Lotte Liqor’s first beer, Kloud, burst onto the market with aplomb. “We expect to bring a change in the history of Korea’s beer industry, often reputed as ‘boring,’ with this kind of real beer,” the company announced shortly before the official opening ceremony of its greenfield brewery in Chungju, North Chungcheong, on April 8.
The company plans to invest 20 billion won (AU$21 million) for initial marketing costs and launched its new brewery with a production capacity of 500,000 hectolitres.
The new beer whose name, Kloud, refers to both Korea and the rich, cloud-like foam that sets it apart from other beers, has taken on market leaders, Oriental Brewery which has 60% of the market with Cass and OB brands, and Hite Jinro which has 40%.
It is the first beer made in Korea that uses the original gravity method of production, which is used in Germany. The gravity method does not add water to the fermented solution of raw materials, giving the beer a rich foam and taste.
It launched with the catchphrase, “Make way for the new ‘Kloud’ brand!” and a facility equipped by Krones.
Krones was given the order for all of the process engineering involved, with the brewhouse including EquiTherm, filter cellar, plus fermentation and storage tanks. Krones will equip the expanded fermentation and storage section late in 2017 to help Lotte meet its one million kilolitre capacity ambitions. The blueprints for another new building have already been drawn up and are awaiting implementation.
Two things matter most to Kloud’s positioning: achieving the same quality standards as its German counterparts and being a 100% malt beer. So Lotte’s using top tier German brewing technology was made an essential. The new Steinecker brewhouse has been dimensioned for a brew measuring 400 hectolitres of cold wort. Malt prepared with conditioned dry milling is used for mashing. The stainless steel brewhouse consists of two ShakesBeer EcoPlus mash tuns, a Pegasus lauter tun with a diameter of 6.5 metres and a capacity of 664 hectolitres, a product holding tank and a whirlpool. The Stromboli wort copper with a traditional internal boiler is equipped with a vapour condenser, which utilises the evaporation heat. A two-stage wort cooler in its first stage serves the EquiTherm system’s energy storage tank, located outdoors and holding 1799 hectolitres net. The energy stored here in the form of hot water is used for heating up the mash tun.
The EquiTherm system is very energy efficient. Energy is a vital factor in South Korea. Steam is only required for the wort copper. Otherwise, hot water at 98 degrees Celsius is used. What is not needed for the mash tun can be used in the CIP system for the bottling operation, as rinsing water for the canning line, or for the bottle and can warmers. Future plans include linking the bottle washer up to the hot water supply system. Even though a rice cooker has been installed, it is an option for future portfolio expansions. The brewhouse also includes four hop supply units for automatic hopping.
The yeast cellar consists of five yeast tanks, a waste-yeast tank, an autolysis tank and a propagator. For fermentation and storage, Lotte uses twelve storage tanks and six combined tanks, which can be used both for fermentation and for storage. Each of these tanks holds 1,600 hectolitres, equivalent to four brews. Two more combined tanks have been dimensioned for one brew each. The tank farm consists of thirty-eight cylindro-conical tanks, for which a fermentation time of 12 - 15 days and a storage time of 7 - 10 days are planned.
The TwinPro system has been used for the piping throughout the cellar. Three tanks each have been grouped in one loop, and linked up to one valve block. The double-seat valve racks installed here can be used to link the individual tank groups up to the main pipes, like the wort, young-beer or yeast harvesting pipes. With its consistently high level of hygiene, this concept contributes towards reducing investment and operating costs in the fermentation and storage cellar. Evoguard valves have been installed throughout the cellar. For beer filtration using diatomite, a TFS filter (Twin Flow System) for a throughput of 300 hectolitres an hour and a PVPP filter TFS for the same throughput have been installed. Five bright-beer tanks constitute the interface to the filling operation. Krones likewise installed the utilities, like the CIP system or the CO2 generator.
The three filling lines, for cans (30,000 cans per hour), returnable glass bottles (36,000 bottles an hour) and kegs (90 kegs per hour), were configured by Lotte Chilsung Beverage itself with kit from local and European manufacturers. This also includes a whole series of Krones machines, like a Lavatec KD5 double-end bottle washer, a Topmatic labeller with a Checkmat label-position monitor and a Contipac packer. Two of the filling lines have also already been dimensioned for an annual filling capacity of one million hectolitres.
Lotte operates primarily in the food and beverage markets, in the retail sector, with leisure parks, hotels, residential complexes, and its own finance companies. The company is Korea’s biggest producer of confectionery, for example, and with a payroll of more than 60,000 people is represented in over 60 lines of business, in 2013 achieving sales of around 90 sextillion won (approximately AU$96 billion)
By 2018, Lotte aims to have more than doubled this turnover.
Lotte branded products are sold in its 11,000 sales outlets in Korea, like LotteMart, Lotteria, 7-Eleven or Lotte Super. There are more than 12,000 Lotte outlets globally.
Since the Chilsung Cider lemon/lime soft drink was launched in 1950, the subsidiary Lotte Chilsung Beverage has evolved into one of Asia’s biggest beverage producers in the CSD, juice, water, coffee, tea and spirits segments. It is the Pepsi-Cola licensee for Korea.
