• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • About Craft Brewing Business

Craft Brewing Business

Professional Insight, Unfiltered

  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • COVID-19

Case study: Measuring portable yeast pitching skid results at a craft brewery

January 3, 2018Chris Crowell

PerfectPitch yeast skid

Aber Instruments introduced the concept of the PerfectPitch, a portable yeast pitching skid, for the craft brewing industry three years ago at the Gusmer booth at the Craft Brewers Conference. At the time, it was difficult to gauge how this type of technology — traditionally adopted by the large multi-national breweries — would translate to the smaller scale of the craft brewing world, considering challenges like capital constraints and the time constraints for learning and adopting a relatively new technology. Also, were craft brewers that interested in perfecting their yeast pitch? We were curious how the technology had been received and if there were any notable results at craft breweries three years later.

John Carvell, sales and marketing director for Aber Instruments, says a significant number of the craft breweries that have adopted the PerfectPitch (some of the larger breweries opted for a hard-piped Yeast Monitor) produce fewer than 5,000 barrels per year. This is interesting considering Aber initially thought the market might be breweries starting at the 20,000 barrels mark. Summit Brewing is one of the most recent, larger U.S. craft brewers to adopt the system.

Aber Instruments Perfectpitch yeast

Here’s a report from one of the earliest craft brewery guinea pigs of the Aber PerfectPitch.

Meantime Brewing explains

A case study was performed at Meantime Brewing Co. in London to assess the functioning and benefits of the Aber PerfectPitch. Meantime was an ideal candidate for this work because of its imminent expansion plans.

Prior to using the PerfectPitch, Meantime Brewery pitched yeast using mass with a “Grundy” pressurized steel tank. It was confirmed during the study that the viable yeast concentration was overestimated when pitching using mass, thus pitching fewer liters than necessary. This led to slower fermentations and inadequate fermentation performance.

In contrast, the portable skid estimated the right amount of live yeast, thus pitching the appropriate liters of live yeast necessary for an improved/more consistent fermentation performance. The fermentation performance when yeast was pitched using the two strategies was compared. Figure 1 shows the °Plato for London Lager fermentations over time, when pitched by mass and when the Aber PerfectPitch was used. Both curves represent an average of four fermentations.

Aber yeast skid pitch

Aber yeast pitch skid 2

It is evident that the °Plato decreased quicker when yeast was pitched using PerfectPitch, as compared to when it was pitched using mass. Moreover, when using the PerfectPitch, the °Plato consistently plateaued two days earlier, as compared to the traditional method of pitching. This could be due to the fact that adequate numbers of live yeast cells were pitched at the beginning of fermentation to convert the sugars in the wort into alcohol more efficiently.

The findings from this study have been presented by Ciaran Giblin the brewmaster at Meantime and he concluded that the following benefits resulted from using the Aber PP:

  • More consistent fermentations
  • More predictable final PG
  • Yeast is in better health
  • Yeast is easier to pitch
  • Beer is ready sooner
  • No destruction of beer
  • Tasting has resulted in better beer

“Since the install of the PerfectPitch skid there has been a significant improvement of yield and predictability in pitching using the PerfectPitch which has meant the unit has paid for itself,” Ciaran said.

If you’re looking for more info on the importance of the perfect yeast pitch, head in to the ol’ CBB archives.

Weber Scientific
Eight products to improve your quality control methods at #CBC2017
yeast pitch skid craft brewers
Brewers survey: How important is yeast cell count, viability to you?
How automatic yeast pitching rate control can improve your beer quality
q16-setup01
D.I. Engineering explains how it controls S. diastaticus beer spoilage

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • Beer rebrands continue: Ballast Point, Fremont, New Glory and Blue Point (also, enjoy some tips for your refresh)
  • Colorado Strong launches public awareness campaign to help independent breweries
  • Here’s a video recap of 2020 from Deep Ellum Brewing, complete with dubstep score
  • Malt maker Rahr purchases all of eco energy maker Koda

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • Beer rebrands continue: Ballast Point, Fremont, New Glory and Blue Point (also, enjoy some tips for your refresh)
    January 21, 2021
  • virginia-beer-co-renovationHow Virginia Beer Co. used the shutdown to overhaul its facility (and keep people employed)
    January 19, 2021
  • Clean air, clean beer: New Ingersoll Rand oil-less reciprocating air compressors are ideal for breweries (aeration to canning)
    January 18, 2021
  • Non-alcoholic beer brand Athletic Brewing closes $17M+ in funding with famous backers, selects Crafted ERP, eyes big growth
    January 18, 2021
  • Watch: This awareness video on human trafficking from beer wholesaler Markstein Sales will move you to action
    January 14, 2021
  • Distribution updates: Massachusetts brewers celebrate franchise reform, Yuengling goes to Texas with Molson Coors and more from Bell’s, Stone and beyond
    January 14, 2021

Footer

  • Email Newsletter Sign Up
  • About Craft Brewing Business
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise on Craft Brewing Business
  • Media Kit Download
  • Privacy and Terms

© 2021 · CBB Media LLC

Continue ...

sponsored by