Whether you’re gearing up for your first homebrewing competition or getting ready to take your craft beer business to the next level, you’ve likely confronted a sometimes-controversial brewing tactic during your research—pasteurization.
What is pasteurization? The food safety process, discovered in the late 1800s by an ambitious French patriot, implements rapid heating and cooling to mitigate bacterial growth, decrease risks for infection, and extend the shelf life of a variety of foods including dairy products, crab meat, and even alcoholic beverages.
In this article, we’ll explore the pasteurization process and break down its position in the world of craft brewing.
Pasteurization 101
What does “pasteurized” mean? You’ve likely seen on milk bottles and egg cartons throughout your life, and manufacturers pasteurize products for a variety of reasons. But, pasteurization’s founding father had more than simple food safety in mind when he devised the microorganism-killing process in the late 1800s.
Pasteurization Step-By-Step
What, exactly, does pasteurization entail? That’s not a simple question, as pasteurization can take a variety of forms:
- In vat pasteurization—once the most common method for milk—large drums heat liquids to 145°F for no less than 30 minutes before rapidly returning them to cooler temperatures.
- High temperature short-time pasteurization (HTST) halves vat pasteurization times but increases the temperature to 161°F.
- Higher heat shorter time pasteurization (HHST) reduces the heating time to the 0.01 – 1.00 second range depending on the temperature (212 – 191°F). In HHST, higher temperatures require less time.
- Ultra pasteurization (UP) sustains a 280°F temperature for 2.00 seconds.
Each type of pasteurization requires different equipment, and the FDA continues to release up-to-date protocols for various foods’ pasteurization requirements.
For most food and beverage manufacturers, pasteurization is a labor-intensive process requiring significant equipment. While some foods are pasteurized before packaging—for example, dairy products—most beer, wine, and liquor are pasteurized in their packaging. The method, equipment, and timetables used for each product are determined based on the process’s impact on taste and chemical properties.
In beer-making, pasteurization is usually one of the last steps in the brewing process. After bottling or canning their beer, brewers heat the packaged products to achieve the microorganism-killing effects of pasteurization without changing the chemical makeup or flavor of the beer.
Pasteurization vs. Sterilization
It’s important to note that pasteurization and sterilization are two completely different processes:
- While pasteurization kills microorganisms that could cause infection, it doesn’t eradicate all organic particles from a food product. Bacterial spores and other live organisms remain after pasteurizing a product, but these live organisms are very unlikely to harm consumers.
- Sterilization, on the other hand, kills all live organisms in a substance or on an inorganic object. While pasteurization only requires heat, sterilization requires significantly higher temperatures and increased pressures, both of which are usually achieved using an autoclave, a specialized device most commonly found in the medical field to sanitize instruments.
While sterilization might sound preferable, the process would irreparably alter the chemical makeup and flavor of the foods and beverages we know and love. So, manufacturers and brewers use pasteurization to significantly reduce the harmful organisms in their products without sacrificing flavor, texture, or chemical properties.
While the FDA regulates nearly every commercially available product’s pasteurization requirements, it doesn’t regulate craft beer. Since hops—beer’s primary ingredient—aren’t consumed raw, beer-making falls under a pasteurization exception, along with:
- Wine grapes
- Pulse crops, a category of dry-harvested beans, peas, and lentils
- Almonds
The FDA has determined that, since these products are usually cooked or processed (via fermentation, for instance) before consumption, they don’t need to be pasteurized beforehand.
Pasteurization in Craft Brewing: Formerly Contentious, Presently Popular
Since the FDA doesn’t require craft brewers to pasteurize their products, not all small brewers were always on-board with the food safety process. But, as craft brewing became a wider industry with longer-ranging distribution opportunities, brewers began to implement pasteurization to protect their consumers and ensure longer product shelf-lives.
Methods, Durations, and Temperatures
While pasteurization was initially seen as a tactic employed by massive commercial brewers, craft brewing eventually adopted the practice. While unpasteurized beer doesn’t usually pose many safety concerns, the addition of more organic products into recipes—fruit or dairy, in most cases—changes beer’s microbial potential.
As craft beer ingredients became more ambitious, brewers developed their own pasteurization methods to accommodate their scale needs. Two major methods dominate the craft beer industry:
- Using a mash tun – By converting a mash tun—a heated chamber where hops and liquid ferment—into a batch pasteurizer, brewers can streamline the pasteurization process. However, this method doesn’t always produce consistent results.
