Testing the future
At the Steinecker Brew Center, Krones relies on its partnership with Endress+Hauser
At its location in Freising, Germany, Krones has erected a highly-modern in-house pilot brewery where new technologies and brewing processes can be tested – either internally or together with Krones customers. For the more than 80 measurement points, Krones relies on know-how from Endress-Hauser.
Promag H 300 records water consumption and flow rate of the CIP media. On the right side, the EngyCal RH33 heat meter calculates the energy mass of the flow volumes.
For energy balancing, Prowirl F 200 records the steam amount consumed in the brewhouse.
Design around three pillars
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The first pillar is “customer and market”. This enables market-oriented recipe and process development in collaboration with the customers.
The second pillar is “research and development”. Apart from field testing and feasibility studies, the Brew Center also facilitates global scientific collaboration.
The third pillar is “teaching and academics”, which allows Krones to offer training to internal employees and customers under conditions similar to real environments.
"With Endress+Hauser, we have chosen a partner with world-class support and a full-service supplier with a very good reputation."
Product Management Breweries, Krones AG
The vision behind the Brew Center
In the past, Krones tested new processes and technologies on a large scale directly at the customer site. The advantage of testing under real conditions was offset by several disadvantages, however. The prototype and test phases were extremely time-consuming, costly, and thus very risky. Feedback from the tests rarely flowed in an optimal manner, plus the opportunities for testing were always dictated by the local conditions. The solution was to build an own in-house pilot brewery.
Realization
The heart of the Brew Center is a 5-hectoliter brewing room. The size of the system provides a maximum degree of flexibility. Different technologies can be combined and used to demonstrate the wide range of Krones solutions. The Brew Center can not only reproduce a wide variety of standard international processes, but also train the customers’ start-up engineers and employees on the technology. The training concept also involves commissioning of the Endress+Hauser measurement instruments.
Digitalization
That digitalization is the focus is evident in the QR codes that are visible on all parts and components of the system. The codes, which act as the gateway to “Share2Act”, the cloud-based social network for production systems, enable plant operators to post photos, comments or other important information that can help to quickly find solutions in case of a problem.
