Design and operation of a gravity-feed beer loop system.

Larson, J.W.

Abstract
Expansion of the government cellar at Heileman's Seattle brewery was achieved using existing tankage located in a remote stock cellar. Beer is transferred by gravity, using a modern beer loop delivery system, from the cellar to conventional government cellar tanks for supply to the filter pumps. It avoids the use of complex pumping and control systems. Beer is filtered into and packaged out of the same tanks simultaneously. Precautions taken include mix-proof valving at critical points, continuous monitoring of dissolved oxygen and feed back of valve positions and process variables to a programmable logic controller programmed with the appropriate safety interlocks. The loop system removed the major brand (60% of total production) from conventional government cellar processing. Tank availability and scheduling for the remaining lower-volume brands was greatly improved. By adding more tank capacity to the existing loop system, capacity can be doubled.
Keywords: beer construction design gravity pipe tank transfer