Healthy beer transfers: a review of sound brewing practice and design.

Swihart, M.S.

Abstract
The movement of beer through pipes and the filling and emptying of tanks are potential problem areas in beer processing which are often neglected. Poor design and/or construction, inadequate maintenance or inappropriate operating methods can turn pipes, pumps, valves and tanks into sources of serious beer quality defects, including oxidative deterioration, microbiological contamination, loss of carbonation, premature foaming and haze/sediment formation. Criteria for the selection of equipment and the design of pipework layouts are presented together with recommendations for operating procedures (beer transfer through pipes, tank filling/emptying, CIP), monitoring beer flowrates, pressures, dissolved oxygen levels, etc., the inspection and maintenance of equipment and the training of operators. The equations for the mathematical expression of the physical laws governing the flow of piped liquids and their application to the calculation of the pressure drop between the starting and finishing points of a beer transfer, in order to ensure that the lowest pressure to which the beer is subjected is sufficiently high to keep its carbon dioxide content in solution, are also described.
Keywords : beer CIP computation design education flow hygiene maintenance measurement oxygen physics pipe pressure process control quality tank valve