Lesson 4 - Clarification – Centrifugation
This lesson discusses beer clarification via centrifugation. Clarification removes yeast and solid particles from the beer in order to make it ‘bright’ or reduce the amount of haze. Centrifugation is one method that we can use to clarify beer. This lesson looks closely at the physics of centrifugation and the concept of accelerated gravitational force. By the end of the lesson, you should understand the importance of this process and its impact on final beer quality.
Point of Reflection – Reconvene
Welcome back. So, what were your thoughts?
You need to size the centrifuge correctly. To do this, you must understand how much beer the brewery needs to process/centrifuge annually. You also need to consider your future beer volume growth to ensure there is sufficient freeboard. In other words, you need to plan for the capacity to process more volume on a weekly basis.
Secondly, you need a dedicated room or acoustic enclosure in which to house the centrifuge. Remember, they are noisy – especially when they de-bowl! Do you have space in your brewery? Is this space accessible so that you can successfully install, commission, and maintain the centrifuge? Is this space within the vicinity of the brewery cellar where the fermentation and maturation tanks are located? Is there space for the centrifuge valve block?
You also need to integrate your existing brewery utilities into the centrifuge. This includes water, CO2/N2, CIP, electricity, compressed air, coolant, and pipework. Does your brewery have sufficient power and compressed air to support a centrifuge as well as the rest of the brewery? Will you need to upgrade your utilities to support a new centrifuge?
How will you deal with the centrifuge discharge? How will you collect this? Will this be an income stream? Or will you treat this as effluent? If the latter, will your effluent treatment plant be able to cope with elevated chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD) levels during centrifuge operation?
You will need to re-model your brewing process and understand the time impacts of centrifugation versus natural sedimentation. How will this impact your production plans and what additional volume capability will this create?
Lots of factors to consider! However, there are lots of opportunities also. Speeding up your brewing cycle time will allow you to increase your capacity from the same footprint. Or even to create space in the brewery and take on contract volumes.