Inline monitoring of the β-amylase rest progress in the mashing process (beer production) employing a near infrared probe

摘要

Digitalization in the food technology enables for real-time quality control and self-regulation of processes. For this, mashing in the beer brewing process represents a promis-ing application as brewers have to deal with varying malt qualities and product quality requirements. The aim is the inline determination of important mash or wort proper-ties as extract content, concentrations of sugars, or even prediction of attenuation degree. NIR sensors are de-scribed for laboratory analysis of mash and have a high potential for inline measurement of quality parameters. However, the measurement in beer mash provides several challenges such as high and varying temperatures, varying particle sizes, turbidity and fluid flow. Therefore, suitably designed probes are necessary.