ContiTech™, a Continental company, is a world leader in industrial rubber and plastic products and has the largest global footprint of any rubber products manufacturer. Our knowledge and expertise allows us to deliver the most-innovative and highest-quality products on the market. Plus, our extensive problem solving experience across multiple industries and applications enables us to share innovations over our entire product offering. Which means we can deliver unexpected solutions and advanced improvements in situations where others can’t. We push the boundaries of what’s possible and we’re constantly solving tomorrow’s most challenging problems—today and every day. All of this experience has lead to game-changing products in the brewing and distilling categories. For instance, our Conti™ Purple Snake is the go-to hose for all beverage applications because of the service life and uncompromised flavor after transfer. For applications or factories where cleanliness is of the utmost importance, ContiTech has partnered with Microban®, to offer the Extremeflex™ with Microban cover hose. Flexible enough to work around your factory’s floorplan, it also prevents bacterial growth from the ground up.
Let’s be honest with ourselves. Success in brewing beer all comes down to a micro-moment. The instant a customer smells the aroma of your brew, and takes their first sip. Then and there will determine if you have a new advocate or one less opportunity.
Brewers will spend years sourcing just the right hops, the appropriate flavors that help bring their vision to life. They will spend tens of thousands of dollars on the equipment, the latest technology and the right people.
What tends to be overlooked, but is just as critical in delivering a quality brew, rich in smell and flavor, is the hose used transferring from tank to tank. Poorly manufactured hose has the potential of augmenting the ingredients and ultimately the customer’s palate. Depending on the compounds engineered, the manufacturing process itself, or the service life of the hose, all could negatively impact the quality brew quite profoundly.
What should a brewer do? Well, for starters, don’t risk the overall investment of a brewing operation by skimping on the hose that touches the product. Look for hose that are constructed with chlorobutyl tubes. Chlorobutyl is the perfect compound to protect the test, but strong enough to avoid degradation over long periods of time. If you are not worried about flavor, but are more focused on running a clean operation, there are a few options out there that have easy-to-clean covers, or even anti-microbial compounds built right in.
So while brewers are justifiably focused on the bigger decisions, it’s easy to overlook what could be the most important decision.
