First turnkey line for family-run Maxlrain Brewery

In the Alpine foothills of Upper Bavaria lies Maxlrain Castle, a Renaissance castle framed against the backdrop of Wendelstein mountain. It is home to one of Germany’s most beautiful golf courses stretching over 140 hectares, a venue for large open-air concerts, a vintage car show and medieval tournaments. All that’s missing is a cosy brewery with an authentic beer garden to perfect the picture. But of course Maxlrain Castle, which is owned by Dr. Erich Prinz von Lobkowicz and lies about 60 kilometers south of Munich, has that too.

A conscious choice for a turnkey line

With this line, whose rated output is 20,000 bottles per hour, Krones is demonstrating that this global corporation is also a partner for small and mid-sized breweries. “We’re committed to our regional roots,” stresses Stefan Englert, the sales engineer in charge of the Maxlrain account. Maxlrain’s owner Dr. Erich Prinz von Lobkowicz adds, “We never imagined that we could afford a Krones filling line. But by entrusting them with the turnkey project, we’ve saved ourselves a lot of time and headaches picking out individual machines from different manufacturers and trying to connect them all.”

High standards of quality

Sedimentation and dosing systems are integrated into the Lavatec bottle washer. In addition, the inclusion of separate caustic detection sensors and a pressure-controlled empty pallet inspection unit in the dry end was important to Maxlrainer, so as to ensure that only flawless pallets make their way to customers. That’s because Maxlrain’s commitment to quality doesn’t end with the product itself.

The new line replaces an existing, older line that still uses some machines dating back to the 1970s. While this vintage line is currently housed in a handsome but crowded space with vaulted ceilings, the new line will take up residence in a new hall built specially for it. That will simplify the transition from one line to the other as the old line won’t be stopped until the new Krones line is up and running.