D. SCHROEDER (1); (1) Simatec Impiantibirra, St. Louis, MO, U.S.A.
Brewhouse Operations
Poster
Hot-side aeration is one of the most difficult by-products to detect and reduce in the brewhouse. Simatec is working with a Ph.D. student at the University of Turin to effectively measure oxidation during brewing. Simatec has three patented technologies. One is the paddle placed in the kettle that, by way of an inverter motor, turns the kettle into a working whirlpool. The paddle first rotates clockwise, with in-line wings that rest on grooves at 45°, promoting a vigorous boil to help boil off dimethyl-sulfide. Once boil is complete, an inverter below the tank spins the paddle in the opposite direction, where the wings lay flat in set grooves at 0°. At this point, heavier particles have already fallen to the bottom, but slightly lighter particles remain in suspension. There is zero agitation during whirlpool. At the end of whirlpool, particles in suspension fall out to the trub bed. This system offers several advantages for the brewer: first, whirlpool is started instantaneously, without the time taken to introduce wort to another tank. Second, whirlpool is not created by use of an auxiliary pump that agitates and aerates the wort. Finally, this allows the kettle to become a multifunction tank, allowing the brewery to scale with additional tanks without scrapping the initial brewhouse or starting from scratch.
David Schroeder is a professional in the beverage industry with a decade of experience in brewhouse operations, management, sales, and strategy. At his first microbrewery job in Austin, TX, the brewery experienced a 170% volume increase and he learned firsthand the challenges of training staff, scaling equipment and processes, and quality control of liquid produced. Since that time, he has been a student of different sectors of the beverage industry supply chain—from the Maillard Reaction in coffee roasting, to reducing sediment level and increasing shelf life of cold-brewed coffee, to the performance of sensitive raw materials in aromatics. His work with Simatec stems from his interest in bringing new technologies and rethought operation processes that save time, money, and ultimately make better beer.
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