Brewingup a laboratory sample S
Even when she’s down the pub drinking beer, Gloria Metrick can’t stop thinking about informatics
itting in my local brewpub, I happened to look out at their tanks and saw their brewing personnel writing on clipboards that were
hanging on the tanks. Tey were tracking information about what went into the tank and when, as well as a few measurements of the material in the tank, such as gravity and pH. Tis is a step up from homebrewers, who tend to use paper notebooks for their brew information. For brewers, this is the extent of their scientific data systems, except perhaps for a few spreadsheets.
The effects of growth As breweries grow, they start using more formal methods and soſtware. Teir instrumentation changes and becomes more complex, opening up the prospect of instrument integration. We can use Bell’s and Te Boston Beer Company (BBC) as two examples. In the USA, Bell’s and BBC are considered ‘craſt brewers,’ as they can produce no more than six million barrels (7.04 million hectolitres) per year. Tey are currently among the 10 largest craſt
brewers in the United States. BBC markets its beer under the ‘Samuel Adams’ brand and produced around 4.1 million total barrels in the last fiscal year. Bell’s, which is based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, produced 318,000 barrels last year; its limited edition ‘Hopslam Ale’ is very popular among craſt beer drinkers and sparks a peak of demand at its seasonal release. Tese two companies are both relatively large compared to most brewers – but they are not yet among the largest brewers worldwide, where the ‘macro’ brewers turn out the same volume in a few
USING NATURAL PRODUCTS MAKES BREWERS’ LIMS AND ELNS NEEDS HIGHLY SPECIALISED
days that these craſt brewers would make in an entire year. A basic example of how growth changes
measurements is the calculation of ABV (alcohol by volume), which is required for government reporting. Smaller breweries use a series of calibrated hydrometers and thermometers to measure and calculate ABV. Tese instruments are dropped into the liquids for measurement; obviously, they cannot be integrated with a computer system. However, as breweries grow, they eventually purchase more expensive instrumentation to measure and calculate these numbers. Breweries such as Bell’s and BBC are large enough to afford an Anton
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4 SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING WORLD
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