The existing facilities and equipment of the beer industry can roughly meet the requirements of beer brewing. However, an ever-growing beer market and increasingly tasteful drinkers call for even more sophisticated beer brewing technology and equipment. In such a context, we have successfully developed an integrated automation system catering to the characteristics of beer production equipment and process using advanced control technology, computer technology, network technology and modern measurement technology.

With the ever-increasing penetration of computers into our lives in recent years and the sophistication of monitoring configuration software technology, people start using industrial computers to control beer production automatically, avoiding manual maloperation and improving flexibility and precision in the control process. The recorded data help beer producers analyze the control process, improve the control curve and further enhance beer quality.

Beer Production Process
Beer production falls into four stages: malting, saccharification, fermentation and canning.
With the aid of computer and testing equipment as well as corresponding software platform, you can from different control solutions to address your specific needs, so as to precisely adjust the parameters for production such as temperature, pressure and so on, thus meeting the requirements of production process.



Control System Configuration
The control system comprises industrial PC, printer, PLC/controller/motherboard, configuration software, liquid-level transmitter, pressure transmitter, temperature sensor, electromagnetic valve, electric control valve and detector switch, etc.
Wort Preparation
Wort preparation includes the saccharification of raw materials, mash filtration, as well as wort boiling, sedimentation and cooling. It is one of the key steps of beer production and has an important impact on the output, quality and consumption of the whole beer production process. Saccharification process determines the stability, taste and appearance of beer. The process of saccharification is rather complicated and hard to control. The advantages of automation are listed below:
A) Quick temperature measurement;
B) Advanced control technology;
C) Kettle overflow control technology;
D) Lauter tun automation technology;
E) Wort preparation automation technology

Block Diagram


Hardware Configuration: EVOC series industrial PC and data acquisition module.
Chassis/Backplane/Power Supply:IPC-810E/6114P10/FSP550-60PLN
Motherboard: FSC-1814V2NA
CPU: Core 2 Duo
Hard Disk: 250G SATA
Acquisition Module:
ARK-24520 (232 to 485 module)
ARK-24018 (8-channel temperature acquisition)---acquiring various temperature signals
ARK-24017 (8-channel analog acquisition)---acquiring the analog signals of oxygen concentration and water flow
ARK-24052 (8-channel data input module)---acquiring all kinds of on-off signals
ARK-24060 (4-channel relay output module)---alarm output

Brewing Process
Beer brewing process includes beer fermentation, beer processing, yeast propagation, yeast recycling and CO2 recycling, etc.
1) Fermentation temperature measurement technology: adopting temperature transmitter to measure temperature signal.
2) Fermentation temperature control technology: multi-mode optimal control strategies, ensuring the precise control of yeast temperature.
3) Integrated automation control: utilizing bus technology and distributed control system to control every process of beer production.
4) Information technology: based on computer network technology and open communication protocol, standard data interface distribution system structure, and adopting standard components and software.
5) Block diagram:



6) Hardware Configurations: EVOC series industrial PC and data acquisition and control card.
Chassis/Backplane/Power Supply:IPC-810E/6113LP4/250W
Motherboard: FSC-1815V2NA
CPU: Core 2 Quad
Hard Disk: 160G SATA
PCL-813 (Analog data acquisition)
PCL-726 (Digital data acquisition)

System Evaluation
According to the multi-parameter detection technology of biological yeast metabolism, the system indirectly checks and analyzes unmeasurable parameters. Through optimized control algorithm, the system can control metabolite production, propagation, substrate consumption, oxygen breathing and CO2 generation, thus achieving automated fermentation that improves output and reduces cost.