As a long-standing technology partner to Anheuser-Busch InBev (known as ABInBev), the world’s largest brewer, Siemens South Africa recently migrated Maluti Mountain Brewery in Lesotho from an old automation system in the brewing area to a central control and monitoring station which will combine the Brewhouse and Cellars.

Meeting current and future customer requirements quickly and with the highest quality is key to the food and beverage industry. ABInBev is a major beer manufacturer, and their brewers want to produce beers with consistent quality for their customers. The project, in partnership with Process Dynamics, a Solution partner to Siemens features continuous innovation with the Braumat system. The software was required to have virtualization capability, recipe control and management, trend and alarm management, batch reporting and controlled access

Kamohelo Semuli, Brewery Specialist at Maluti Mountain Brewery (MMB) explains, “Maluti Mountain Brewery is passionate about brewing and has a long tradition of craftsmanship in making superb beer from high quality natural ingredients. Fast changing recipes required us to be skilled with the new process quickly, which proved challenging. While we are creating the ‘Brewery of the future’, it is important for us to deliver according to our customers’ demands whilst giving us full transparency of the production process. The Siemens Braumat system enables this flexibility and efficiently manages the recipe and the process, minimizes human intervention in the process and reduces extract loss. Graphical recipe management, route control possibility, batch reporting, replay modes, efficiency, mobile working etc. are essential for our brewery of the future goals. We are confident that the partnership with Siemens will be able to achieve this goal.”

Siemens is one of leading technology supplier to ABInBev globally. With our long history of engagement with the brewing world we are not only making it easier for the brewers to manage recipes but also helping them to optimize on water and energy utilization in the processes, explains Munish Choudhary, Vertical Manager for Food and Beverage at Siemens South Africa.

Process Dynamics has been involved with the MMB and hence understands the requirements for such a system in the brewing area. We have provided a recipe driven system, which supports with brewing parameter control and monitoring. All user operations are logged so any deviations from the recipe can be easily traced.  By being able to analyse batch data, brewers can optimise recipes. We installed the latest Siemens PLC hardware S7-1500 but also utilized existing Siemens PLC with a centralized control room,” explains Process Dynamics, Managing Director Kobus Van Niekerk.

Flexibility, time-to-market, speed and quality are very essential for the brewing industry. Recipe-control is important, especially based on the changing taste of the customers but also based on the changing raw materials in the process.

“For more than 40 years, Braumat has been recognised as the standard for brewing and process automation”, says Sabine Dall’Omo, Chief Executive Officer, Siemens Southern and Eastern Africa. We are proud to have delivered on this project with ABInBEV. With our Digital Enterprise solutions and Braumat, Siemens can help beer manufacturers be more flexible and more efficient. Ultimately, digitalization is ensuring that we can enable our customers to adapt quickly to market situations and demands to expand portfolios with the highest standards. With our leading technology Braumat, we can substantially provide a higher performance and transparency in the brewing and beverage industry”.