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ABSTRACT
SNTESIS
Chemical engineers are employed in many areas of brewing including operations, engineering, development, and research. Chemical engineering education teaches basic skills for the application of
heat, mass, and momentum transfer to optimize and control many unit
operations that are used in brewing. This review will give examples
of unit operations, along with some of their quality aspects that were
learned on the job and through additional studies. The review will
also present a model to predict the loss of product shelf life during
storage and transportation at various temperatures.
Se emplean ingenieros qumicos en muchas reas cerveceras, incluyendo operaciones, ingeniera, desarrollo e investigaciones. La
educacin de un ingeniero qumico le ensea habilidades bsicas
para la aplicacin de calor, masa y transferencia de momento para
poder optimizar y controlar muchas operaciones unitarias en el proceso cervecero. Este repaso sealar ejemplos de operaciones unitarias, junto con algunos de sus aspectos afectando la calidad,
aprendidos en el lugar de trabajo y mediante estudios adicionales.
Tambin se presentar un modelo para pronosticar la prdida de
estabilidad al tiempo durante el almacenaje y transporte a diferentes temperaturas.
Introduction
When I entered the brewing industry as research and development manager at Schlitz Brewing Company and throughout
my further career at Miller Brewing Company, I was amazed at
how many opportunities there were to apply my chemical engineering education to the brewing process. In chemical engineering, we had studied unit operations, each of which had a
range of equipment choices, that could be used for chemical or
biochemical reactions or for phase separations. Unit operations
that I found useful in brewing included evaporation, solidliquid separation processes, solids handling, extraction, adsorption, absorption, desorption, crystallization, and membrane
processes.
Chemical engineers rely on the principles of heat, mass, and
momentum transfer and reaction kinetics to design these unit
operations and to develop process models. They then use
physical, chemical, and biochemical measurements to test their
models and to optimize the process operation. Statistics also
Unit Operations
Below are some examples of unit operations that I encountered over the years in brewing, along with some quality aspects that I learned.
Evaporation
Optimization of Brewkettle Boil. Temperature/time, volatiles
stripping, and agitation are important parameters that all need
to be included in the experimental design. The conventional
brewkettle design is not optimal to accomplish all required
funtions effectively.
Reduction of Fouling in External Calandria. Low temperature
differences between wort and steam and high wort flow rates
help minimize fouling.
Process Design for Spent Grain Pressed Liquor Concentration.
A forced-circulation evaporator is best for minimizing fouling
(3); a hydrosieve is useful in preclarifying the spent grain
liquor feed. Enzymes, such as cellulose, where permitted, can
substantially reduce viscosities, as long as temperatures are
kept low enough to avoid inactivation.
E-mail: nicohuige@wi.rr.com
Award of Merit lecture presented at the 116th Convention of the
Master Brewers Association of the Americas, Milwaukee, WI, October 2003.
Publication no. T-2004-0105-01
2004 Master Brewers Association of the Americas
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may not be good for quality. Instead, cutting off lautering early
decreases time, which can increase brewhouse capacity by as
much as 10% and give a better quality wort with lower levels
of polyphenols, beta glucans, and silicates.
Continuous Lautering. Counter-current centrifugal lautering
followed by centrifugal clarification of the extract failed in the
early 1970s since the fine particles to be separated contained
about 16% lipids, which caused the density difference between
particles and wort to be too small for efficient separation. Continuous lautering only makes sense in conjunction with continuous brewing. Future use of continuous brewing is not likely
as a result of brand proliferation.
Adsorption
Operating Procedures for Activated-Carbon Water Treatment.
Hot water used in place of steam is an excellent option for economical and more uniform carbon-bed sterilization.
Optimization of Silica Gel Chillproofing. Dosage rate determinations in the laboratory are useful for determining the minimum
addition rate for each brand of beer, but good dissolved-oxygen
control is required. Zerogels require careful consideration since
they may reduce beer flow rates.
Adsorption Protocol. In-line chillproofing with adsorbents
such as polyvinylpolypyrrolidone and silica gel require batch
pretreatment or proportional dosing throughout a filter run
rather than dosing in a precoat or in a filter sheet, which can result in overadsorption.
Crystallization
Freeze Concentration of Beer. It was first studied in the
1960s to provide concentrates that would be shipped to local
distribution centers, where the product would be filtered,
brought back to desired alcohol levels, and packaged, similar
to soft drink products. Crystallization of water in the form of
round ice crystals developed in the early 1970s (1) allows lossfree separation of ice and 1520% beer concentrate. Freeze concentration development was stopped in the United States because of an unpopular labeling requirement stating reconstituted
product. In ice-beer production, freezing is only temporary
and dilution water is added back to the concentrate within the
brewery. Temporary freezing improves product physical stability.
Membrane Processes
Membrane Cross-Flow Filtration. Economic comparison of
membrane cross-flow filtration with DE filtration depends on
the cost of DE and its disposal, power costs for each system,
new installation or replacement, use of ceramic or polymeric
membranes, simultaneous chillproofing requirements, beer loss,
and fouling potential. The new process for oxidation of membrane foulants is useful (7). Caution is required because of
the potential loss of beer components with the use of membranes.
Dialysis for New Products. In dialysis, a microporous symmetric membrane is used to exchange dissolved molecules between two solutions separated by the membrane. For example,
these solutions can be two beers, beer and water, or beer and
wort. Resulting products may be an alcohol-reduced beer or a
beer with more flavor. It is useful that both product streams after treatment can be used to avoid product and disposal costs.
