From ground breaking ceremony to first brew in 6.5 months

To meet the growing demand for beer in Vietnam, Heineken needed to expand an existing site – and they had some ambitious capacity goals.

The perfect accompaniment to its fresh spicy food, the demand for beer is growing in Vietnam. That’s why Heineken needed to expand one of their existing sites in Tien Giang on the Mekong River.

As the existing brewhouse had reached the end of its life, it was the perfect opportunity to build a new one using current technology to enable greater efficiency. The expansion aimed to raise the capacity of the brewery from 60 million litres to 150 million litres per year.

The project scope was wide, and included a new 440hl mash filter brewhouse and malt silos, six new 3,600hl Fermentation Storage Tanks, two new 2,000hl Bright Beer Tanks, a major upgrade for the refrigeration, power and steam boiler plant, plus water and wastewater treatment plant upgrades.

To bring the brewery to life, we designed and tendered the eight work packages for processes and utilities plant, coordinated the civil design provided by a local consultant, and helped Vietnam Brewery Ltd (VBL) choose and manage local civil contractors who were responsible for detailed design and construction.

As Tien Giang wasn’t near to any of our, or VBL’s, offices, we appointed a project manager and technical support engineer to be on site for the 12-month construction and installation period for on the ground support.