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Brewery equipment automation on tap

Microbreweries ensure beer quality using embedded control electronics.

By Hermann Strass
May. 18th, 2009

The common belief that beer and Bavaria go together is only partially true. The larger part of what is known today as the Free State of Bavaria (part of Germany) was added to “old” Bavaria by Napoleon during the early 19th century. Upper Franconia, a part of “new” Bavaria, has the largest density of breweries per population or per area in the world. Most of these small breweries, called microbreweries in the United States, have been producing high-quality beer for 500 years or more. Their secrets to success are quality and variety. Many people prefer German beer over other beverages produced by large international breweries that mix yellow water with hops and alcohol.

Microbreweries face the problem of automating their equipment on a small scale. These breweries cannot mix large quantities of malt or other ingredients to guarantee the same taste and quality for each batch they brew. Because they buy small quantities from local suppliers and because of weather conditions, the barley and hops are different each year. Today, brewmasters can handle this problem by transferring their know-how to embedded electronics that can intelligently control brewing equipment.

Mini Brau Technik (MBT) in Lower Franconia, also part of “new” Bavaria, integrates embedded electronics into brewing equipment for small breweries. MBT, which has a test brewery and training center on site to train aspiring brewers, uses varioPLC embedded control electronics from PMA, Germany (see Figure 1). The software uses self-optimizing control algorithms to shorten production time and ensure quality. A 12" touch screen displays beer processing status and the complete equipment set, including pipes, valves, sensors, actors, containers, and pumps (see Figure 2). The brewmaster can select the beer variant to be produced via a recipe manager.

Figure1
Figure 1: The varioPLC embedded controller can be used to intelligently control brewery operations.

Figure2
Figure 2: Using an embedded control system with a 12" touch-screen display, brewmasters can manage beer processing and monitor production equipment.
(click graphic to zoom by 1.7x)

An integrated Web server allows the experts at MBT and PMA to diagnose brewery problems anywhere in the world. The embedded controller can be programmed in any of six IEC 61131-3 standardized programming dialects using routines from function libraries. The embedded fanless CPU uses several variants of Freescale microprocessors with different RAM, flash, Ethernet, PROFIBUS, CANopen, and other fieldbus interfaces.

In today’s tough economic conditions, an automated microbrewery might be just the investment to get things turned around.

embeddedworld2009 recap

This year’s embeddedworld attracted 15,850 visitors and 4 percent more exhibitors than the 2008 conference. More than 1,000 embedded specialists listened to speakers from 35 countries in two colocated conferences. The winners of the embedded AWARD 2009 included:

n hardware: Texas Instruments’ latest generation of MSP430F5xx microcontrollers

n Software: Coverity Inc.’s next-generation static source analysis error-detection software

n Tools: Express Logic’s BenchX Eclipse-based IDE for embedded development

n University: Joachim Blank from the University of Ulm (Germany) for his design and MATLAB simulation of an acoustic modem for underwater communication

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