When a brewery sets out to realign its operations for the future, it will usually start with its key element, the brewhouse. This is vividly demonstrated by the rigorous approach that Heineken Srbija has adopted in Novi Sad. The group has for years been striving to achieve ambitious climate targets and primarily relied on solutions that deliver tangible results directly in the production operation. The brewery has teamed up with Steinecker to tap into an amazingly large potential for meaningful savings, with the EquiTherm system playing a pivotal role here.
When the sun rises over the rooftops of Novi Sad early in the morning, the brewery is already bustling with activity. The first trucks drive along the Temerinski Put, one of the most important access roads to the Serbian city’s industrial north. They’re carrying international classics like Heineken, Amstel, Birra Moretti and Laško, and also strong national brands, first and foremost Zaječarsko.
The Novi Sad brewery is located on the city’s outskirts and is regarded as one of the region’s most technologically advanced beverage production facilities. Together with the tradition-steeped brewery in Zaječar, it constitutes the basis for Heineken Srbija’s national beer production.
The brewery located on the city’s outskirts is regarded as one of the region’s most technologically advanced beverage production facilities.
Image credits:
Heineken Srbija
While Zaječar embodies its rich brewing history, dating back to 1895, Novi Sad is a state-of-the-art factory that has been systematically upgraded and fine-tuned ever since it was bought out by Heineken in 2008. Today Heineken Srbija is ranked among the country’s premier brewing groups and its most ambitious ones when it comes to sustainability. In line with the goals the group has set itself, carbon emissions are to be substantially reduced along the entire value chain.
One of the best places to achieve this is right at the heart of each brewery, the brewhouse. And that is precisely where Steinecker comes in with its EquiTherm system.
A long-standing partnership – and the next big step
The brewery in Novi Sad started cooperating with Steinecker from the beginning: Steinecker built the entire system originally ordered in Freising and then installed it in Novi Sad.
As part of the latest modernisation, Steinecker supplied two new mash vessels to Novi Sad in 2025.
Image credits:
Heineken Srbija
So the two companies have for years now been linked in a reliable technological partnership. “We’ve meanwhile enjoyed a relationship of mutual trust with Steinecker for more than two decades,” says Dejan Josic, brewery manager at Heineken Srbija. “What’s important to us, in addition to getting dependable technology, is to have a partner who understands our long-term sustainability goals.” Their most recent joint project, a comprehensive brewhouse upgrade resulting in substantial energy savings, is a striking example of this close relationship.
Why EquiTherm? To save energy, cut carbon emissions and rig up for the future
Although Serbia was a country with low energy prices at the time the project was started, so that energy efficiency was not among the most obvious aspects to tackle, Heineken deliberately opted for a future-viable solution. And it has achieved excellent results.
Starting in 2025, the most recent comprehensive update has brought the brewhouse to the next level in terms of engineering and technology. The project team decided to install EquiTherm, Steinecker’s field-proven system for efficient heat recovery and usage. As the brewhouse had originally been designed without energy recovery, this update opened up significant energy saving potential.
For this purpose, the brewhouse underwent an extensive upgrade that focussed on integrating Steinecker’s EquiTherm system, which for the first time recovers the energy from wort cooling (so far unused) and employs it to make hot water at around 96 degrees Celsius. That hot water is collected in a central energy storage tank and then used for heating up the mash and the wort.
“EquiTherm finally enables us to make full use of full energy saving potential – and it’s a system we can rely on!” says Dragan Radun, a member of the project team The brewery thus saves up to 55 per cent thermal energy and 40 per cent electricity in the brewhouse.
In the wort cooler, the previously unused energy from wort boiling is recovered and used to generate hot water at a temperature of around 96 °C.
Image credits:
Heineken Srbija
In order to translate that concept into shopfloor reality, Steinecker also replaced the two mash tuns and fitted the new ones with pillow plates at their walls and bottoms, thus creating substantially larger and more efficient heat-exchange surfaces. That enabled the brewery to use hot water instead of steam as heating medium. Hot water permits lower heating-medium temperatures, which results in particularly uniform heat exchange and fine-tuned control options. This means thermal stress on the mash is significantly reduced, enzymes remain more active, the risk of fouling is lower and temperature control is rendered a whole lot more stable. “Temperature control is significantly more consistent now,” says Damir Kovcic, SSH Brewing Process Engineer. “That makes for a more predictable, more reliable process – a definite advantage in daily operation.”
What’s more, the revamp could be implemented in an exceptionally short timeframe of just about ten days, thus minimising production downtime. These advantages go to show that energy-efficiency projects have for some time now also assumed a vital role in a company’s commercial considerations.
However, their benefits go much further. Energy efficiency is increasingly becoming a key factor in operational resilience and robust supply chains. EquiTherm enables a brewery not only to reduce its carbon footprint but to simultaneously enhance its independence of volatile energy markets and sensitive supply chains – a strategic benefit, which in view of the ongoing global tensions and geopolitical uncertainties has gained considerably in importance.
A project sending out a clear signal for the facility
By installing EquiTherm, Heineken Srbija raised its brewhouse to the next level in terms of both technology and energy management. It is an impressive demonstration of how existing systems can be efficiently upgraded by purposefully targeted investments.
“We’re pleased that Heineken chose us to support them with future efficiency-boosting measures as well. The projects we’ve so far completed together are proof of our teams’ good cooperation, and we intend to continue on this path,” says Key Account Manager Wolfgang Müller and Johannes Pfennig, Sales Manager at Steinecker, adds: “To achieve the sustainability target of the brewing and beverage industry, we can not only focus on new greenfield projects. There is so much potential in existing plants that we want to raise together with our customers. With Heineken Serbia, we have a perfect partner to do so. “
“We see the project as a blueprint for further Heineken facilities,” concludes Damir Kovcic. “Steinecker has shown how state-of-the-art energy efficiency and high process reliability can be effectively combined. That supports our net-zero ambitions perfectly.”
