Craft brewers come in all shape and sizes ranging from a basement ‘newmeister’, a start-up craft brewery to the large volume brew masters. Each one has an impact on this booming market. It is interesting to note this scale-up evolution and natural progression is typical. Success in the craft brew market seems to be largely determined by your marketing approach and ultimately your loyal followers. This cult-like following of a specific flavor or a favorite brewery helps to promote the brand utilizing social media.
Anytime I mention craft breweries and beer, people always love to talk about it. I think it is because the nature of the topic is based around its long history, dating back to the ancient Egyptians, and the atmosphere it creates. IPAs, Porters, Stouts, Ales, Wheat or others; they all have their place. Whether you enjoy your favorite beverage at a backyard cookout, a pub or a traditional German Ratskeller, the experience is enjoyable. Savoring this wonderful nectar starts from the presentation of the glass, the pour, color, frothy foam, aroma and finally the taste! Then we do it all over again for each new flavor that comes to the market. Who wouldn’t love to talk about this stuff? I mean c’mon and that’s only the beer. There are ciders, seltzers and wines all following in on the rage.
In each case the brewery has purchased pieces, parts and semi-functional systems, either through auction or private/public sale to ramp up their production capacity. The challenge is to get all this equipment to function together as efficiently as possible to feed the continued and somewhat unlimited growth. In this growth period it becomes evident that information is required. Ahhh data…..the sweet nectar of information, see-understand-improve!
Our approach to a fully integrated system is to:
This strategy allows brewers to have a clear understanding towards achieving a single data driven system to monitor and control their process. This review process will identify utility infrastructure at the current location and if it will support the projected growth.
A quick list of benefits includes:
Rockwell Automation’s Craft Brew Solution. Below are just some quick informational points.
It is a preconfigured scalable Rockwell-centric application with Human Machine Interface (HMI) screens and Process Automation Controller (PAC) code that you pay by yearly subscription. Both the HMI and PAC application code needs to be modified to fit the size of the brewery and linked to your system Inputs and Outputs and Rockwell VFD profiles before it can be fully operational.
The PAC controls the sequencing of valves and pumps based on a pre-defined recipe. You can easily create new recipes which get stored in the PAC. It has built-in as a default to allow automatic or manual transfer of product from each tank or vessel. Much like Rockwell’s PlantPAx you can click a checkbox to customize operation for your system.
It will work but requires all your skid-based systems to be connected on a functional controls network and have at least 1 Rockwell PAC for central control. If some systems are isolated, they will need to be integrated to your PAC system to take advantage of all the available features.
This is a scalable solution, so it really is a matter of vision for the future. This will likely be too much for a micro-brewery but is certainly geared toward a brewery that produces more than 10,000 barrels/year.
There are other custom scalable solutions that are not reliant on a specific vendor control system but will require more custom configuration from a system integrator. It all depends on the forecasted growth, available capital and the return on investment.
Using Rockwell’s Craft Brew solution, I found it to reduce the amount of development time for a process that is standard across the industry. This solution can be rolled out quickly and creates a standard look and feel which reduces the need for operator training. So if you are interested in investigating this solution I would be glad to discuss it with you.
About the author
Sam Lacasse is a Senior Process Controls Engineer for Hallam-ICS with 22 years of experience. Graduating from New England Institute of Technology 1993 with an A.S. Science Degree. He has extensive experience in Toxic Gas Monitoring, Food & Beverage, Robotics/Vision/Motion control and large scale Water/Wastewater applications.
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About Hallam-ICS
Hallam-ICS is an engineering and automation company that designs MEP systems for facilities and plants, engineers control and automation solutions, and ensures safety and regulatory compliance through arc flash studies, commissioning, and validation. Our offices are located in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Vermont and North Carolina and our projects take us world-wide.