- Using a tunnel pasteurizer – This approach uses a conveyor belt that runs packaged beer through carefully-controlled temperature zones. A tunnel pasteurizer sprays packaged beer with hot water to raise the temperature of the beer to about 140°F for a short duration before rapidly cooling it down again. Individual brewers may use different temperatures and timeframes for different beers.
Tunnel pasteurizers are ideal for craft beer for a variety of reasons:
- By pasteurizing packaged beer, brewers reduce the likelihood that high temperatures will impact brew flavors.
- Packaging beer before pasteurization reduces the likelihood of future contamination since pasteurizing is the last packaging step.
- With pasteurization as the last step, brewers further improve their products’ shelf lives since they can distribute and sell the packaged product immediately after pasteurization.
In-House Pasteurization vs. Packager Pasteurization
Just like packaging operations, craft brewers have two options for pasteurizing their products:
- In-house pasteurization using their own equipment, methods, temperatures, and durations
- Outsourced pasteurization, usually completed by a brewer’s chosen canner or bottler
A brewer’s likelihood of choosing either method depends on a variety of factors:
- Brewery output size – For small breweries, in-house pasteurization might make the most sense. Small, neighborhood breweries with minimal packaged product distribution sometimes choose to manage both pasteurization and packaging in-house. Brewers with large distribution output, on the other hand, tend to outsource these processes as a time-, space-, and cost-saving measure.
- Desired control – In-house pasteurization efforts provide brewers with more control over their temperatures and durations. But, this can sometimes lead to a lack of standardization, which can increase brewers’ risk of distributing an inadequately pasteurized batch.
- Diversity of packaged brews – For brewers with only one or two packaged products, outsourcing their pasteurization process can streamline this phase. But brewers with a wider variety of packaged product offerings might choose to tweak each brew’s specific pasteurization time and temperature in-house, despite reduced efficiency.
For most brewers, outsourcing pasteurization to their packager makes sense. It increases efficiency, speeds up distribution timelines, and (in most cases) reduces production costs.
Mitigating Risks for Craft Breweries
While not all craft breweries have bought into pasteurization, a consensus in the industry is growing rapidly. As brewing ingredients are becoming more diverse—and additional ingredients pose extra microbe contamination risks—pasteurization is becoming a widely-accepted best practice that protects both brewers and consumers.
Depending on a brewery’s distribution scale, even one batch of contaminated beer could have massive ramifications for both their finances and reputation. While craft brewing began as a break from the mold, many brewers agree that protecting themselves and their customers from unsafe products is the best course.
Wider acceptance of pasteurization practices has also resulted in further standardization of the process. While many brewers pasteurize their products in-house, more and more brewers are seeking outsourced experts to streamline the process, speed up production timelines, and turn larger profits. And, with more money in their pocket, brewers can focus on doing what they love most—concocting creative beer recipes and sharing brews with their communities.
Wildpack Beverage: Beautiful Packing for Pasteurized Craft Beer
Pasteurization is a process that has become all too important in the craft beer industry. What started as an idea in a revenge-seeking, scientist-turned-brewmaster’s mind became a widely-regulated food safety practice, one that most craft brewers are using to improve their product quality, extend shelf lives, and protect their customers.
At Wildpack Beverage, your brewery can meet all of your packaging and pasteurization needs under one roof, with one trusted brand. Our team of experts is passionate about taking your brews to the next level with 360° can branding and trusted, standardized beverage safety processes.
If your craft brewery is ready to go, it’s time to find a partner who can help you with every step of production. From packaging to pasteurization, you can trust Wildpack to give your beer the audience it deserves.
Sources:
Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine. Gearhead: Pasteurization’s Place in Craft Beer’s Battle. https://beerandbrewing.com/gearhead-pasteurizations-place-in-craft-beers-battle/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Raw Milk: A Research Anthology of Legal and Public Health Resources. https://www.cdc.gov/phlp/publications/topic/anthologies/anthologies-rawmilk.html
International Dairy Foods Association. Pasteurization. https://www.idfa.org/pasteurization
US Food and Drug Administration. Raw Milk & Pasteurized Milk. https://www.fda.gov/food/resources-you-food/raw-milk-pasteurized-milk
US Food and Drug Administration. Produce Safety Rule: Enforcement Policy for Entities Growing, Harvesting, Packing, or Holding Hops, Wine Grapes, Pulse Crops, and Almonds. https://www.fda.gov/media/122904/download
