Traditional Method Vs. Plaato Industrial
"Over-Fermentation" vs Perfect Fermentation
Traditional Method: Over-fermentation means leaving the beer in the fermenter after the fermentation process is finished. This is historically the only way to be guaranteed of avoiding under-fermentation. The practice leads unnecessarily to losing hours to days of a tanks productivity. However, without real-time gravity monitoring, there is no other guaranteed way of ensuring that the fermentation process in a brew is complete.
Plaato Industrial: With Plaato Industrial, the beer can be transferred the exact moment the fermentation process is finished. Less unnecessary time in the fermenter, enables increased production capacity with the same equipment. By using real-time gravity monitoring for knowing when the fermentation process is finished, a conservative estimation shows that the fermentation capacity can increase by over 10% in the brewery. This additional capacity can be achieved without having to make large investments, and is achieved by providing the brewer with a tool to take the right decisions.
Degree of Repeatability
Traditional Method: Recreating a brew several times is today accomplished by keeping a strict management over controllable conditions for every brew, including pitch rate, temperature during fermentation, wort profile (grain and hops) and water chemistry. However, there are many other uncontrollable factors and reasons a batch can go bad. Without sufficient data of the details in the fermentation process, understanding and preventing bad outcomes is difficult.
Plaato Industrial: Gathering gravity data and providing it to the brewer in a simple, actionable manner, enables breweries to understand the whole fermentation process, not only fragments of it. This data is essential for reproducing the same optimal conditions in several batches.
Degree of Control
Traditional Method: Altering a fermentation after it has started is an impractical and slow process. There are many factors that play a role: fermentation temperature, pitch rate, yeast strain, hop selection, grain bill, mash temperature and water chemistry. Any change in these factors will have an impact on the final product and without having real-time data from the fermentation, it is difficult to conduct planned changes. In addition, any changes that could improve a fermentation are only possible after the fact; after yeast is pitched and wort is produced. When only measuring gravity occasionally, few options exist to improve the result of a fermentation.
Plaato Industrial: Real-time gravity monitoring enables the brewer to intervene if needed. One example is if gravity does not start to drop at the expected time, the brewer can repitch yeast far earlier than possible in the traditional method.
Labor Intensity
Traditional Method: Daily manual sampling of gravity is not only a subpar way of measuring gravity in terms of precision, it is also labor-intensive work. The cost of having staff collect manual samples and checking these samples in the lab is significant. Breweries probably take these costs for granted as it is how it alway has been done. In addition to being costly, it is also not the most fulfilling work, especially doing on-site sampling after hours.
Plaato Industrial: Real-time Gravity Monitoring enables you to focus on perfecting the craft of brewing the perfect beer instead of being occupied with the boring things. We recommend comparing the cost of the traditional method with Plaato Industrial to get an overview of the exact differences. In our experience, the difference is often greater than expected.