Beer Tree Brew: How to boost production by 20% with PLAATO
Beer Tree Brew taps into innovation
Beer Tree Brew Co, a rapidly expanding craft brewery in the US, has experienced significant growth in recent years, driven by demand for their high-quality, innovative beers. As Beer Tree Brew scaled production, maintaining consistent quality while maximizing output became crucial for their success. We sat down with Matthew Pullen, Brewery Supervisor, to deep-dive into how they have used PLAATO to increase the utilization of their fermenter vessels.
Detailed analysis run by PLAATO saw an improvement of 14 percentage points in their tank utilization, from 68% in Q3 2023 to 82% in Q3 2024. This marks a 20.6% improvement of production efficiency resulting in 1-2 additional batches brewed per week.
Matt recognizes the limitations of their previous fermentation monitoring methods:
"We were having stalling issues even a year and a half ago, two years ago, we just had very little yeast tracking information. And so a lot of our stuff had to be fresh pitches. We were kind of in the dark about everything."
The lack of real-time fermentation data led to several challenges they experienced before they started working with the PLAATO Pro:
Unpredictable fermentation times: which created bottlenecks in production and limited their ability to plan their schedule efficiently.
Yeast management challenges: with limited insights into yeast activity, Beer Tree Brew relied heavily on fresh yeast pitches, increasing costs and potentially impacting beer consistency.
Limits on tank utilization: Inability to precisely determine when each fermentation hit FG, resulted in tanks being occupied for longer than necessary, restricting overall throughput.
Brewing breakthrough: Tank occupancy soars
Beer Tree Brew installed PLAATO Pros across their fermenter vessels to gain real-time insights into their fermentations. Discussing the most valuable features for their team, Matt highlights:
Real-time fermentation activity: This enables brewers to identify potential stalls early and take corrective action at the right time. The ability to monitor, and track how active the yeast is and how quickly the fermentation takes off means they have drastically improved their yeast propagation, cropping, and pitching.
Batch comparison: Comparing current fermentations with historical data ensures consistency across batches and facilitates efficient yeast cropping.
Customizable alerts: Notifications to inform the team about key fermentation events in real time.
Upgrading their fermenter vessels: Using the PLAATO Pro helped transform how Beer Tree Brew manages their fermentations and has unlocked significant production efficiencies.
Enhanced yeast management: Real-time insights into yeast activity enabled Beer Tree Brew to refine its propagation, cropping, and pitching processes, reducing reliance on fresh pitches and optimizing yeast usage.
“The inactive fermentation notifications have been a huge save for us with regards to saving money for yeast, time and just to get the yeast moving better.”
Reduced fermentation times: By proactively addressing fermentation stalls, Beer Tree Brew shortened fermentation times for some beers by 30-60%, allowing them to produce more beer using their existing fermenter vessels.
Increased tank utilization: The ability to precisely identify end of fermentation translated into faster tank turnaround times, boosting overall output and enabling Beer Tree Brew to meet growing demand.
The data speaks for itself; Using PLAATO Pro’s real-time data, they identified production bottlenecks and lifted their overall brewery efficiency. These efficiency gains have enabled Beer Tree Brew to expand its distribution network and reach new markets. As Matthew Pullen explains:
"We expanded our sales team, and we're really starting to just push outwards from our general area."