Nanofiltration or Reverse Osmosis. These membranes separate lower-molecular-weight solutes such as ethanol from complex solutions such as beer. Molecular-weight cutoffs are from
150 to 500 for nanofilters and less than 150 for reverse osmosis
filters. Multiple stages in combination with diafiltration with
water can be used to make near beers. Processes are slow, and
frequent membrane cleaning is required.
Hydrophobic Membranes for Gas Absorption and Stripping.
The driving force for absorption of gases into liquids or
desorption (stripping) of dissolved gases from liquids is the difference in partial pressure between the two phases. The hydrophobic membranes are generally made of polypropylene, polysulfone, or polytetrafluoroethylene. They are usually arranged
as bundles of hollow fibers with gas on the inside of the fibers
and liquids on the outside. They have a large mass-transfer surface area per unit volume, similar to venturi ejectors and motionless mixers. Brewery applications include oxygen removal
from beer, dilution water, CO2 scrubber water, and boiler feed
water; oxygenation of wort or pitching yeast slurries (5); inline carbonation of beer or diluent; CO2 reduction from selected products; CO2 removal from acid-treated hard water or
from fermenting beer; and nitrogenation of beer (6). Advantages are prevention of in-process foaming, simultaneous reduction of dissolved oxygen while carbonating, easy process
control, and easy scale-up from laboratory to industrial modules.
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Figure 2. Temperature of outside air and calculated average temperatures of air and beer during transportation in a railcar during cloudy weather.
Average outside temperature of 80F with no sun.
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(1)
scribes the overall heat transfer from the inside air to the beer
in the pallet, while Equation 3 describes the overall heat transfer from the outside air warming up or cooling down the contents of the car.
UApallet (Ti - Tb ) = Mcp pallet dTb dt
(2)
(3)
Figure 3. Temperature of outside air and calculated average temperatures of air and beer during transportation in a railcar during sunny weather.
Average outside temperature of 80F with sun.
The final mean beer temperature was within 0.3F of the mean
beer temperature predicted by the model. Figure 4 gives the
model prediction for pallet heat-up in sunny weather in an insulated trailer loaded with 22 pallets. A UA factor of 500 Btu/h
was used for this trailer. With a higher UA factor, more heat is
transferred per unit of time. Since this heat is also distributed
over a lower number of pallets, the average beer temperature
increases considerably faster during transport in trailers compared with that during transport by railcar. This can be seen by
comparing Figures 3 and 4. On the other hand, shipping by
trailer is usually considerably faster. So what mode of transportation is better for product quality? To predict the loss of product freshness during transportation or during storage in a warehouse, the heat-transfer models are combined with a model that
predicts the degree of product oxidation as a function of time
and temperature.
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(4)
(5)
In this equation, c4 is a constant and Tb is the beer temperature in F. Figure 6 gives the oxidation results predicted with
Equations 4 and 5 for an American lager beer stored isothermally at various temperatures. The vertical axis gives oxidation
units. A value of 1 indicates fresh beer; a value of 2, slightly
oxidized; a value of 3, moderately oxidized; and a value of 4,
strongly oxidized. On the horizontal axis is time in weeks.
So, what can your quality department do with this? What do
these oxidation scores mean to the consumer? It is recommended to conduct a large consumer-acceptance study with the
same beer used in the initial isothermal oxidation studies so
that consumer ratings can be obtained on the acceptability of
this particular beer at various levels of sensory oxidation. Assume, for example, that the maximum oxidation score for consumer acceptability is 2.5. Further assume that your quality de-
Figure 4. Temperature of outside air and calculated average temperatures of air and beer during transportation in a trailer during sunny weather.
Average outside temperature of 80F with sun.
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partment does not want product in the field more than 16 weeks.
From Figure 6, it can be seen that this particular beer reaches an
oxidation level of 2.5 after 16 weeks at 68F. This beer stored
at temperatures of 68F or lower can, therefore, be up to 16
weeks (112 days) old and still be acceptable to the consumer.
For this particular beer it is convenient to define 1 shelf-life
day as 1 day at 68F. From this definition and Equation 5, the
following relationships can be calculated.
1 day at 59F = 0.47 days at 68F = 0.47 shelf-life days
1 day at 68F = 1.00 days at 68F = 1.00 shelf-life days
(per definition)
1 day at 77F = 2.11 days at 68F = 2.11 shelf-life days
1 day at 86F = 4.45 days at 68F = 4.45 shelf-life days
1 day at 95F = 9.38 days at 68F = 9.38 shelf-life days
1 day at 104F = 19.77 days at 68F = 19.77 shelf-life days
Figure 5. A, Changes in sensory freshness scores of beer during isothermal storage at various temperatures (T). B, Changes in sensory oxidation
scores of beer during isothermal storage at various temperatures (T).
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Figure 6. Model prediction of sensory oxidation scores of an American lager beer stored at various temperatures. Tb = average beer temperature.
Figure 7. Shelf-life days lost during 12 days of transportation in a railcar, traveling at average daily temperatures of 77 or 86F during sunny and
shady conditions.
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Figure 8. Shelf-life days lost during 4 days of transportation in a trailer, traveling at average daily temperatures of 77 or 86F during sunny and
shady conditions.
Figure 9. Shelf-life loss during staging of 10 pallets of beer for 4 days on the warehouse floor or temporarily in a trailer or railcar at 86F. The effect of beer temperature after palletizing is also shown.
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