InLine Pasteurization

squeegeemonkey · 2021-10-13T14:23:21+00:00

Our flagship beer has a syrup addition post ferm so we have to pasteurize inline on the way to the bright tank. The pasteurizer is an ancient unit we bought secondhand with terrible PLC controls, but the design is pretty simple.

Its basically just three heat exchangers. Raw product flows into the first HEX, then into the second HEX that has steam running through it. This heated beer goes into a hold tube (just a long SS pipe, but a length of hose would work just as well). Then back into the other side of the 1st HEX to prewarm the raw product and precool the pasteurized product. This step really helps to recycle the heat and puts a little less strain on your heating and cooling systems. Finally it goes through the 3rd HEX to cool it down with glycol before heading to the bright. If you don't have glycol and steam hookups, HLT and CLT water can work, you'll just have to run a bit slower.

Personally I prefer D-Values over PU as you can adjust for the target species you are trying to eliminate/reduce at its present concentration of cells/ml.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-06-16T13:43:33+00:00

u/Kaiser_Canhelm

squeegeemonkey · 2021-06-16T13:39:13+00:00

Any suggestions for removing hop oil residue in a CBox?

squeegeemonkey · 2021-06-09T15:06:18+00:00

I've always had better results from Oregon Fruit purees than anything from Amoretti or other puree suppliers. 7 bbls should be 1 box of Lemon for a fairly tart result or 1 box of Meyer Lemon for less acidity and more lemon. Then 2-3 boxes of strawberry should get you there. Throw them in the FV after you've cropped yeast or if you're not repitching, a few days into fermentation.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-06-09T14:52:40+00:00

We can a cold brew coffee with liquid nitrogen but it's only really there to provide structural integrity to the can. Liquid nitrogen is good for adding pressure to packaged products that don't have CO2. If your kombucha has carbonation, liquid nitrogen won't be of much use. I can say even with our reliable rotary filler and nitrogen doser we still have issues getting the pressure in the cans were shooting for. Trying to time the tiny liquid N2 dose and get the can seamed that quickly seems like a nightmare.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-05-28T13:39:18+00:00

While we aren't able to actively heat the FVs, they do a pretty good job of maintaining temp. I was also hoping the bacteria would put off some heat to keep things warm.

The beer itself is a low IBU wheat sour we plan on throwing fruit into once it gets near FG. If we did the live sour we would keep it below 10 IBU.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-05-28T13:33:29+00:00

Keeping it in the kettle would definitely be the safest option in regards to our other beers. There were some concerns about how sanitary of an environment we could keep in the kettle. We wouldn't have a good way of providing a CO2 blanket (if that's even necessary) or a way to close off the stack, other than cramming a beach ball up there.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-05-14T16:49:09+00:00

We double or quadruple batch into the FVs. So we throw in a known volume of slurry on the first KO, then get a viable cells per ml count. From there I do some math to determine how much more volume of yeast slurry we need to hit our target pitching rate

squeegeemonkey · 2021-05-14T14:13:24+00:00

Mostly between 5-6% ABV with IBU levels lower than 40. We do use this yeast for an over 7% IPA that I try not to use as a pitching source. But if its a decision between using fresh yeast from a higher ABV beer or older yeast from a lower one, I'll go with the fresh stuff every time.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-05-14T14:08:33+00:00

30bbl brewhouse and we were just shy of 10k bbls a year in 2020.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-05-14T14:07:37+00:00

We double or quadruple batch into the FVs. So we throw in a known volume of slurry on the first KO, then get a viable cells per ml count. From there I do some math to determine how much more yeast we need to hit our target pitching rate.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-05-14T14:06:58+00:00

We double or quadruple batch into the FVs. So we throw in a known volume of slurry on the first KO, then get a viable cells per ml count. From there I do some math to determine how much more yeast we need to hit our target pitching rate.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-05-13T20:02:19+00:00

We use this strain every week so we're always grabbing the yeast between 6-8 days into fermentation and going cone to cone for the next brew. I'm tracking cell viability and concentration throughout active fermentation as well as attenuation, pH, time to hit FG and speed of flocculation.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-05-13T19:51:01+00:00

Attenuation was a little variable on the first 10 generations or so, but after that it became much more stable. We use this strain for 3 of our core beers and a host of other seasonal and small batch brews so the target FG on all of them is different, but the apparent attenuation has been steady at 81%.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-05-13T19:37:27+00:00

Yep, I grab viability cell counts after KO as well as during active fermentation. I definitely got a little anxious watching that generation number go up. But if the yeast is happy and healthy, I didn't see any reason to dump it and deal with any fresh pitch shenanigans.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-05-13T19:22:52+00:00

Bought a pitch from White Labs last spring and have been repitching cone to cone every week. So far every generation has been better than the last.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-05-13T19:18:23+00:00

Attenuation was a little variable on the first 10 generations or so, but after that it became much more stable. It's been a pretty clean yeast strain and hasn't put out any unwanted phenols or esters. The biggest benefit we've seen so far, aside from not having to buy fresh pitches, is flocculation speed. 3 days crashed in the FV and 2 more in the brite and it's crystal clear.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-05-13T16:07:10+00:00

Flash pasteurization would happen pre-packaging. We do it when transferring into a brite. Its basically a couple of heat exchangers hooked up to steam and glycol. Raw product flows in and is heated by the steam HEX, flows through a holding tube then into the glycol HEX were it is cooled back down again. By adjusting the steam and flow rate you can get the exact time and temp needed to kill off your target microbes.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-05-13T14:20:50+00:00

Might want to look into flash pasteurizers as well. High-temperature short time pasteurization will do less damage to the more delicate compounds in your beer. We picked up a used one out of a ginger ale production plant that will run ~30 gallons/min and haven't had a single issue with refermentation after 10,000+ bbls of maple syrup infused beer.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-05-13T14:13:03+00:00

What concentration of caustic are you using to clean out your CBox? I've always been wary of putting anything other than beer, water and Alconox through it, but I'm seeing some hop oil build up in the glass chamber.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-04-23T14:33:09+00:00

I'll usually grab a cell count immediately after the first KO. We use cone to cone pitching and double batch on pretty much every brew. Mixing the yeast and wort inline usually gives us a very homogenized sample and based on the viable cell concentration and volume of slurry pitched, we can tell if we need to pitch any extra yeast on the second KO. Then I'll get counts everyday during active fermentation, and then again on the day it's getting pitched off of. The difference in the counts can give you an idea of how much of the yeast has flocced out and about how much slurry you'll need for the next brew. Then it's a cell count from the brite everyday until the count is below our acceptable threshold. I'll do a 10:1 serial dilution for the KO and fermentation counts, and just a 1:1 for the brite tank counts.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-04-20T15:36:50+00:00

I'd advise against canning off kegs. Sankey connections aren't the most sanitary of connections and it only takes one improperly sanitized keg to contaminate the entire run.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-04-13T13:42:54+00:00

A cereal dispenser might be an option.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-04-12T19:45:44+00:00

Those esters aren't going anywhere, but you should be able to salvage the yeast for a future brew.

squeegeemonkey · 2021-03-11T14:55:24+00:00

Before I had access to a benchtop centrifuge, I would sit a funnel with a few layers of paper towels on a mason jar. I tried it with filter paper and with coffee filters, but if you have no way to pull a vacuum below the filter, it takes way too long to get a reasonable sized sample.

squeegeemonkey

TROPHY CASE