How is yeast monitoring in a brewery conducted?

Did you know that your beer quality depends on several factors? In addition, it is not uncommon for breweries to experience infection in their yeast, especially if they do not go through the proper yeast management process or do not have the proper equipment to conduct the whole process smoothly.  

What is the typical process of performing yeast monitoring in a brewery? Today we will find that out. 

Yeast Pitching 

Yeast concentration most of the time is measured on-line by a probe. It allows the system to control the amount of yeast to be transferred to the fermentation tank. This makes online yeast monitoring easier to be conducted.When the right amount of quantity is transferred, the pitching pump can then be switched off. 

Yeast Recovery

After fermentation is done in the tank, yeast in the probe would be measured and the concentration signal will be sent out. Next, the system will determine if the yeast concentration is high enough for the flow to be diverted to the yeast storage tank. If the yeast concentration is too low, the low concentrated yeast will be directed to the waste tank instead. When the finalized flow does not have a high yeast concentration, it will then be diverted to beer processing. 

Fermentation monitoring

Next, the determination of the initial concentration in the fermentor will be done after yeast pitching. The next process would be the monitoring of a cell growth rate and the determination of a cooling point, which is also referred to as the transfer point. The next process would be flocculation monitoring and the determination of the transfer point to the other tank. 

Certain technologies allow the probe to provide real time data that enables brewers to make a real time decision instead of waiting for the lab analysis results.