Automated Control System Improves Brewery Efficiencies

A building expansion to address capacity challenges brought new challenges for Logboat Brewing, which was now struggling to control its processes. Remote monitoring and control was a key fix.

After expanding its building and operations, Logboat found it difficult to communicate between systems as it transferred fermented beer to another room with packaging and brite tanks.
After expanding its building and operations, Logboat found it difficult to communicate between systems as it transferred fermented beer to another room with packaging and brite tanks.
Integrated Facility Services

Logboat Brewing opened its doors in 2014 to bring craft beer to Columbia, Mo. There were a couple local pubs, but no distributing brewery. And in a town that’s home to the University of Missouri, “there was a definite need for more beer,” says Josh Rein, head brewer and cidermaker for Logboat.

Logboat Brewing develops a range of unique beers, including seasonal varieties.Logboat Brewing develops a range of unique beers, including seasonal varieties.Logboat BrewingIn fact, by 2018, Logboat was butting up against the capacity in its existing building footprint. As it continued to try to meet a growing market demand, the brewery was able to expand the facility, building a 12,000-sq-ft addition to the east side of the existing 7,000-sq-ft building. “That gave us capacity for a packaging hall, more packaging tanks, other peripheral equipment, some offices, and a warehouse,” Rein says.

But the extra space also added new complexities, particularly in managing the brewing process across a larger space. “We had the original cell in the brew house, so we needed to get fermented beer into the room with a packaging line and all the brite tanks,” Rein explains. “I needed to pump finished beer about 200 ft away. We have hard-mounted pumps that pump the beer from tank to tank, but we’re controlling all of that. We needed to control those pumps that were going to be in a separate room from the receiving tanks. So that’s what we were looking at.”

To address these challenges, Logboat Brewing turned to Integrated Facility Services (IFS), whose team proposed a comprehensive automation solution to streamline operations and enhance efficiency. This included the installation of custom-built control panels featuring Reliable Controls, which allow real-time monitoring and adjustments of temperature, pressure, and flow rates.

“In processing beer through our centrifuge, we need to be standing in front of that machine to operate that,” Rein says. “So I needed some controls that allowed me to make adjustments to the input into the machine through pump controls and some other temperature controls and things like that.”

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