Did you know that last year the North American brewery industry sold more than 202 million barrels of beer? Despite these significant volumes, manufacturers processed all of this beer under strict sanitary conditions. As beer is intended for consumption, beer manufacturers are required to comply with stringent regulatory standards to ensure the quality of their products and the health and safety of their customers.
Breweries have wet, warm, carbohydrate-rich environments that are ideal for microbial growth. To mitigate the risk of product contamination, manufacturers employ sanitary equipment and systems that facilitate cleaner processing operations. From tanks, processors, and blenders to pressure vessels, totes, and custom fabrications, the team at Highland Equipment manufactures a variety of sanitary equipment for brewery processing lines. Our past clients include some of the largest brewery companies, such as Molson.
At Highland Equipment, we design, manufacture, and install a wide range of sanitary stainless steel parts and equipment for brewery processing applications, including beer and wort manufacturing. In particular, we specialize in providing complete brewing systems with integrated automation and CIP/SIP systems. Respectively, these systems assist with monitoring production operations, determining whether optimization is required, and quality checking and facilitate cleaning operations.
Some brewery experts go so far as to say that the brewing process is 90% cleaning and 10% brewing. The following processes demonstrate the importance of high sanitation and cleanliness standards in brewery operations:
- Wort manufacturing. Brewers create wort by crushing grain with water, heating it, and letting the mixture rest as the starches break down. The liquid wort is extracted from the grain, thoroughly boiled to ensure sterility and prevent contamination, and mixed with hops and yeast. The yeast initiates fermentation, which breaks down the sugars in the wort to create alcohol.
- Yeast management. Yeast management ensures that the strains of yeast being used stay pure to produce the desired flavor profile. The steps of yeast management include propagation, which is when the preferred strain of yeast is mixed with wort to ferment. This mix must be kept at a specific temperature and oxygen levels to ferment properly. While some samples are used immediately for brewing operations, others are removed and stored in a sanitary container for later use. Although a sample can be acid washed to remove bacterial contamination and reused multiple times, eventually it loses its viability. Once this happens, stored samples are used to replace it.
In addition to our custom sanitary system manufacturing capabilities, we can work with our clients on any questions they may have about sanitary brewing processes.
Sanitary Processing Experts
Highland Equipment builds complete process systems following industry sanitary standards such as ASME BPE, GMP and 3A. We use our own depth of professional knowledge and years of practical experience to provide beer producers assurance our equipment will comply with their stringent industry regulations for Health and Safety and sanitary manufacturing processes.
Highland Equipment designs and builds complete CIP systems that provide our customers the ability to add the benefits of clean-in-place (CIP) technology into their product manufacturing processes. Clean-in-place systems are designed to use a mix of cleaning and sanitizing chemicals, heat, and water to thoroughly cleanse process pipes, vessels, and machinery “in place.” Cleaning “in place” benefits beer manufacturers by removing the risk of re-contaminating equipment during reassembly after “out of place” cleaning as well as from the additional costs in time and labor associated with “out of place” cleaning.
A Leader in Brewery Processing Equipment
From pilot systems to brewery facility expansions, Highland Equipment can meet the specifications and requirements of your brewery project. Combining our world-class orbital welding and stainless steel fabrication capabilities, years of design experience, and compliance with numerous sanitation and safety standards, we are the perfect partner for any brewery processing project.