Sapporo's new automated high-tech brewery.

Ito, S. and Hanazawa, K.

Abstract
Sapporo's Breweries Limited currently having 10 breweries, 2 wineries and a soft drinks plant in Japan, closed their Ebisu Brewery in central Tokyo due to lack of space for expansion and rebuilt the new Chiba Brewery on 161,000 sq m of reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay. The brewing and utilities equipment have been placed in the same working area around a central control area which requires only 2 operators/shift. The all stainless steel brewhouse has a capacity of 1200 hl/brew with a total of 47 brews/week. Fermentation and maturation tanks are cylindrical and use propylene glycol as refrigerant. Each has a capacity of 4800 hl. Filtration is arranged in 3 lines with 2 kieselguhr filters, the first a candle filter and the second a ceramic filter in each. The ceramic filter is an aseptic filter and is responsible for the high shelf life of the company's bottled and canned draught beers. The total filtration capacity is about 500 hl/hr. Additional features described are those of packaging, automatic warehouse, computer systems, landscaping and visitors' centre.
Keywords : brewery brewhouse construction equipment installation