The Situation

Rebellion sources its water from its own sustainable borehole. While rich in minerals and ideal for certain traditional beer styles, the chalky local water also presents challenges: its alkalinity and total dissolved solids (TDS) levels naturally vary. For a brewery keen to expand its range – particularly into lagers – precision and consistency became increasingly important.

Beginning their partnership with Grundfos (formerly Culligan Commercial) in 2008, Rebellion initially installed a carbon filter to remove chlorine from their brewing liquor. As their brewing ambitions grew, so did their need for tighter water control. By 2017, the brewery sought a more consistent TDS level and improved alkalinity control to support the production of a broader and more modern range of beers. This included newer lagers and beers requiring a softer, more neutral water profile.

Rebellion is also known for its strong environmental ethos and the brewery gives customers money off future purchases when bottles are returned. The 1-litre bottles operate on a successful small deposit scheme, averaging 80–85% across approximately 100,000 bottles sold annually across Rebellion's brands. This reuse model reduces waste and landfill, underscoring Rebellion’s commitment to sustainability and the system delivers a significantly lower environmental impact than single-use glass, even when recycling is considered. To ensure bottles can be cleaned to a spotless, reusable standard, soft water is essential to prevent the limescale marks that hard water typically leaves behind, as well as ensuring bottles remain pristine for many more fills.  

The Solution

While rooted in tradition, Rebellion has embraced the latest in water technology to refine their brewing techniques. To achieve the required precision – and on the recommendation of the project team at Grundfos – Rebellion adopted Reverse Osmosis (RO) – a modern water treatment approach that complements their traditional brewing practices. A tailored RO system was combined with a raw-water blending line and advanced monitoring to achieve a dependable water chemistry. The MFP RO System (upgraded from an MFP4 to an MFP5 controller) is used to strip the water back to a pure base, removing 98–99% of minerals. This allows the brewery to rebuild the ideal water profile for each beer style.

In terms of consistency, the mineral-rich water of the Chilterns varies naturally. RO removes these fluctuations and allows precise mineral additions, ensuring batch-to-batch reliability. Lagers and other modern beer styles require very specific mineral levels. RO gives Rebellion the freedom to create the perfect brewing liquor every time and ensures that they meet rising expectations for high-quality craft beers.

Soft water generated from the HE Twin Softener also plays a key role in bottle washing for their reusable bottle-cleaning process, where any trace of limescale could compromise clarity, hygiene and presentation. Consistent softening plays a crucial role not just in brewing, but in ensuring their sustainability programme can operate at high standards.

In short, the combination of RO and softening delivers exceptional brewing control and supports Rebellion’s circular-economy bottle return system.

Packaging lager in a 1-litre returnable bottle is particularly unique, especially when comparing freshness with alternative retail options in the UK. Because the beer is packaged just a week or two after conditioning it maintains a cold chain until purchase and carries a one-week shelf life once sold, making it substantially fresher than supermarket lagers. Although not appropriate for supermarket distribution, it performs exceptionally well through Rebellion's on-site drive-through and brewery shop. Customers typically live within a 30-mile radius of the brewery and bottles can be returned there or picked up by their distribution network, cleaned and refilled easily and efficiently. The lager itself is not only exceptionally fresh but also delivers an authentic German character, supported by the RO. 

The Outcome

Grundfos provided a complete end-to-end solution, including equipment supply, project engineering and ongoing service support. The result is a highly reliable, cost-effective and operator-friendly system that ensures Rebellion’s brewing liquor consistently meets their exact mineral and alkalinity specifications.

As Engineering Manager Michael Finn notes: "Water quality is absolutely critical to the flavour and consistency of Rebellion’s beers. Using water from our own borehole gives us a sustainable supply, but it needs careful treatment. The Grundfos RO and softening systems give us complete confidence in our water profile day in, day out and have proven very reliable, from both a performance and support perspective." 

Service Account Manager Connah Herbert adds: "Rebellion are a great customer to work with, they are always looking for new ideas to innovate products or increase their product range. They are also very open to new ideas in terms of what we can provide for them as their main water treatment supplier. I have very much enjoyed working with them over the years as they are a friendly, family-run business who we have a great line of communication with."

Together, this close collaboration delivers the reliable precisely-controlled water chemistry that underpins Rebellion’s high-performing brewing operations – supporting everything from process water conditioning to critical hygiene and bottle-washing applications. Backed by decades of expertise in water movement, treatment and intelligent monitoring, Grundfos continues to empower breweries across the UK and beyond. From the moment water enters the site to the moment it leaves, Grundfos solutions drive efficiency, improve sustainability and support the continuous innovations that are key to modern brewing.

Grundfos supplied

The Brewhole Brew Water System is comprised of a Carbon Filter to eliminate chlorine, an MFP RO System (upgraded from an MFP4 to an MFP5 controller) to remove 98–99% of total dissolved solids (TDS) and an HE Twin Softener to reduce hardness and protect the RO membrane. A custom-made HMI control panel has been added for intuitive operation and real-time monitoring, plus an alarm history within the HMI simplifies maintenance and troubleshooting. Conductivity/TDS monitoring helps to maintain precise blending ratios, plus automation via hydrostatic level transmitters is used to manage storage tank levels and control distribution pumps. An HE Softener is used for the Bottle Wash System.  

Together, these technologies provide an innovative, fit-and-forget solution, enhanced by a robust service package that guarantees consistency and confidence across Rebellion’s brewing operations, day after day.