{"id":99302,"date":"2025-02-21T14:04:33","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T13:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/?p=99302"},"modified":"2025-03-10T10:12:27","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T09:12:27","slug":"arctic-beer-with-german-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/arktisches-bier-mit-deutschen-wurzeln\/","title":{"rendered":"Arctic beer with German roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the far north of Norway, beer is brewed in accordance with the German Purity Law. Mack's \u00d8lbryggeri is located at 69 degrees latitude, making it the northernmost industrial brewery in the world. Mack has around 20 different types of beer on offer, as well as water and various soft drinks, the majority of which are produced under licence for the Coca-Cola Company. German filling technology is used for bottling, among other things.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mack was founded in Troms\u00f8 in 1877 by Ludwig Markus Mack, the son of an immigrant baker from Braunschweig. The family business, now in its fifth generation, is today the fourth largest brewery in Norway.<\/strong> The portfolio includes around 20 different types of beer, mainly lagers, but also IPA, Wit and Stout. The bestsellers are Isbj\u00f8rn Pilsner (the Norwegian word for polar bear) and the dark Nordlys (Northern Lights). The Arctic beers from Mack's \u00d8lbryggeri have a market share of around ten per cent in Norway.<\/p>\n

Rune Lennart Andreassen has been the head brewer since 2008 and is pursuing an ambitious goal: \u201eWe are pursuing a strategy, to become the most important brewery in Norway<\/strong>.\u201c Mack is today one of five industrial breweries in Norway and at the same time the northernmost brewery<\/strong> not just of the country, but of the world. Further north, only the Svalbard Bryggeri (Mack is a co-owner here) brews on Spitsbergen, but this small microbrewery produces just as much beer in a year as Mack does in a day.<\/p>

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Mack fills its beers almost exclusively in cans. The Pilsner Isbj\u00f8rn (Norwegian for polar bear) is the bestseller.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Licence bottling for Coca-Cola<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Years ago, the company's location in the centre of Troms\u00f8 became too small, so in 2012 the production moved to Nordkjosbotn, 70 kilometres away - and increased the volume of beer produced from 95,000 to 240,000 hectolitres per year within ten years<\/strong>. At full capacity, Mack could even produce up to 300,000 hectolitres of beer per year. The company's second mainstay is soft drinks, cider and iced teas. Andreassen: \u201eWe produce around 80 per cent of our soft drinks under licence for the Coca-Cola Company and have many audits here at the plant.\u201c They are filled in disposable PET bottles<\/strong>, which are delivered as space-saving preforms and blown into bottles on our own machines. Mack now only fills glass bottles for restaurants and hotels.<\/p>\n

The beers, on the other hand, are almost exclusively canned. \u201e90 per cent of Norwegian beers are now bottled in cans<\/strong>\u201c, explains Rune Andreassen, who is also responsible for sustainability at the company. Cans and PET bottles are part of the Norwegian deposit system<\/strong>, which was developed by Infinitum<\/a> and is considered one of the most efficient in the world. The empty disposable containers are sold in the supermarkets via the vending machines of the Norwegian manufacturer Tomra<\/a> were taken back - with a return rate of over 92 per cent.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201eIn the past, there were also reusable systems, but these proved to be less environmentally friendly in Norway due to the enormous distances and the widely dispersed population. Back then, it was almost impossible for breweries to get containers back to their plants. As a result, all Norwegian breweries abolished the washing machines for returnable PET bottles between 2012 and 2015. A reintroduction would be one step forwards and two steps backwards.\u201c<\/p>\n

Rune Lennart Andreassen, <\/strong>Head brewmaster<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Modern technology from all over Europe<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The new production facility on Balsfjord not only offers plenty of space and the best glacier water, but also logistical advantages. All beverages can be transported by lorry directly via the European route E6, the longest continuous road connection in Scandinavia. \u201eThe good transport links are important for us, as we have grown considerably in recent years. 2024 was even the best sales year in the company's history<\/strong>\u201c, reports Rune Andreassen. The significant growth was also made possible by the Investment in modern technical equipment from renowned European mechanical engineering companies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Krones' main bottling line achieves an output of up to 25,000 cans per hour. (Image: Mack)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Krones, for example, supplied the main filling line for beverage cans with a capacity of 25,000 cans per hour. A smaller filling line for cans and glass bottles with a capacity of 8,000 units per hour was supplied by the Slovenian manufacturer Vipoll, a GEA Group company. \u201eWe use this line for limited runs, for example when we fill speciality beers in glass bottles.\u201c Both bottling lines are fully automated and work with robot support<\/strong> in the final packaging.<\/p>\n

The barrel filling process was also converted to a Keykeg<\/a>-system. The transparent, double-walled plastic drums from the Dutch manufacturer OneCircle<\/strong> are equipped with an inner bag in which the beers can be kept for around five weeks. The Norwegian return partner Infinitum then ensures that Empty keykegs prepared for reuse<\/strong> be filled. Finally, Mack fills bulk beer into 1,000-litre tanks, which are lined with hygienic beer tank liners made of 14-layer co-extrusion film from the German manufacturer Nittel in Halle.<\/p>\n

Mack in turn fills the soft drinks on a filling and packaging line from the northern Italian machine manufacturer SMI. The preforms are first blown into bottles on site. \u201eAfter all, we use different shapes, depending on whether a Coca-Cola brand or a private label is bottled<\/strong>\u201c, explains Rune Andreassen. The line operates at a capacity of up to 25,000 bottles per hour, depending on the container size of 0.5 litres or 1.5 litres. Rune Andreassen: \u201eWe source our preforms from Lithuania, the aluminium cans from Sweden, the cardboard from Norway and the rest, such as the shrink film, from other European countries.\u201c However, the Arctic beers and soft drinks are mainly drunk in Norway<\/strong>. A small proportion is exported to Sweden, and Mack beers are even said to be available in China and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

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The microbrewery in Troms\u00f8 brews to music: each flavour has its own playlist, accessible via QR code.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Craft beers and rock music<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Even after the relocation of industrial production, beer is still brewed at the former site in the centre of Troms\u00f8: in a microbrewery that was launched in 2000 as a small pilot brewery and test station. Today, \u201eMikrobryggeri\u201c is a brand in its own right with over 100 different craft beers<\/strong> in the repertoire. The three master brewers usually pursue their craft to rock music and have also immortalised their passion for music on the fermentation and storage tanks: with portraits of Elvis, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Ringo Starr, John Wayne and local rock greats. For every beer brewed, they create a new playlist that can be accessed via QR code. And between the brewhouse (from German manufacturer Caspary) and the fermentation tanks, there is also live music from time to time.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Norwegian brewery Mack is the northernmost industrial brewery in the world and produces different types of beer as well as various soft drinks and water. It uses German bottling technology, among other things.","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":99326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","rank_math_description":"In der n\u00f6rdlichsten industriellen Bierbrauerei der Welt wird mithilfe deutscher und europ\u00e4ischer Abf\u00fclltechnik produziert.","rank_math_focus_keyword":"Bier","rank_math_title":"","csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[53,60678,48,60597,32,58929,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-99302","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-aus-dem-magazin","8":"tag-abfuelltechnik","9":"tag-brauerei-mack","10":"tag-getraenke","11":"tag-magazin-01-2025","12":"tag-packmittel-und-packstoffe","13":"tag-tomra","14":"tag-verpackungstechnik","15":"cs-entry","16":"cs-video-wrap"},"acf":[],"vimeo_video":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}