Brewery "Volga. How is beer brewed on a commercial scale? Excursion to the Volga brewery Volga Brewing Company

The brewery in Nizhny Novgorod was supposed to appear in 1942, but was interrupted by the Second World War, then restoration work and the first brewing took place only in 1959. Development, increase in capacity, but in 2004 the brewery became part of the HEINEKEN company and became the second enterprise in Russia after the plant in St. Petersburg. Global modernization and reconstruction began. I watched from my windows how the appearance of the plant changed over the course of 5 years. This summer I was able to visit the brewery and see everything: how, what and how.

1. Brands of the Volga brewery include 44 positions, including Heineken, Three Bears, Zlaty Bazant, Okhota, Amstel Premium Pilsener, Doctor Diesel, Okskoye, Rusich.

I chose the most interesting volume distribution figures:
Okskoye 30%
Hunting 25%
Heineken 8%
Amstel 2%
Bochkarev 1%

4. The technology for making beer has hardly changed over many centuries of existence. Only the equipment on which it is produced has changed. To create beer, you only need four ingredients: malt, water, hops and yeast. The silo block of the brewery will contain 13,000 tons of malt and barley.

5. I will highlight 6 stages of beer production. They started showing it from the fourth, so no photos.
The first is malt. The main ingredient in beer is malt, which is sprouted barley. It is processed before use.

The second is mashing. Depending on the recipe, at the beginning of the actual preparation of beer, the mash is prepared - a mixture of crushed grain products. When mixed with water, a paste is obtained that has a sweetish taste. The mass is stirred, the mash is heated to certain temperatures to obtain a special fermentation environment.

The third is filtering. After the mashing process is complete, the mash is filtered. This is necessary in order to get rid of the remnants of steamed grain that are no longer involved in making beer. To do this, use vats with sieves at the bottom. The filtered liquid is called wort.

6. The fourth stage is cooking.
Next, the mass enters the wort boiler, in which the boiling process takes place. The wort is boiled for 1-2 hours and during this time hops and other necessary ingredients are added to the liquid, imparting shades of taste and aroma characteristic of beer.
The brewery's brewhouse has two brewing units with a capacity of 350 hl/brew and one brewing unit with a capacity of 1000 hl/brew. Brewhouse capacity 5.1 million hl. in year.

8. Fifth - fermentation.
Under the influence of yeast added to the cooled aerated wort, fermentation occurs, during which the simplest sugars are converted into alcohol. It is then sent to one of the tanks. The temperature and time of the process depend on what yeast was specified and what kind of beer they want to get - top or bottom fermentation.

9. Capacity of HORAPs tanks 427,000 hl. Technical capacity 4.6 million hl. in year.

10. The sixth stage is filtration.
Unfiltered beer is not clear because it contains yeast and protein, so the finished beer is filtered before bottling. From the fermentation department, the beer is fed to the filter, clarified, then carbon dioxide is added to it and sent to a storage tank - forfas. The exception is unfiltered varieties.
The Volga brewery has two filtration lines, the technical capacity of which is 5.8 million hl. in year.

11. Safety is taken very seriously at the plant. Each employee wears special shoes, a vest, and earplugs. All paths have zebra crossings and safe zones.

12. From such a blank, plastic bottles of 1.5 and 2.5 liters are inflated using molds.

13. The seventh stage is the last - bottling.
The bottling process includes preparation of containers (washing and sterilization), pasteurization of beer, and bottling into containers. To ensure uniform filling of the container and prevent foaming, the bottle is filled with carbon dioxide.

14.

15.

16. Gluing labels.

17. Line of plastic bottles.
1.5l - 25,000 b/h, 2.5l - 15,000 b/h, 6 types of containers, 11 assortment items.

18. Packing in boxes and bags.

19. Check for defects.

20. Oksky has the largest production volume - 30%.

21.

22. The number of personnel of the Volga brewery as of January 1, 2013 is 278 people.

23. Counting the quantity of products produced before packaging.

24.

25. Everywhere you look there is a warehouse. The warehouse holds 3 million hl. in year.

26.

27. Bottle line - 50,000 b/h, 7 types of containers, 14 assortment items.

28.

29. There is also a line of kegs (barrels) at the brewery, which bottles 120 k/h, but it was not shown.

30.

31. From each batch of products produced, a couple of copies are sent to the laboratory for examination.

32.

33. Matthaeus Dietvorst. It was he who was the head of the Volga brewery for a long time and made a significant contribution to the reconstruction and modernization project. But from September 16, Salima Bekoeva became the director.

