Regardless of the size of your business – whether you’re a small company looking to add a locally brewed option or an international beverage manufacturer expanding your cold coffee offerings – here’s a brief look at some of the equipment and factors to consider before jumping into the cold coffee market.
So, You Want to Chill Out?
A quick primer on what’s needed to start cold brewing coffee. We’ve talked recently about how cold brewing has become one of the hottest trends in the coffee industry. Although it’s been around since at least the 1600s, it wasn’t until the late 1990s that it began to resonate with coffee drinkers around the globe. It’s been cool to be cold since then.
Businesses looking to get in on the cold coffee wave should know two things:
1- Cold coffee sales are only expected to rise in the coming years. Some studies indicate the cold coffee market will rise from a little more than $600 million in sales to more than $5 billion in 2030. So yes, the demand for more cold coffee options is still growing. That’s the good news: There is still time.
2- In order to flawlessly craft, package, and distribute cold coffee, it’s imperative to utilize specialized equipment that is engineered to tackle this particular task. Of course, we understand that coffee-making involves more than just machinery. Our valued customers invest extensive efforts into carefully selecting their beans, roasts, and fine-tuning their preferred cold brewing process. Fortunately, Deutsche Beverage Technology provides a comprehensive range of equipment necessary for businesses to enter the thriving cold coffee market and meet their meticulous standards. This is certainly promising news.
Regardless of the size of your business – whether you’re a small company looking to add a locally brewed option or an international beverage manufacturer expanding your cold coffee offerings – here’s a brief look at some of the equipment and factors to consider before jumping into the cold coffee market.
AUTOMATION
Before launching a line of cold coffee products, it’s critical to know that the brewing process can be made easy. Modern-day facilities require efficient automated processes to produce cold coffee consistently and economically.
“When we’re talking about delivering a product that consistently has the same taste and flavor profile, the one way to ensure that is automating the brewing process,” said Fred Nixon, Northeast Sales Manager for Deutsche Beverage Technology.
Furthermore, an automated coffee brewing system can aid in controlling various aspects of the brewing process, such as water flows, temperature, agitation, and material handling. An automated system can ensure that water flows through the system at the desired rate, and the temperature is maintained at the appropriate level, resulting in a consistent product. The agitation process can be precisely controlled to ensure that the coffee is evenly mixed and extracted. An automated system can also aid in material handling, ensuring that the coffee beans are ground to the appropriate size, and the final product is packaged and delivered efficiently. All these factors contribute to an automated system’s ability to produce high-quality cold coffee consistently and economically, making it an essential component of modern-day cold coffee production facilities.
STEEP/EXTRACTION
Properly sizing your steeping and extraction tanks is a vital component of a successful cold coffee product launch. Deutsche has standard options that range from 150-gallon tanks to 600-gallon tanks. We can also install larger, customized, 2,000-gallon turn-key systems. It all depends on what scale and through put that you want to operate at, and Deutsche has a team of engineers that will customize your entire process to fit the perfect size for your business. Big or small, all customers get the same white-glove, customized treatment.
HOLDING, MIXING & CONDITIONING TANKS
Working in conjunction with the coffee brewer, we can determine the best sizes and combinations of mixing and conditioning tanks. Much of that depends on available space and plans for bringing the cold coffee to retail, but Deutsche has a wide array of tanks with capacities that can work with any sized operation.
UTILITY EQUIPMENT
Nixon said one aspect of cold coffee production that requires particular attention to detail is adapting a facility’s utilities into a cold coffee production line.
“It’s dependent on what is available at the site,” Nixon said. “Are we dealing with natural gas or electricity? Is it best to install an on-demand water heater or other water-heating equipment like a boiler?” We need to retool this. “What size water lines are coming to the building, what is the voltage and available power to the building.” Are there limitations for heating water with a boiler, or would the client need a more compact profile with in-line on-demand hot water heaters?”
Deutsche’s team of experienced engineers can identify efficiencies and work in advance to correct possible problem areas.
FILTRATION, CLEANING & PIPNG
Deutsche offers complete turn-key services around all filtration and piping and cleaning systems. Our automated Clean-In-Place (CIP) systems are designed to easily clean the interior surfaces of food and beverage process pipes, processing vessels, tanks, roasters, and associated fittings, without disassembling the process.
ANCILLARY EQUIPMENT
Might you require need clean in place or filtration equipment. Deutsche has that, too, and it can all be sized to fit the scope of your operation. We don’t need to mention packaging unless we want to note wild goose filling our sister company, and Middleby Brand.
SERVICE AND PIPING
Deutsche’s comprehensive turn-key approach goes beyond meeting the equipment’s needs and performance requirements. In addition to providing top-of-the-line equipment, Deutsche also offers custom design and installation services for glycol, steam, Clean In Place, and process/transfer piping. This ensures that all aspects of the production process are optimized and streamlined, resulting in an efficient and cost-effective cold coffee production facility.