Püttner has been brewing beer in Schlammersdorf in the Upper Palatinate since 1819. The brewery has repeatedly expanded and modernised and this year, to mark its 200th anniversary, invested in a new bottle cellar with inspection, filler and labelling machine. Johannes Püttner, for example, opted for a Markl machine with 30 filling valves. This enables him to fill up to 10,000 bottles per hour.
When Matthias Barthelmann joined the Püttner brewery in Schlammersdorf in 1992 for his brewing and malting apprenticeship, they brewed a Pilsner, a Helles and an Export. Since then, a lot has changed for the medium-sized company: Eleven beers are available all year round, F-16„, “Rauschgoldbengel„ and “Hulapülu„, three seasonal beers. Plus a small but very special “monthly keg„ on the first weekend of the month.
Barthelmann, now also a brandy sommelier, brews beers that mature for a long time in sherry or cognac barrels, and recently he has also started distilling Whisky. Of course five non-alcoholic drinks bottled. All of this with brewhouse and bottling technology that has been continuously modernised over the years.
This year, a new bottle cellar was purchased: inspection machine, conveyor belts, filler with double capping unit and labeller.
„We have now reached a point where we want to grow further, especially in the direction of Nuremberg and Bayreuth, but to do so we have to bottle our innovative beers at a very high level of quality. Hence this new bottle cellar with the Markl filler as the centrepiece“, explains Johannes Püttner.
Filler for medium-sized businesses
Peter Markl has been developing and manufacturing filling and sealing machines for 30 years, now with 30 employees, in spacious production facilities in Reichenbach Kienleiten, between Regensburg and Cham in the Bavarian Forest.
„We specifically design and build filling machines and cappers as well as transport systems for the Drinks stand: robust, solid, reliable and easy to operate. My aim is always to achieve first-class quality for the output range from 1,500 to 15,000 bottles per hour,“ explains Peter Markl.
In contrast to its competitors, it builds special and customised systems - from Single machines up to small series of ten units - for small and medium-sized businesses, which are not down-regulated but perfectly designed for this power range.
With the exception of the drives, the company also manufactures everything itself. „That's why we also guarantee a Very long warranty and can react and deliver spare parts very quickly,“ emphasises Markl. His systems are ideal for non-alcoholic soft drinks, mineral waters and juices, but above all for beer, of course.
Outstanding are the extremely low oxygen uptake and CO2-Consumption values. „We fill glass and PET bottles for our medium-sized customers and transport the bottles through the line on our own conveyors. For some time now, we have also been very successfully producing can fillers that are used throughout Europe,“ reports Markl.
The Püttner brewery uses 0.5-litre brown Euro bottles and 0.33-litre brown gourmet bottles with crown corks, and white 0.5-litre Euro bottles with screw caps for non-alcoholic beverages.
„We don't need a huge filler full of computers, equipped for remote maintenance or an extensive operating data recording system. We need a filler that fills very reliably in terms of quantity and oxygen values, is easy to operate and is designed for our size. We have not regretted our decision in favour of Markl,“ says Johannes Püttner, describing his requirements.
Filling exactly as required
The beer is pumped from the pressure tank to the Markl „Bavaria“ type „30/6/6 VKL“ filling and capping machine with 30 filling valves with long tubes, six crown cork punches and six screwing heads for screw caps. It scores with a complete stainless steel design and works according to the Long-tube counter-pressure filling principle.
Thanks to the special Markl clamping gas guide in conjunction with simple pre-evacuation and a very short distance between filling, high-pressure injection for foaming and capping, the machine achieves extremely high filling rates. low oxygen uptake values in the filling process of 0.01 mg/l. In contrast to double pre-evacuation, only 60 per cent of the usual CO2-quantity consumed.
The hygienically designed filling valves are polished on the inside to simplify cleaning. Together with the very effective CIP cleaning system they ensure the greatest possible hygiene. „It is important for our customers that their machines contain as little microelectronics as possible and are still state-of-the-art,“ emphasises owner Peter Markl.
Reliable and technically mature
Johannes Püttner opted for a Markl machine with 30 filling valves. This allows him to up to 10,000 bottles per hour Normally, he and his employees fill 8,000 bottles per hour. On the three to four filling days a week, the varieties and therefore also the labels and bottle types are changed after a few hours.
"The Changeover on the filler is completely problem-free, as the bottles are all the same height. When we switch from crown corks to screw caps for the AfG, it only takes a few simple steps.“
For Püttner, it was very important that the machine was reliable and technically mature and that he and his employees could intervene and adjust it themselves, without the manufacturer's technicians. Nevertheless, the filler has everything that the electronic ones have.
It regulates the output of another manufacturer's inspector, which is an excellent match, and it is fully CIP-capable, meaning it is quick and easy to clean. „The Markl machine fulfils all our requirements. It fills precisely and without any faults. We are therefore very satisfied,“ summarises Püttner.
Long tradition - lots of innovation
Already since 1819 Beer is brewed within the walls of the former manor house of castle owner Baron von Hirschberg. In 1862, Andreas Püttner bought the brewing rights and his son Johann then built his own brewery building. From the 1960s onwards, the owners Josef and Ottilie Püttner built a two-unit brewhouse, a fermentation cellar for bottom-fermented beers and a bottling and storage hall with a new bottling plant.
On 6 June 1992, the fully automatic two-unit brewhouse with a capacity of 62 hectolitres, which is still in operation today, is put into operation. The Output is currently 7,000 hectolitres. The year 1992 was also the starting signal for the brewery's innovative and „different“ beers, Barthelmann has a „free hand“ in trying out and experimenting with various brewing yeasts and hop varieties.
Together with Christine Püttner, he also creates various Schnapps specialities. This is followed by further modernisation, new maturation boxes for wheat beers, a premix system for the lemonades and the conversion of the old cellar vaults into a whisky maturation cellar.
Everything according to the purity law - and yet completely different
In addition to the „normal“ Hellen and Pils, the small Upper Palatinate brewery, which delivers to private households, beverage markets and restaurants with its own trucks within a radius of 50 kilometres, offers numerous specialities.
Something very special is „Hulapülu“, a top-fermented, naturally cloudy summer wheat beer that tastes just as it says: aromatic hops, golden yellow in colour, tangy, intensely fruity and fragrant with notes of mango, lemon, gooseberry and passion fruit. Added to this is the „Tinsel angel“, a dark sherry bock that matured for six months in a freshly emptied sherry barrique whisky cask that had previously been filled with Pedro Ximenez for five years.
After maturing in barrels, the bock is bottled as a chestnut-coloured, strong speciality. This year it will be a „cognac bock“. A completely new addition to the Püttner beer family is the beer „Einfach's“ brewed according to an ancient recipe“ - This is what the Upper Palatinate says when he wants a Helles in the pub, the „Einfach's“ is the debut of Püttner's son Jeremias at the end of his brewing apprenticeship.
„All of our beers are strictly Purity law I just like to experiment with different hops from Spalt and the Hallertau, malt from the Upper Palatinate and a wide variety of yeasts,“ explains Matthias Barthelmann.
