First run of the tutorial “Digitalizing an automated brewing system”.
Digitalization is not a dry subject at the FST
2023/02/27 by Philipp Wetterich
After many years of conceptual design and construction, the first tutorial was held at FST's own beer brewing system. A total of four students had a first-hand experience of automation and digitalization. In the end, they put their learnings into practice when brewing their own beer.
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pic 8: The result is impressive: Satisfied students and a delicious beer! -
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pic 1: During the practice phase, the basic knowledge of sensor technology and automation using PLC is taught… -
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pic 2: … the components must be wired, too. -
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pic 3: Learning PLC programming using Structured Text is important before the work on the program code of the brewing system. -
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pic 4: The exercises were completed in teams of two. -
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pic 5: Malt is added to the brewing water in the mashing process step. -
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pic 6: Hops make the beer durable and provide the bitter note. -
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pic 7: Finally, the brew is drained into the fermentation barrel and the yeast carries out the alcoholic fermentation.
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Automation and digitalization are topics that have been driving the process industry for many years. This is also reflected in the courses offered at the Chair of Fluid Systems with the new courses “Fundamentals of Digitalisation” and “Hands on tutorial Digitalisation”.
Through the initiative of the scientific staff at the FST, a practical tutorial on these topics has also been advanced. This is not intended to convey the content in a dry manner, but to make it comprehensible by means of the “beer brewing” process. For this purpose, a fully automated beer brewing plant was designed, constructed and put into operation.
The first tutorial “Digitalizing an automated brewing system” was held in December 2022. Four students were able to acquire knowledge about the automation of processes using sensors and programmable logic controllers (PLCs). With this prior knowledge, the project task was then tackled. The task was to write another monitoring function for the brewing system, which would detect and prevent the pump from running dry.
This project task will change each time the tutorial is carried out in order to constantly improve the brewing system.
Finally, all the knowledge was put into practice while brewing beer together. The recipe for a seasonal bock beer was fed into the automation of the brewing system and transformed into a delicious product using water, malt and hops.
During the debriefing and tasting of the result, everyone was satisfied. The participants agree that this tutorial is unique and can only recommend it to all other students.
The tutorial is offered every semester. The next date is in the period 14.04. – 09.05.2023. All further information can be found on the website .