34. The excursion ended with a tasting of Oksky, Heineken, Amstel and Zlaty Bazant. In my opinion, Amstel won both in taste and smell.

Thanks to HEINEKEN Russia for the opportunity to look at the production.

The brewery in Nizhny Novgorod was supposed to appear in 1942, but the Second World War prevented it, then restoration work and the first brewing took place only in 1959. Development, increase in capacity, but in 2004 the brewery became part of the HEINEKEN company and became the second enterprise in Russia after the plant in St. Petersburg. Global modernization and reconstruction began. I watched from my windows how the appearance of the plant changed over the course of 5 years. This summer I was able to visit the brewery and see everything: how, what and how.

1. Brands of the Volga brewery include 44 positions, including Heineken, Three Bears, Zlaty Bazant, Okhota, Amstel Premium Pilsener, Doctor Diesel, Okskoye, Rusich.

I chose the most interesting volume distribution figures:
Okskoye 30%
Hunting 25%
Heineken 8%
Amstel 2%
Bochkarev 1%

9. Capacity of HORAPs tanks 427,000 hl. Technical capacity 4.6 million hl. in year.

10. The sixth stage is filtration.
Unfiltered beer is not clear because it contains yeast and protein, so the finished beer is filtered before bottling. From the fermentation section, the beer is fed to a filter, clarified, then carbon dioxide is added to it and sent to a storage tank - forfas. The exception is unfiltered varieties.
The Volga brewery has two filtration lines, the technical capacity of which is 5.8 million hl. in year.

11. Safety is taken very seriously at the plant. Each employee wears special shoes, a vest, and earplugs. All paths have zebra crossings and safe zones.

12. From such a blank, plastic bottles of 1.5 and 2.5 liters are inflated using molds.

14.

15.

16. Gluing labels.

17. Line of plastic bottles.
1.5l – 25,000 b/h, 2.5l – 15,000 b/h, 6 types of containers, 11 assortment items.

18. Packing in boxes and bags.

19. Check for defects.

20. Oksky has the largest production volume - 30%.

21.

22. The number of personnel of the Volga brewery as of January 1, 2013 is 278 people.

23. Counting the quantity of products produced before packaging.

24.

25. Everywhere you look there is a warehouse. The warehouse holds 3 million hl. in year.

26.

27. Bottle line – 50,000 b/h, 7 types of containers, 14 assortment items.

28.

29. There is also a line of kegs (barrels) at the brewery, which bottles 120 k/h, but it was not shown.

30.

31. From each batch of products produced, a couple of copies are sent to the laboratory for examination.

32.

34. The excursion ended with a tasting of Oksky, Heineken, Amstel and Zlaty Bazant. In my opinion, Amstel won both in taste and smell.

Thanks to HEINEKEN Russia for the opportunity to look at the production.

Nizhny Novgorod, st. Vorotynska, 3

Registration for excursions appears from time to time on the website http://www.heinekenrussia.ru/excursions/

As you know, our Volga brewery now belongs to the HEINEKEN concern. And various brands are produced here - Amstel, Heineken, Okskoe, Three Bears, Ochota, and even Krušovice.

Last year, free excursions appeared on their website, but I didn’t have time to sign up. This year we started recording only in the fall.

Why do they need this? Apparently, to break existing stereotypes about the beer produced here. Supposedly they make it from concentrate, or maybe they dilute it with alcohol or some other way of butchering it? Because the taste of our beer is not so great.

Well, let's go have a look. To be honest, I don’t drink beer, neither imported nor, especially, local. Somehow it didn’t work out for me with beer.

But there was a desire to understand his tastes. When I was young, I remember I went on a tour of Europe - and it went through beer halls in Germany, Holland, and Belgium. I thought I’d try it in each country and know what it’s like, what the differences are in taste. At the first parking lot I bought the most beautiful bottle, tried it - well, "g"...

Then they read the label to me, it was some kind of mixture of beer and lemonade. They also produce something like this in Europe... So learn languages. After this experiment, my desire to spend euro money on beer disappeared. Since then, I have never become a fine connoisseur of beer.

So, we arrive at the plant and go to the entrance. This is a small house to the right of a multi-story building.

By the way, the Volga brewery is 80 years old! In 1936, the Directorate for the construction of a brewery was created, which they wanted to launch in 1942. But it so happened that the first brewing of beer took place only on June 19, 1959. I read this in a magazine that I found on the rack there.

