OnTap Magazine

ontapmag.co.za | Spring 2024 | 45 A s a brewing consultant I am lucky enough to travel to breweries all over the world. My latest adventure was to Sri Lanaka to meet with Arno Matthee, the Brewmaster at Lion Brewery (Ceylon) PLC. Lion Brewery, the brewer of Lion Beer, is Sri Lanka’s market leading brand. The Lion range of beers have a rich history and have been brewed since the 19th century, when the first brewery was built by the British explorer Sir Samuel Bak- er. The story goes, that Baker was out hunting game in Nuwara Eliya, the high- lands of what was then known as Ceylon. During the hunt he happened upon a wa- terfall and natural spring, an encounter that led to him deciding to build a brew- ery in this location, to have access to this fresh spring water. The plant in Biyagama is a state-of-the- art brewery, which is ISO and HAACP certified. Raw materials are imported from Europe and the UK with the bulk being malted barley, rice and hops. There are two brewhouses in the main brewery, with brew lengths of 240hL, with a lauter tun and 360hL, which has a mash filter (which utilises a more modern way of separating wort). The cellars are hard piped with manual change over via swing bend flow panels. There are multiple fermentation vessel sizes and some with built in dynamic fermentation control systems, which facilitate mixing in the fermentation vessel and prevent “layering”. Multiple strains of yeast are harvested and reused, but surplus yeast gets sold off as animal feed. Like most large modern breweries, the carbon dioxide generated through fermentation is collected and reused to carbonate the beer at filtration. Matured beer is cleared using a cen- trifuge and further filtered via candle filter, en route to the bright beer cellar in preparation for packaging into ei- ther 625ml and 330ml bottles or 500ml and 330ml cans. Beer that isn’t bottled or canned is sent to draught kegs. Where possible, recycling is practised, with even the spent filter powder be- ing dried and supplied to the building industry as a supplement to building materials. A new microbrewery, “The Four Rivers Brewery” built by Krones, has recently been commissioned and has a brew length of 20hL. This smaller brewery will be brewing beers for Sri Lanka’s Oktoberfest. The beers cur- rently being planned for the festival will be made up of an Oktoberfest Lager, Weiss beer, Coffee Stout, Irish Dark Ale, Belgian Ale, mango fla- voured beer, cucumber and lime beer. They will also be producing a lime tea. In addition to its advanced brewing equipment, the craft brewery features a full packaging line that integrates both canning and bottling capabili- ties, not to mention the keg plant. Be sure to taste these special beers, if you ever find yourself in Sri Lanka! THE MODERN BREWERY Beer sight glass in candle filter Brewmaster Arno Matthee