Breweries: energy peaks, fixed tank times, boiling by habit

Brewhouse, refrigeration and cleaning all want energy at the same time

What happens. The brewhouse calls for steam while the wort is boiled, the refrigeration plant runs hard to cool wort and fermenting tanks, and the cleaning system heats water and caustic for the next tank. Nobody plans these loads together. Hot-water tanks and ice banks exist, but they are charged and drawn by habit rather than by plan.

What it costs. Boilers, chillers and the grid connection sized for peaks that occur because loads overlap, peak charges on the power bill, and heat recovered in the brewhouse that is dumped because the storage is already full.

Why the usual fix fails. Shifting cleaning to the night by rule helps until the brewing schedule changes. Each plant controller optimises its own unit and knows nothing about the others.

How a fixed-price remote diagnosis checks it. From your brewing schedule, steam and power metering, refrigeration logs and storage tank temperatures I check how much of the peak comes from overlap and how much the storage could absorb. The fixed-price remote diagnosis tells you whether scheduling heat and cold together would pay off, and what it would take.

Background: Economic predictive control

Fermentation is followed by occasional samples and tanks stay blocked

What happens. How far fermentation has got is checked by a sample once or twice a day: extract, sometimes diacetyl. Between samples the cellar works to a fixed temperature programme. Yeast vitality, pitching rate and wort vary, so one tank is ready long before the next sample, another later than the programme assumes.

What it costs. Tanks occupied for days they did not need, so capacity is short in the busy season. Cooling to lagering too early or too late changes the beer from batch to batch.

Why the usual fix fails. More samples cost laboratory time and still give snapshots. Adding tank days as a reserve hides the variation instead of controlling it.

How a fixed-price remote diagnosis checks it. The tank already reports what is going on: temperature, top pressure, cooling-jacket valve activity and, where measured, the carbon dioxide given off. From these logs and your lab values I check how well fermentation progress can be computed tank by tank. The fixed-price remote diagnosis shows whether such a computed value can time cooling and transfer, and how much tank time that could free.

Background: Computed measurements

Wort is boiled harder and longer than it needs

What happens. The evaporation rate and the boiling time were set years ago and are kept because the beer is right. The real aims of the boil, driving off dimethyl sulphide and other unwanted volatiles and forming the hot break, depend on the wort, the kettle and the pressure, not on a fixed rate.

What it costs. Steam for water that did not need to be evaporated, a longer brewhouse cycle, and on some beers more thermal load than the flavour needs. The boil is one of the big heat users of the brewhouse.

Why the usual fix fails. Cutting the evaporation by hand is a risk to flavour that nobody wants to take without a measurement, and dimethyl sulphide is not measured online.

How a fixed-price remote diagnosis checks it. From your steam flow, kettle temperatures and pressures, boiling times and wort analyses I estimate how the unwanted volatiles develop during the boil. The fixed-price remote diagnosis tells you whether a boil steered by that estimate could use less steam with the same beer, and what it would take.

Filter runs end too early or too late

What happens. The kieselguhr filter or membrane line runs until the differential pressure climbs or the planned volume is through. How well a beer filters depends on yeast count, glucans, storage time and temperature, and changes from tank to tank. Filter aid is dosed by habit.

What it costs. Runs ended early cost filter aid, cleaning, water and beer lost in the start-up and run-out. Runs pushed too long risk a breakthrough, haze and an unplanned stop. Spent kieselguhr also costs money to dispose of.

Why the usual fix fails. A fixed dosing rate and a fixed end criterion are set for the worst beer. Operators adjust from experience, which differs from shift to shift.

How a fixed-price remote diagnosis checks it. From your differential pressures, flows, turbidity readings and dosing rates, together with the tank data of each beer, I estimate how the filter cake builds up and what predicts a short run. The fixed-price remote diagnosis shows whether a computed filter state can guide dosing and the end of the run, and what that would take.

Bought carbon dioxide can run short

What happens. In autumn 2022 the German food industry estimated that only 30 to 40 % of the usual carbon dioxide deliveries were available, because fertiliser plants, where it is a by-product, had cut output; some bottlers had to reduce production (LebensmittelPraxis). Breweries make carbon dioxide in every fermentation, yet many recover little of it.

What it costs. Dependence on a supply that can fail, prices that jump when it does, and gas from the cellar vented to the air.

Why the usual fix fails. A recovery plant sized from a rule of thumb is too small for peak fermentation or stands idle much of the week. Collection is often started late, by habit, because the early gas holds too much air.

How a fixed-price remote diagnosis checks it. From your fermentation schedule, tank pressures, purchase records and, where you have one, the logs of the recovery plant I estimate how much gas is released, when, and at what purity. The fixed-price remote diagnosis tells you what recovery and storage would cover your own need and how the plant should be run, and what it would take.

More returnable containers mean more washing

What happens. The European packaging regulation has applied since 12 August 2026 and brings binding reuse targets (European Commission). More returnable bottles and kegs come back, more dirty, more varied. The bottle washer runs fixed temperatures and caustic strengths whatever the load and soiling.

What it costs. Heat, water, caustic and effluent for every bottle, more bottles rejected by the empty-bottle inspector, and a washer that becomes the bottleneck of the line.

Why the usual fix fails. Raising temperature and caustic strength for the dirtiest bottles cleans them and wastes resources on all the others. A bigger washer adds capacity, not efficiency.

How a fixed-price remote diagnosis checks it. From your washer data (zone temperatures, caustic concentration, fresh water, steam, line stops) and the inspector’s reject records I check how much of the consumption follows the load and how much is fixed margin. The fixed-price remote diagnosis shows whether the washer can be run on the actual load and soiling, and what that would take.

Falling sales leave little cash for new energy plant

What happens. German breweries sold 6.3 % less beer in the first half of 2025 than a year earlier (LebensmittelPraxis). A new boiler, heat pump or filling line is out of reach for many, yet the energy bill keeps coming.

What it costs. Margin that shrinks every month, and improvements postponed until they can be financed.

Why the usual fix fails. Waiting for the big investment leaves the losses in place. Quick fixes by hand, such as lowering a setpoint, often get reversed at the first quality problem.

How a fixed-price remote diagnosis checks it. From the data your plant already records (steam, power and refrigeration metering, brewing and cellar logs, line stops) I look for the losses that better operation of the existing equipment could remove. The fixed-price remote diagnosis tells you which measures would pay back quickly without new plant, and what they would take.