In-line wort Plato measurement for optimizing beer brewing process

In modern beer brewing reliable instrumentation is important to keep good track on product quantity and quality as well as to automate many control tasks that formerly had to be done manually in laboratory.

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How to determine real-time, in-line the concentration of dissolved solids in weight percent, wort Plato, Brix, Balling, gravity or density

This helps breweries to:

• optimize their process
• considerably save production costs
• reduce product losses 
• improve beer quality

Vaisala Polaris Sanitary Process Refractometer can be applied to improve brewing operations in all of the following areas:

1. Mash tank: common purpose of the refractometer during this process is to measure and respond to changes in concentration of the mash in water, and to maintain a consistent concentration.
2. Lauter tun: the refractometer is used to measure the liquid concentration of wort during rinsing, while it gradually drops from the original content to very weak wort. The measurement prevents excessive use of water.
3. Wort boiler (brew kettle): the refractometer is measuring the wort strength/gravity allowing to eliminate sampling, optimize the boiling time, and improve beer consistency and quality.
4. Hot wort from boiler to whirlpool: the refractometer monitors the quality of the wort during the solids removal process by in the whirlpool. This step assures the wort has the proper concentration and can proceed to the next step.
5. Chilled wort from heat exchanger: the refractometer is used for quality control, measuring the cold wort before it enters the fermentation process.
6. Fermentation: the refractometer performs control of fermentation process: monitoring the conversion rate, the degree of fermentation and provides an indirect measurement of the alcohol volume (%) for determining the end point.
7. Filtering: after the fermentation the beer is left for maturing. The refractometer provides a quality control measurement for the wort filtering output.
8. Packing and interface detection: the refractometer instantly detects the product-to-product and product to-CIP cleaning interfaces in bottling. The refractometer output signal can be utilized for quality control monitoring, and to ensure correct product-to-bottle selection and a product quality within specification.

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