In the 1970s, the plant produced more than a million hectoliters, and there were still queues in the pubs. I remember them from childhood.

When the plant was purchased by Heineken, the plant was almost completely rebuilt. All that remains of the old buildings is the brewhouse and the elevator (not visible in the photo). The elevator is currently not particularly used for its intended purpose, because... All raw materials are imported.

From the inside, the plant looks quite European. Everywhere, in workshops and on the street - pedestrian paths, crossings, alarm systems. To avoid getting hit by the cars that are scurrying around there.

Before the tour there is a funny (but understandable) safety video. Overalls (disposable gowns and caps, plus a reflective vest) and safety shoes (sneakers to prevent slipping). They also gave us earplugs for visiting the assembly line, although, looking ahead, it wasn’t too noisy there.

I was worried about the size of the shoes, but the largest one (47) suited me.

First we go to the brewhouse. This is the highest of the workshops. The group stomps to the top floor on foot (the fifth, and in height - like the eighth, approximately). The guide, being the... uh... largest one, takes me with him into the elevator, the elevator is very small.

In the workshop we see large round containers in which something is being cooked. Probably wort. The container has a porthole...

...but you can't see much through it.

And no one looks at them. The cooking process is controlled by automation and operators in a special room.

It’s also quite hot here and has a specific smell.

The guide explains the cooking process. To do this, we are shown ears of barley (for city dwellers who don’t know what barley looks like) and all the ingredients for brewing beer. You can try them. Pale malt, roasted malt, and caramel malt are a bit like hard nuts, but they taste different.

We don’t try hops, they are bitter. Just a sniff is enough.

From all this, wort is brewed, and the recipe is selected for the specific type of beer that is planned. “Strong Hunting” was brewed in front of us. But there is no strength there - yeast is added only in the next workshop. The taste of the wort is like sweet kvass.

After many hours of brewing, the wort is transported through a pipeline to the cold shop. Yeast is added here through other pipes. All this is poured into huge vertical containers (“harapas”), in which the fermentation process takes place.

This whole process is described on a stand in front of the entrance to the workshop. After the end of fermentation, yeast accumulated in the lower part of the harap. First they were drained, and then the beer went to filtration.

The guide worked on the Soviet Volga. Then yeast was allowed to be reused up to 17 times (!). And now - only 4 (or 5, I already forgot).

But for Amstel beer, special yeast is used that cannot withstand pressure. Therefore, Amstel beer ferments not in haraps, but in similar horizontal containers and for a longer time.

And if you need to brew strong beer, then they add sugar syrup, not alcohol, to the harapas. These are the nuances...

A mug of yeast was taken out of the workshop. Those who wished could smell it. The smell grew stronger.

Extreme enthusiasts could try it. I wonder if the yeast will react with the wort that was recently drunk?

The cold workshop itself, in which we only stood at the entrance, did not arouse much interest. Pipes, they are pipes in Africa too.

Then we got an almost bird's-eye view of the last of the workshops, where beer is bottled, pasteurized and packaged.

The conveyor moves quickly, the lighting is poor, the distance is far - the photo turns out blurry. And the area where beer was poured into PET bottles was impossible to photograph at all due to the crazy speed of rotation of this bottling machine.

What is striking is the sparseness of people. At best, there are only one or two people wandering around the workshop, but the work is in full swing!

Then we, frightened by the trucks and plugging in earplugs, went down to the workshop itself.

This conveyor belt with cans of beer is so long for a reason. If you take a can at the beginning and end of the movement, the temperature of the beer in it changes somewhere from 70 to 10 degrees (I could be wrong by 5-10 degrees).

Because first the beer is pasteurized, then packaged and cooled.

Next, packaging is made from individual cans...

They are put on pallets and taken away. The process is over.

Time for a tasting. Three glasses contain samples of local products. Let's try them one by one.

The first glass is clearly some kind of inexpensive variety, it tastes like yeast, but you can drink it. It turned out to be “Oka Bochkovoe”.

The next one is similar to the previous sample, but almost without taste, as if twice diluted. This is the Three Bears. I will never buy again.

And finally, in the last “glass” there is something more impressive. It doesn’t taste like yeast, but, on the contrary, some fruity notes appear in the taste. This is Amstel, there is no comparison with the first two.

At this point the program is over, a bottle of "Oka Bochkovoy" is a gift to us! We thank the guide for an interesting excursion, change clothes and go home.

The group was intelligent, either young people in pairs or older ones. Some had been to European breweries and asked tricky questions or knowingly nodded their heads in agreement with the guide. All in all, an interesting excursion for a dull autumn weekend.

