Raising the level of brewing technology with radar level measurement
19 March 2017
The year is 1040 and you are thirsty. How about a beer?
Fast forward to today, almost a millennium after monks in Weihenstephan, Germany, opened the world’s first brewery, and you will still find some of the world’s best wheat beer in this region.
With the help of Siemens level measurement, Research Brewery Weihenstephan – part of the Technische Universität München – has been instrumental in advancing the brewing process and in quenching the thirst of beer lovers the world over.
Bavarian beer university
Based in Freising, about 30 kilometers north of Munich, Research Brewery Weihenstephan operates as a training and research center.
The facility produces six to ten hectoliters in each batch of beer, concentrating their attention on flavor process engineering, raw material usage, product design, and food safety.
During their studies, all students in the brewery engineer and brewmaster programs work with process equipment, which is used at every step of the brewing process.
Technicians continuously measure and re ne this brewing process – from the early grain mash and wort collection stages all the way to fermentation, maturation, and filtering.
Water is added to crushed barley or wheat to create a slurry called “mash.” The slurry is heated and wort collection begins. Wort is a fluid created after enzymes have converted grain starches and proteins into digestible sweeteners and protein.
Fermentation process instrumentation
Hops are added to the wort and later, yeast, which begins the fermentation stage. Research Brewery Weihenstephan has 12 fermentation and maturation vessels, all of which must be closely monitored.
Level measurement in these vessels is key to quality control and the addition of ingredients. Researchers can test different flavors for new beer varieties by adding varying amounts of hop solutions and ingredients. But vessel contents must be measured throughout the additive process.
Three of the process vessels are equipped with Siemens radar transmitters. SITRANS LR250 non-contacting transmitters continuously monitor levels during vessel filling and emptying as well as for control of solutions or other ingredients throughout the fermentation process.
The transmitters were not a challenging installation, as they feature industry-standard process connections – in this case ISO 2852 (Tri-clamp). Using the device’s Quick Start Wizard, technicians programmed the devices and were up and running in minutes.