- All hop types can be pelletized easily and gently
- ECOKRAFT technology sustainably reduces transport costs
- Valuable ingredients have a longer shelf life in pellet form
- Excellent customer rating for the entire ECOKRAFT team
- More at www.ecokraft.com and www.hoppecruyt.be
Deggendorf, November 2, 2018. ECOKRAFT AG, headquartered in Deggendorf, Germany, offers innovative pelleting systems for hop cultivation and will be present as a direct exhibitor at the world-renowned BrauBeviale 2018 trade fair from November 13-15, 2018, in the Nuremberg Exhibition Center in Hall 6 / 6-331h. "With its novel pelleting systems, ECOKRAFT AG offers a key innovation for processing high-quality raw materials such as hops. The essential and technology-sensitive component contributes to greater efficiency in the process chain, higher quality of all hop varieties as well as significant time savings," explains Reinhold Eder, CEO and Chairman of the Board of ECOKRAFT AG. A good example of this, he says, is the ECOKRAFT plant recently commissioned in Proven, a municipality of Poperinges in West Flanders (Belgium). "There, our plant pellets hop cones into pellets. Fast. Effectively. Sustainable and of the best quality," says Managing Director Reinhold Eder, noting that in fact all types of hops can be easily and gently pressed into pellets. This also reduces transport costs.
Valuable ingredients have a longer shelf life in pellet form
The 4th generation family-run hop farm 't Hoppecruyt in Proven, Belgium, is using the new ECOKRAFT technology with great success. "We grow the world-renowned Belgian aroma hops. The hop cones are then gently processed with all their valuable ingredients for the local Belgian breweries," says Wout Desmyter, owner of the family business 't Hoppecruyt, and adds: "We want to produce the very best quality hops for the best Belgian beer. That's our value proposition that we always want to keep to our customers, the Belgian brewers." The hop varieties include Saphir, Golding East Well, Northen Brewer, Groene Bel, Record or Sorachi Ace. Each hop variety has its own characteristics, he said, allowing breweries to produce a wide variety of beer styles. "ECOKRAFT's technology works very reliably on our farm, it takes up little space, and its low power consumption is impressive. And the quality of the pellets is really excellent," notes Benedikte Desmyter happily, because previously the hop flowers were only packed and sealed in bulk. This meant that more packaging material had to be used due to higher volumes, and the valuable ingredients were lost due to longer storage. "The entire process of processing the hop cones to vacuum packing now takes place in just 24 hours thanks to ECOKRAFT. For us, this is an indispensable guarantee of freshness and best taste," Wout Desmyter reports. Moreover, by compressing the material into pellets, the quality of the product is increased and "the valuable ingredients have a longer shelf life in pellet form," Desmyter continues.
Strong consulting performance
And how does the Desmyter family evaluate what has been achieved so far thanks to ECOKRAFT? "We first found ECOKRAFT AG on the Internet, the service was then really excellent, and now that the plant technology is in place, we realize that the investment was actually worth it. On a scale of 1 to 10, we would therefore rate ECOKRAFT's products and consulting services as 10 and recommend ECOKRAFT to others," emphasizes the Desmyter family unanimously. And what happens next? "The 2018 harvest is complete and the finished pellets are now being shipped to the breweries. We will also still be pressing hops on a contract basis and then preparing for the coming season. Due to the ECOKRAFT technology, the quality of the pellets will be very good again. This already makes us happy and proud, because it means that we will be able to sustainably inspire our customers," concludes Benedikte Desmyter. Anyone who wants to learn more about ECOKRAFT's plant technology should therefore come and visit BrauBeviale 2018 in Nuremberg.