Sustainable hoses for exclusive beers

Michigan is worldwide known as the birthplace of the automotive industry. But it has so much more to offer: One of the best craft beer breweries in the entire state sits here with Rochester Mills Production Brewery.

Located in Auburn Hills, 35 miles from Detroit, Rochester Mills began brewing beer in the spring of 2012 as the exclusive brewery for Rochester Mills Beer Co. brands. The wide range of self-produced varieties includes beers such as IPA or Ale and is produced under the highest hygienic standards. Therefore, the experts around chief brewer Thomas Hudak normally used the Continental ExtremeFlex beverage hose. But in between they also tested a similar product – with serious consequences.

High hose standards for delicious beer

As brewery expert, Thomas Hudak has excellent knowledge of the prescribed hygiene standards in the food industry. Some of their most popular recipes can be traced back to 1998 at the Rochester Mills Beer Co. brewpub. Today, they brew on a larger scale with tighter quality control and ability to package and distribute through a growing network of wholesalers. Thus, the whole crew is working hard to deliver their customers high quality beers. That is why Thomas has always been a fan of our beverage hoses. As chief brewer at the Rochester Mills Production Brewery, he has had many years of very good experience with the ExtremeFlex beverage hose – and was all the more disappointed when his boss asked him to order a cheaper hose one year ago for economic reasons.

That turned out to be a flop – and it was also very dangerous: The cover of the low-cost hose began to show damage after only a few months. "Fortunately, I noticed the problem in time to prevent a disaster," reports Thomas. If that hose had torn, Thomas and his colleagues would have been scalded with boiling hot 200°F liquid. Nobody was injured, but the damage was still huge: “It cost us a lot of time and money, because we had to shut down the brewing process until new hoses were delivered.

Hoses especially for beer production

The more delighted was Thomas that he easily convinced his boss to purchase our hoses again. "After all, the Continental hoses are worth their price and will easily last the next five years," as his own experience has taught him. At Rochester Mills, more than 150 meters of ExtremeFlex hose transport the beer from the brewhouse to the fermentation tanks, then on to the storage tanks and finally to the canning stations.

"Our ExtremeFlex is easier to move in and out of tight spaces and around sharp corners plus it is highly demanding service of transferring non-oily liquid products in wineries and breweries. So it perfectly fits for Rochester Mills."

Laszlo Dobo, Product Manager ContiTech USA​

 

Quality all over the world

Breweries around the world rely on our rugged, high-quality hose solutions for their manufacturing and brewing processes. This also includes the Purple Snake hose which is one of the beverage and food markets widely known choices for transfer hoses.

To learn more about our family of ExtremeFlex Beverage hoses and other hoses for used in the Brewery Industry, click here.