Abstract
The beer production chain includes some crucial steps regarding processing, delivery, service, and consumption that can benefit from the implementation of IoT (Internet of Things) based technologies. Large breweries implemented the use of sensors and digitization before smaller ones among which are craft breweries. Internet of Beer (IoB) technologies are becoming accessible to mid and small sized brewing companies. Therefore, the objective of this work is to review mainly low-cost IoB smart technologies that can be implemented from the mash to the final product and its service, to improve the brewing production, control, delivery, and final quality increasing profitability. The reviewed applications were retrieved both from the scientific databases and from the web. The work is structured in three macro areas such as beer processing, product logistics and traceability, and service. The results show a future trend characterized by a very fast increase in the use of IoB (also open source) systems to drive efficiency, productivity, quality, and safety. This will be done by real-time monitoring and a data-driven decision support system (DSS). Crucial aspects needing further investigation are data ownership and data standardization. The access price of IoB devices and software is destined for a significant decrease while their diversification on the market will grow leading to a massive future implementation within all the production levels.
Highlights
Beer represents a very important beverage being the first alcoholic drink consumed worldwide.it is one of the oldest fermented alcoholic beverages in the world [1]
The results show a future trend characterized by a very fast increase in the use of Internet of Beer (IoB)
The access price of IoB devices and software is destined for a significant decrease while their diversification on the market will grow leading to a massive future implementation within all the production levels
Summary
Beer represents a very important beverage being the first alcoholic drink consumed worldwide. Speaking technologies have already been implemented within almost all the crucial steps, including mashing, fermentation, even for real-time management to optimize cleaning operations in the brewery [8] or to evaluate the product quality through rapid test based on advanced computer vision and image analysis techniques [9,10] These technologies are often a prerogative of large and medium-sized manufacturers due to the knowledge needed for their management, development, and implementation costs requiring specific planning. These can often be implemented aftermarket at relatively low prices within many production systems, including the beer sector, to accomplish several tasks [15,16] Many of these technologies, built for brewing, have been firstly developed and applied at homebrewing or pilot level so they will need to be rescaled to be suitable even for a small craft commercial brewery. The present work mainly tries to uncover low-cost technologies that might be applied to mid-sized and small breweries, normally representing the craft sector, but embrace some higher cost applications due to their impact and innovativeness
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