How To Calculate The Output of Brewery Equipment?

Key Factors in Beer Yield Calculation

• Wort Yield: The first step in calculating beer yield is to measure the amount of wort produced during the brewing process. This is usually done using a volume sensor or flow meter integrated into the brewing equipment.

• Specific Gravity: Specific gravity measures the density of wort relative to water and helps estimate the amount of fermentable sugars. Brewers use tools such as hydrometers or refractometers to measure specific gravity before and after fermentation.

• Alcohol content: The alcohol content of beer is calculated based on the difference in specific gravity before and after fermentation. This difference indicates how much sugar is converted to alcohol during the brewing process.

• Brewing efficiency: Brewing efficiency affects the extraction and utilization of sugars.

• Yeast strains and fermentation conditions: Different yeast strains and fermentation temperatures can affect the flavor development and characteristics of the final beer.

Brewery production calculation

For simplicity, we calculate 20 fermentation and conditioning production cycles per year. Fermentation and maturation/storage are carried out in CCT unit tanks.

Let’s do the math: the average fermentation + conditioning cycle takes 17-18 days, 350 days per year divided by 17 days = 20 production cycles per year.

Calculating Brewery Capacity – Cellar Tanks

There are several types of tanks you can use in your brewing process:

• Fermentation tanks

• Clear beer tanks

• Horizontal maturation tanks

• Serving tanks

The beer cans you choose can affect your brewery's production and labor costs. For example, if you run a brewpub, beer cans are a viable option. Some breweries keep beer cans in a cooler and pour beer directly from these cans at the bar. This saves labor, so keg beer is not used for draft beer.

The number of beer tanks in the brewery

The design of the brewery will also affect the output of beer on site. The types of home brewing equipment and craft beer equipment used in hotels, bars, breweries and restaurants usually adopt 500L or 1000L double tanks, double tanks and triple tanks, double tanks + hot water boilers, etc. 1-2 batches of saccharification are made every day. Considering factors such as labor and labor intensity, 1 batch is usually used every day.

The most common setup:

• 3-vessel system: combined mash/filtration tank and kettle/vortex tank

• 3-vessel system: combined mash/filtration tank with separate kettle and vortex tank, or separate mash and filtration tank with combined kettle/vortex tank

• 4-vessel system: separate mash, filtration, kettle, and vortex tank

The more beer tanks a brewery has, the more beer it can brew in a day. In a two-tank system, it might be possible to brew twice, but that would take a long time to brew in a day. Some breweries have five or six-tank systems and can brew more than six times a day. In brewing, it is not the number of cellar tanks that limits a brewery's output, but the design of the brewery.

Brewery yield calculation process

Data collection

• Raw material data: record the input amount of each raw material, including malt, hops and water.

• Process data: record the yield and quality data during saccharification, boiling, fermentation, filtration and packaging. Modern equipment is usually equipped with sensors and automatic recording systems to collect this data in real time.

Data calculation

Calculation of saccharification efficiency: Calculate the saccharification efficiency based on the volume and sugar content of the wort before and after saccharification.

• Formula: Wort efficiency = soluble sugar extracted ÷ sugar input into malt

• Calculation of boiling loss: The boiling loss is estimated by measuring the volume difference of the wort before and after boiling and combining the evaporation rate.

• Calculation of fermentation loss: Record the change in beer volume before and after fermentation, and calculate the fermentation loss by combining the gas and sediment produced during the fermentation process.

• Filtration loss calculation: Filtration loss is calculated based on the volume difference before and after filtration.

• Packaging loss calculation: Packaging loss is calculated by measuring the volume before packaging and the actual filling volume.

Data analysis

• Production forecast: Combine historical production data with current production conditions to predict future production.

• Quality control: Analyze production data to ensure efficiency in each link and maintain product consistency.

• Cost control: Optimize production processes and cost management based on loss data in each link.