KEO Beer

KEO Beer

Early in the 50’s, on the 17^th of May 1951, KEO plc launches its beer brand. A locally produced lager, that became Cyprus’ local beer ever since.  More than half a century later, KEO Beer is closely linked with the island where both locals and visitors declared it as the taste of Cyprus.

KEO Beer has been designed by Czech brew masters based on famous Czech traditional beer recipes well-adjusted to local climatic temperatures with great emphasis on strict hygiene during production. So much importance is given to total sanitation, that the beer needs no pasteurization.  KEO is the only beer produced on the island, which is bottled unpasteurised. This same recipe and brewing process is strictly followed to date, preserving KEO Beer’s utmost quality.

KEO Beer is the cornerstone in the growth of Cyprus beer market, which was further developed by the increase of tourism on the island.  The Brewery has been constantly upgrading its equipment utilizing state-of-the-art technology. The bottling machinery has a capacity of 36,000 bottles per hour.

KEO is brewed from the finest malt and the choicest hops, traditionally matured, bottled fresh and unpasteurised, gold in colour and unique in taste. In March 1987, KEO Beer was awarded the Gold Medal by the Brewing Industry International Awards, at the World’s Bottled Lager Competition, held at Burton-on-Trent, UK.

The Brewing Process

The Ingredients

Malt:
Malt is barley specially treated for the brewing. KEO uses selected varieties of barley and imports malt of the finest grade

Hops:
The hop is a climbing plant cultivated for brewing purposes. Its bitter resins and essential oils, give beer its characteristic taste. KEO uses a special blend of superior hop varieties, the quality of which is of great importance to the beer.

Maize:
Maize (corn) is used as a compliment to malt, and gives the beer a lighter colour.

The Process

Milling:
The malted barley is lightly crushed into a coarse powder to allow it to absorb water.

Mashing:
Starch and proteins, are broken down and converted to fermentable sugars. Dissolved in water they give rise to a liquor called “wort” which is then filtered through the bed of husks, allowing it to settle down. It then passes through the perforated bottom of the mash tun to the wort kettle.

Boiling:
The clear wort in the kettle is boiled in stages with hops in order to extract the essential oils and bitter resins.

Mashing and boiling processes are completed in eight hours. 

Trub separation and cooling:
Boiled wort is pumped at high velocity to a tank called “whirlpool”. This action creates a centrifugal effect by which all protein; trub and spent hops are collected in the centre of the whirlpool, in the form of a compact “cake”. The clear wort is collected from the edge of the Whirlpool and pumped through a chiller to the fermenting tanks.

Fermentation:
A process by which about 80% of the fermentable sugars of wort are converted to alcohol and carbon dioxide by the natural action of yeast added to the wort.

Fermentation takes about a week and is carried out under strict temperature controled tanks.

Lagering (Maturation):
The “young” fermented beer is transferred to the lager cellars where it spends about six weeks in closed storage tanks at temperatures below zero.

The rest of the sugars are fermented and beer is saturated with carbon dioxide.

Filtration:
Beer passes through polishing filters where all precipitates and yeast are completely eliminated. Then, through sterilising filters, all microorganisms are removed thereby avoiding the need for pasteurisation.

PASTEURISATION is a process that resorts to heating the beer prior to packaging for the purpose of microbiological stability. High temperatures however, affect the taste and aromas of the beer. Through strict hygienic controls, KEO Beer needs no pasteurisation, and it’s the only beer on the island bottled unpasteurised.

Packaging:
KEO Beer finally reaches a state of the art bottling line, with computerised flow control producing 36,000 bottles per hour. Beer is also packed in cans and kegs.

Distribution:
Fresh off the production line, KEO is distributed all over the island and travels to all five continents to be enjoyed by millions of fans around the world.

This Alcoholic Beverage is not for sale to persons under 18 years of age. If the legal drinking age in your country of residence is higher than 18 you should not buy this product if you are underage. If sales of Alcoholic Beverages are prohibited in your country of residence you should not buy this product.