Lauter tuns around the world

Now for visitors eyes only, a venerable lauter The way we were. A classic copper lauter arrangement by Steinecker (now Krones) at the
tun at Pilsner Urquell in Plzen Badische Staatsbrauerei Rothaus just over 1000m up in the Black Forest

The old and the new at Pilsner Urquell in Plzen. The copper vessels
have stainless inners and the newer 10m stainless vessels dating from
2004 were built by Huppmann (now GEA)

Above (top): The newly installed Briggs brewhouse at Shiner in Texas

for the Gambrinus Corporation. (Below): You can see the builder’s
shrouds hiding the old Briggs brewhouse magnificently clad in copper
by Vendome (Photos courtesy of Briggs)

Left: The Briggs brewhouse at CUB in Yatala near Brisbane in Australia.

A 10m lauter tun is imposing in the distance and there is another one
hidden behind it. The inset shows the lauter tun from below

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l BREWHOUSE

Underneath the GEA lauter tun at Radeberger’s Tucher brewery on

the border between Nürnberg and Fürth in Franconia. It produces ten
360hL brews a day at 14oP with a loading of 250kg/m2. Note that the
base is insulated and the inset shows the grains dump tank and the The 12.8m Briggs lauter tun at Shenandoah. The brewhouse has a somewhat
outlet to the silos ’industrial’ layout and there is only working access to the lauter tun manway

The new 8 tonne stainless steel copper clad Krones Pegasus unit at the
Badische Staatsbrauerei Rothaus with the inset showing the view from Fabricating the arms at Briggs for a 10m replacement tun for Yuengling
below at Tampa in Florida

The 9.5m Briggs lauter tun at Glenlivet built

in 2009. The Steels masher is behind the
vessel vent. The inset shows the bottom is
clad; remember a saccharification stand takes
place within and a Highland morning can be
chilly! (Photos courtesy of Briggs)

11 z Brewer and Distiller International May 2016 www.ibd.org.uk