How to improve beer brewing process

The beer industry has long been dominated by big players. For decades, commercial beer has been the norm, with little innovation in the brewing process and beer taste. Small craft breweries have yet to gain a foothold in a crowded world of industrial companies and their huge brewing systems.

Fortunately, today's beer industry pattern is not like this. Craft breweries are emerging from underground in every corner. Business partners, families, and ordinary people can now open their own microbrewery and start producing an iconic beer that will surprise the local community (and even the wider audience). There are many beers to try, but there is very little time.

On the one hand, this amazing development of craft beer is extraordinary for consumers and aspiring brewers. On the other hand, this can also be a challenge for brewers. If their brewing process is not efficient enough, or their recipes are not attractive to the public, they may not be able to break the chaos of craft beer.

The name of the game in beer brewing is efficiency and originality. Simplify your processes, follow the latest equipment innovations and formulation trends, and play your role in them. Here are some general guidelines on how to improve the beer brewing process.

• Reduce physical labor

If your brewery is not yet fully automated, you should look for ways to automate it. Automation is the key to a (relatively) fast and reliable process that can produce consistent brewing. It eliminates the human factor from the equation, thereby reducing errors in the brewing process and reducing workplace injuries.

Repeated physical strains have deteriorated the health of workers, and operating heavy machinery is an accident waiting to happen. Reduce these risks by introducing automated brewing equipment, such as transporting grains through a conveyor belt system.

Conveyors transport special grains from the grinder to the mash and the rest of the process without manual intervention. Especially the DEGONG system, which performs this operation in a gentle and slow manner to prevent grain breakage-all you get is high-quality malt, which can be used to make high-quality pale ales and other types of beer.

You may worry that your brewery does not have enough space to install the conveyor system; although this may happen to other conveyor systems, it is not a problem for DEEGONG. DEGONG's engineering department specializes in designing customized solutions for large and small spaces according to customer needs. The large system component library of various sizes, diameters and materials ensures that any type of brewery can have its own reliable DEGONG conveyor belt, optimized to meet its brewing needs.

In addition to protecting the health of workers and reducing physical labor, the conveyor belt can also ensure the smooth flow of grain. Breweries of any size use conveyor belt systems in almost all steps of the beer production process, usually 24 hours a day. This flow increases production and efficiency, which in turn increases profitability. In a complex process like brewing beer, automated systems are the savior.

copper beer brewing equipment

• Introduction to brewing analysis

One of the main problems facing the craft beer industry today is the inability to accurately understand what is happening in each step of the brewing process. The use of brewing equipment mainly made of stainless steel eliminates the visual factor-you need to rely on readings and meters to tell you the current batch of beer.

However, you will encounter situations where there are not even any readings to check. For example, when it comes to the carbonation level of your water tank-how can you know exactly how much carbon dioxide is left in the water tank before you have to replace it with a new one? Do you know how many ingredients you lose every day? Do you know which processes are taking too long and can be improved?

Specifically, brewing software-can help you answer all these questions.

The advantages of using software to track your brewing are

Real-time data verification-when you view the data after the brewing step is completed, it is too late to take any action. You must wait for the next batch until you can improve your brewing technique. However, the software allows you to verify the information in real time, giving you the opportunity to react more quickly, and it is possible to propose solutions on the spot, thereby saving you time, money and trouble in the future.

Better consistency-Maybe you notice that your beer style has inconsistent flavors from batch to batch, and you are not sure what caused this. Through a long-term visual data representation, you can easily track changes in factors such as pH, gravity, alcohol content, and fermentation process indicators between batches. (One of the most important is fermentation temperature control.) This allows you to make consistent brewing in the future.

Efficiency analysis-To track your brewing efficiency, you need to evaluate unit profit, batch cost, number of wasted products or ingredients, etc. Doing this manually is difficult; the software will help you gather all relevant information in one place. Instead of using average numbers, you use actual values, which makes calculations more precise and allows you to maintain costs, price new products, and even compare with other brands.

Key performance indicators-If you want to see if the changes you make have any impact, you should focus on key performance indicators that accurately reflect these changes. Brewing software will do this for you, ensuring that your workers meet beer production goals, will not run out of fresh ingredients or waste too much time on packaging, etc.

• Turn to food science

The idea of brewing beer in a laboratory may be offensive to you. After all, beer is a warm and refreshing experience, not a clinical experience. But the truth is that although beer is a social drink, beer brewing is a food science. You basically make alcohol from carbohydrates through a series of complex processes. These processes occur in nature, but they have an irreversible connection with science.

You are not brewing in the player. You are serious about your business and are always committed to brewing better beer. A peek at what food scientists are doing and the new chemical innovations in beer brewing will allow you to perfect your beer recipe, no matter what beer style you produce.

Hop content

A common belief is that the more hops you add to your beer, the stronger the aroma and flavor of the hops. However, recent discoveries tell us that this is not the case. Different hop plants produce different types of hop oil, and their effectiveness may vary greatly. You can add the same amount of hop oil from two different plant strains and get completely different flavors.

Through further research on this, beer brewers should finally be able to select the exact type of hops and add the right amount of hops to always achieve the precise flavor characteristics they seek.

Yeast starters and strains

Almost every small brewery has its own yeast strain or yeast starter for its iconic beer. The average brewer cannot determine the source of the yeast strain or what its genetics and physiology are like. It may be suitable for their specific purpose, but it may not be the best yeast culture for overall use.

Scientists have begun to catalog yeast strains used in baking and brewing. They are analyzing approximately 157 yeast strains, known as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and hope to determine the exact potential of each strain in food manufacturing.

In conclusion

The amount of innovation you will introduce in the brewery depends on several factors, namely your budget range and goals. Expanding the brewery is more important than just reducing the amount of raw material wasted, and you should plan accordingly.

To improve your brewing process, please consider which equipment you can add (or take away) to simplify your workflow. The special malt filters, conveying systems and brewing tools that help the fermentation process are just the tip of the iceberg. Consider investing in software to simplify your data collection and analysis before, during, and after brewing a batch of beer.

Finally, don't shy away from food science. At first glance it may seem daunting and overly complicated, but the addition of modern technology to ancient technology will not only reduce your costs and increase productivity, but it will also help you brew the best beer style anyone has ever tasted.