Commissioning and Optimization of the Wits Microbrewery Plant
MBAA TQ doi:10.1094/TQ-46-4-0930-01 |
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Sunny E. Iyuke and Ezekiel M. Madigoe.
Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and
Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Wits 2050,
Johannesburg, South Africa.
Abstract
The brewing industry is facing increasingly challenging times due
to the competitive global business environment and the rising costs of raw
materials. These factors consequently affect the economy of the industry.
The effect is not only applicable to large commercial brewers;
microbreweries also are affected, as observed at the 100-L batch Wits
microbrewery. An effective solution for staying competitive is to enhance
brewing process efficiency through optimization of the process units. The
benefits of optimized process units cannot be fully achieved, however,
without successful commissioning of the plant. The purpose of this study,
therefore, was to optimize the Wits microbrewery and develop commissioning
documents to break the complexity of commissioning into a simpler,
manageable process. As a result, this study also provides additional
insight into brewing process optimization and commissioning. The Wits
microbrewery is now operating efficiently and with minimal errors. Optimum
operating conditions for the Wits microbrewery, as determined by the
study, are a malt/liquor ratio of 3:1 (liter of water/kilogram of malt),
a fermentation temperature of 29�C (85�F), 5 g of kettle finings per 100
L, and a pitching rate of 1 � 10(^6) cells/mL.
Keywords: brewery commissioning, brewery optimization,
fermentation, microbrewery
S�ntesis
La industria cervecera se enfrenta a un fuerte reto debido al
entorno competitivo de los negocios globales y el aumento en los costos de
la materia prima. Estos factores obligatoriamente tienen que afectar la
econom�a de la industria, y no s�lo a las cervecer�as comerciales grandes
sino tambi�n a las cervecer�as artesanas, como la micro cervecer�a Wits de
100-L lote. Una soluci�n efectiva para mantenerse competitivo es la
optimizaci�n de los procesos unitarios para realzar la eficiencia global
del proceso. Los beneficios de la optimizaci�n de los procesos unitarios
no pueden ser realizados sin un exitoso comisionado de la planta. El
prop�sito de este estudio fue optimizar la cervecer�a Wits y desarrollar
documentos de comisi�n para romper la complejidad del comisionado en un
proceso manejable sencillo. Este estudio facilita la comprensi�n del
proceso de optimizaci�n y de comisionado. La cervecer�a artesanal Wits
ahora est� operando eficientemente y con un m�nimo de errores. Las
condiciones �ptimas para la micro cervecer�a Wits, seg�n fue determinado
en este estudio, es una relaci�n de 3:1 (litro de agua/kilogramo de
malta), una temperatura de fermentaci�n de 29�C (85�F), 5 g de
�finings�/hL y una inyecci�n de 1 � 10(^6) c�lulas/mL para iniciar la
fermentaci�n.
Palabras
claves: comisionado de una cervecer�a, fermentaci�n, microcervecer�a,
optimizaci�n cervecera
