Modeling of the Beer Fermentation Process

Abstract

Over the last decades, huge, centrally located breweries with factory-style production and considerable brewing capacities were built At the same time the beer consumption has been decreasing in central Europe. Thus, the breweries fight over market shares. Consequently, optimization of the benefit/cost ratio becomes decisive for breweries to keep themselves at the competitive edge. As the beer quality is not extremely different between breweries in a given area, the beer price and hence the production cost becomes an overwriting criterion. Cost must be cut wherever possible, but labor and energy costs are the primary targets of process optimization.