P. Kalyulin.
November 26, 2016

The weather is bad in Nizhny Novgorod these days, it’s unpleasant to be outside for a long time. Late autumn and winter are the ideal time for various indoor excursions. Last Saturday I went behind the scenes of the Volga brewery. More precisely, that’s what it was called before, but now the plant is a branch of the Heineken concern and proudly calls itself the Volga brewery.

Nizhny Novgorod has its own beer brands, such as Okskoye or Rusich, but at the moment the brewery brews not only them. I won’t get ahead of myself and will tell you everything in order. The excursion is organized by the Heineken concern itself and is completely free. You just need to sign up in advance using a special form on the website (see at the end of the article).

Construction of the brewery began in 1938, but the first beer brewing took place only in 1959. The war got in the way. There was no time for beer during the war years. Previously, malt and hops were stored in huge elevators on the territory of the plant, but now the corporation considered that this was ineffective and the raw materials were supplied to the plant by third parties. They didn’t tell us where the barley was coming from - it’s a trade secret.

The conveyor is the very last stage in production, and first......

Unexpectedly, the tour began with a safety briefing and testing. Everything is grown-up. We were given reflective vests, special shoes and earplugs. The group was warned that the territory of the plant was dangerous and that extreme caution must be taken. Photographing production is prohibited and this fact upset me the most. What about the report?!

In fact, we were allowed to take photographs, but only in specially designated areas. There were only two of them.

The guide is an experienced worker. If I heard everything correctly, then our guide has been working at the plant for about 50 years as a microbiologist. Of course, she told us about the principles of brewing beer, what ingredients are used, and we even tried malt and liquid bread.

There are 5 or 6 vats in the brewhouse (I don’t remember exactly). In each of them, beer goes through some kind of stage, always the same. That is, the process is continuous and the ingredients are distilled from vat to vat constantly (5-6 hours for each).

These huge vats are very hot. The heat in the room is unbearable, almost like in a bathhouse. Through the glass hatch you can observe the process, but in fact the entire cycle is monitored by automation and operators from a special room.

It was here that we nibbled on malt and tasted the “liquid bread.” This is not beer yet, but some kind of intermediate product. By the way, there is a specific smell in the room.

The next stage is the cold shop. Unfortunately, photography of the premises was not allowed. This is where the fermentation process takes place. I don’t know how many liters the huge vertical cylinders (harapas) hold, but it’s definitely not small. The height of the Harap is about 26 meters.

At this stage, there are some differences in the preparation of ordinary beer and Heineken beer. As the guide told us, special yeast is used for Heineken beer. Their structure is delicate and collapses under pressure. Therefore, Heineken beer ferments not in haraps, but in horizontal tanks and a little longer than the same Okskoye.

The conveyor is very noisy, so the whole group was armed with earplugs.

They poured and packaged strong Okhota beer right in front of us. The photos turned out blurry because the tape with the cans is in constant motion. Each jar/bottle is first thoroughly washed, then the product is filled, packaged, pasteurized and assembled into pallets. It turns out that glass bottles cannot be reused, so there is no cycle of bottles in nature.

I was interested to know how the cooking is planned, because the process is ongoing. And they told us about this moment too. The plant has a special planning department that calculates the need to brew a particular type of beer. Every Friday a work plan for the next week is prepared.

Of course, the day was not in vain. During the excursion we were told many interesting details from the history of the plant and the production process. I was surprised by the level of preparation: special clothing, shoes, video lecture on safety precautions. The security guard was not far behind us throughout the entire excursion. The level of industrial safety is at the highest level.

So why does the concern need all this? For us the excursion was free, but for Heineken it was far from free. As our guide told us, the main goal of the excursion is to raise public awareness. Now there is a lot of gossip in the press that beer is brewed from concentrates, and alcohol is added for strength. This is wrong. We ourselves saw the process of brewing beer, and for strength, by the way, they add sugar syrup, but not alcohol.

At the end of the excursion, we were invited to a tasting of three types of beer and were even given a gift. It felt damn good.

As it turns out, such excursions are not conducted on an ongoing basis. In Nizhny Novgorod, the promotion will last until December 12. Hurry up to sign up! You can also take advantage of the situation and get to other breweries of the concern - in Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk. There is also a Heineken branch in St. Petersburg, but there are no registrations for excursions at the moment.

It’s very interesting to visit a production facility and you don’t have to like beer at all, you can just be curious. Now I’m thinking about what excursion to organize next time :)