02 / THE METHOD
We're developing alcohol-free beer through cold blending. Malt ingredients, hops and aroma, brought together around the flavour we want in the glass.
WHAT COLD BLENDING MEANS
Malt gives the base. Hops bring bitterness and aroma. Body, acidity and carbonation decide how the whole thing drinks.
We combine prepared malt ingredients, hop ingredients and aroma blends with water at low temperature. Each part can be adjusted for the beer we're making: more hop character in the West Coast, a softer feel in the Weiss.
The route starts with ingredients selected for alcohol-free formulation, so there is no conventional alcoholic beer to strip back afterwards. Mixing, hygiene, stability and packaging still need just as much attention.
Our research also explores extracting malt compounds at lower temperatures. That is a separate part of the work from blending prepared ingredients.
FROM INGREDIENTS TO THE GLASS
Prepared malt ingredients give us a starting point for colour, malt character and body. We blend them with water and adjust the balance for each style.
THREE ROUTES / DIFFERENT PROCESS CHOICES
Brewers can limit the alcohol produced during fermentation, remove it afterwards, or build the drink from prepared ingredients. Each route brings different equipment and process needs.
INGREDIENT PRODUCTION → FINISHED-BEER PRODUCTION → DISTRIBUTION
This route manages how much alcohol develops, for example through yeast selection or fermentation conditions.
The alcohol is removed after fermentation. Options include membrane separation and vacuum-based thermal processes. Membrane systems can operate at low temperature.
We develop the drink through low-temperature blending. Ingredient production happens before this stage; cleaning, chilling and product stabilisation remain part of making the finished beer.
Process background: GEA, alcohol-free production methods ↗ · PureMalt, malt ingredients for alcohol-free beer ↗
WHERE RESOURCES GO
A conventional brewhouse heats the mash and boils the wort. Cold blending changes that work at the final production site. Hot cleaning and any heat used for stabilisation still count.
Tanks, pipework and the filling line need cleaning whichever route is used. Batch size, rinse recovery and how often the line changes products can make a large difference to water use.
Chilling the drink, running pumps and operating the filling line use electricity. The amount of electricity and how it is generated both affect the CO₂ calculation.
AT THE PRODUCTION SITE / SCENARIO
Same amount of beer.
Different demands on the plant.
Compare energy, water and the CO₂ associated with the energy supply. Change the settings to see which parts make the difference.
See and change the inputsPublished brewery benchmarks meet editable cold-process assumptions. These are calculated scenarios, ready to update with production measurements.
For 1,000 litres, cold blending uses 153 kWh and 3,500 litres of site water. Energy-related CO₂ is 30.9 kilograms.
The starting cold-process inputs come from this engineering budget. Volumes, equipment loads and timings are assumptions you can replace with your own measurements.
Cleaning-water quantities mean fresh water taken in. A pump circulating the same cleaning solution does not consume that volume again on every pass.
The example heats cleaning water from 15 to 70°C, includes regenerative thermal treatment at 95% heat recovery, and allows for boiler and distribution efficiency of 85%. Product chilling uses a coefficient of performance of 3.
Electricity includes product chilling plus assumed average loads for filling and compressed air (8 kW × 4 h), mixing (2 kW × 4 h), cleaning circulation (3 kW × 2 h), room refrigeration (3 kW × 4 h) and auxiliaries (1.5 kW × 4 h).
These settings explain the example budget, not a validated cleaning or preservation procedure. The finished beer’s stability determines the production treatment.
Both columns cover fuel, electricity and incoming water where the finished beer is made and packaged. Water includes the drink itself, cleaning and utilities. It is water taken in, not wastewater or an agricultural water footprint.
Malt and hop ingredients have their own production footprint. Making an extract elsewhere can move heating and water use upstream. Supplier production, packaging materials, transport and refrigeration after dispatch belong in the wider product assessment.
The working example combines an energy setting within published brewery ranges with 3.25 litres of water per litre, the midpoint of Steinecker’s modern brewery reference. The historical and efficient options use different settings; none represents a single measured plant.
For each 100 litres, fuel and electricity are added to give site energy. Water use per litre is multiplied by the finished volume. Energy-related CO₂ is fuel × its factor, plus electricity × its factor.
Fuel inputs use net calorific value (NCV), before boiler and distribution losses. The percentage is the difference divided by the brewed reference. Increases remain visible too.
Meter fuel, electricity and water. Record cleaning cycles, finished output and losses. Add ingredient supplier data, then compare at the same scale and with the same packaging.
READ THE SOURCES
Krones Group Annual Report 2023: Conserving water / HydroCircle ↗Modern Steinecker brewery reference: 3.0–3.5 L water/L beer. Water sustainability modules: 2.3–2.5; with wastewater recycling: 1.7–1.9. These are equipment supplier reference configurations, not an industry-wide average.IFC / World Bank Group: Environmental, Health, and Safety Guidelines for Breweries ↗Heat 85–120 MJ/hL (23.6–33.3 kWh/hL), electricity 7.5–11.5 kWh/hL and water 4–7 L/L. Examples from large German breweries, not an alcohol-free or Coldcraft dataset.European Commission: Food, Drink and Milk BAT conclusions (2019/2031) ↗Indicative annual-average specific energy for brewing: 0.02–0.05 MWh/hL, equivalent to 20–50 kWh/hL.SEAI: Conversion factors ↗Natural gas: 203.5 g CO₂/kWh NCV. Direct combustion CO₂ only; upstream fuel emissions and other greenhouse gases are outside this factor.GEA ECO-FLASH technical data ↗GEA's example specifies 95% heat recuperation and 70–75°C treatment. These inform the thermal example; they do not prescribe Coldcraft's stabilisation process.Alfa Laval: Brewery cleaning-in-place questions and answers ↗Cleaning requirements depend on equipment, pressure and nozzle configuration. Recirculating cleaning flow is not the same as freshwater withdrawal; cleaning temperature is determined by the cleaning task, not the product temperature.COLD / INNOWWIDE
The next step is to put the recipe and the process through the same test.
Ofrälse leads the COLD project in Sweden with Urban Artifact in the United States. The work brings together process trials, taste and consumer feedback, resource use and the practical route to the US market.
We need to know how the beer behaves on production equipment, how it keeps, and what it takes to make and package a repeatable batch. Those findings sit alongside the tasting results.
The project and its funding