Efficient Quality Control Solutions for the Best of Brews
Brew with Confidence - Spoilage Detection by Sartorius
The art of brewing and the science of microbiology are an interesting and dynamic partnership which has been centuries in the making, one cannot exist without the other. But besides brewer’s yeast there also lurk other microorganisms whose effects can cause detrimental changes in aroma and flavor and ultimately in the quality of the product. Any brewery, whether a craft, regional or multi-national, all share the same concerns that their product hits the shelf in prime condition and is safe for consumption.
Quality Control solutions by Sartorius help you focus on consumer safety and your own unique taste. Because taste is key.
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Flow Chart of Your Beer Process*
Discover the different steps in the beer workflow and click on the icon „+“ to get to know the variety of applications and solutions Sartorius offers for testing during your brewing process.
*This workflow may not exactly represent your brewery workflow, however it generalizes the QC checkpoints.
Applications in Your Quality Control (QC) and Our Product Solutions
You are committed to creating high-quality beer with consistent look, smell, feel and flavor from one bottle to the next. We are committed to providing you the products you need to ensure your beer’s taste, aroma and quality. For beer processing QC, we have solutions for the following applications:
Moisture determination of Raw Materials and Spent Grain
Malt, barley and hops are core ingredients in your beer. To safeguard your beer’s consistency and quality, you need to have confidence in your raw ingredients. To do this, you must avoid fungal contamination by checking your raw ingredient’s moisture content before you start brewing. Control of malt moisture will help optimizing extract and breakage and will prevent decline in quality during storage.
Additionally, at the end of production, to recycle waste and get the maximum from your brewing by-products, you can sell your spent grain as livestock feed or to a distillery. Again, testing moisture content is critical for avoiding fungal contamination and making sure you get the best price for your spent grain.
What to test?
- Moisture determination of incoming raw materials, such as barley, hops, and malt
- Moisture analysis on spent grains and yeast
Sartorius has products and solutions to help you detect moisture quickly and easily in your raw ingredients and spent grain.
Moisture Analyzer MA160
Flexible all-rounder offering fast and reliable moisture analysis for the widest variety of samples including extended data storage and security features:
- Fast and accurate results
- Easy to operate
- Status light for simple tracking of current progress during the measurement
- Fully automatic endpoint determination and calculation of the result
- Built-in 5 minute performance-check guarantees correct measurements at all times
- Effortless cleaning in the dishwasher thanks to Sartorius Better Clean Design
- Enables storage of up to 100 different methods to manage the measurement of various materials effectively and securely. The method development assistant function makes adaption to new materials and requirements easy.
Moisture Analyzer MA37
Budget-friendly model for users who require a fast, 100% reliable analyzer for recurring samples that is easy to operate
- Fast and accurate results
- Easy to operate
- Status light for simple tracking of current progress during measurement.
- Fully automatic endpoint determination and calculation of the result
- Effortless cleaning in the dishwasher thanks to Sartorius Better Clean Design
Water Testing
Water is the major ingredient in your beer brewing but is often overshadowed by its equally important teammates: hops and barley. So the quality of your water shouldn’t be taken for granted. Water for brewing must be of a purity standard appropriate for drinking water and you may even be treating your water so that your beer’s flavour profile doesn’t have regional taste differences if you have breweries in multiple locations.
Although cities routinely perform microbiological and chemical water monitoring, contamination of the water used in breweries, can occur during the production process affecting the quality and flavor of your beer, so regular testing of water supplies, piping, tubing/gaskets and water from external wells is essential.
What to test?
Regular total colony counts and tests to identify coliform bacteria (specifically, E.coli) are recommended for microbiological quality control of this important ingredient.
e.motion Dispenser Membrane filters
e.motion Membrane filters:
Membrane filtration is the established method of choice for liquid testing as you can test a higher volume of the sample by concentration of potential contaminants on the membrane filter. This method provides reliable and reproducible results. The recommended filter type for microbiological testing of liquid samples is a cellulose nitrate (mixed cellulose ester) filter with grid lines. Your benefits include:
- Various filter colors allow the optimal contrast to colonies for easy quantification and identification
- High recovery rates of microorganisms
- Fast flow rates of liquid samples with High flow membranes
- Easy colony counting due to clear colony morphology and distinct grid lines.
- No inhibition of microbial growth by grid lines
- Available in 2 different packages sizes
Configured for use with automatic Mircrosart® e.motion dispenser
Microsart® e.motion Dispenser
Microsart e.motion Dispenser: Automatic membrane filter dispensing either by touch of a button, hands-free motion detection or by using a foot switch minimize risks of secondary contamination. Your benefits include:
- Space-saving small footprint
- Automated opening of the filter package makes workflow easier
- Available with battery option that avoids cable clutter
- Big pack with 250 filters avoids re-loading during a shift
Microsart® Manifold
Facilitate your routine microbiological testing procedures with the new Microsart® Manifold: select the proper manifold for your individual microbiological testing procedure, choose between reusable and single use funnels or filtration units, and decide between different sizes of manifolds and enjoy the manifold that adapts to your needs.
Microsart® e.jet pump
Liquid transfer pump connects to Microsart® Manifold as the vacuum source for the filtration of your liquid samples. Your benefits include:
- Small footprint
- Can be adapted directly to the manifold, no need for suction flask or Woulffs bottle
- External pump head, making it easy to change pump direction or exchange entirely
Biosart® 250 Funnel
Reusable funnel with a volume of 250mL, adapted to a cellulose nitrate membrane filter on the Microsart® Manifold. Your benefits include:
- Can be autoclaved up to 20-30 times
- No need for flaming of the funnels after each filtration step
Microsart® 250 Funnel
Single use funnel with a volume of 250 mL, adapted to a cellulose nitrate membrane filter on the Microsart® Manifold. Your benefit includes:
- Single use funnel for minimized risk of secondary contamination
- No autoclaving of the funnels needed
- No need for flaming of the funnels after each filtration step
Biosart® 100 Monitors
Ready-to-use sterile filtration unit in 100ml volume. Combine a funnel, a lid, a filter base, a gridded membrane filter and a cellulose pad in one unit. Your benefit includes:
- Saves time and handling steps as autoclaving of funnels and base is not needed
- Minimize the risk of secondary contamination
- Available in different pore sizes and membrane colors
- Different ampoule media types available for water testing
Biosart® 100 Nutrient Media
Sterile ready to use liquid Media in a 2.5ml ampoule. For use with Biosart Monitors or Cellulose Pads in Petri dishes. Your benefit includes:
- Saves time because no preparation of media needed
- Saves space in laboratory refridgerator
- Different media types for water and beer testing available
- Long shelf life of 9-12 months
Microsart® @filter
Ready-to-use sterile filtration unit in 100 or 250ml volume. Combine a funnel, a filter base and a gridded
membrane filter in one unit. Your benefit includes:
- Saves time and handling steps as autoclaving of funnels and base is not needed
- Minimize the risk of secondary contamination
- Reliable results as no liquid remains after filtration
Nutrient Pad Sets (NPS)
An attractive alternative to agar plates, NPS are dehydrated media pads in petri dishes, packed in double layer Aluminium protective bag, come along with suitable membrane filters for economical, time-saving microbiological quality control of water and brewery samples. Your benefits include:
- Eliminate time-consuming, labor-intensive culture media preparation
- No need for cooling of the NPS during storage or transportation due to dehydrated media
- Long shelf-life of 2 years
- Suitable membrane filter included (pore size and color)
Prospenser Plus
Bottle-top Dispenser, dispenses an exact volume of sterile water for wetting the Nutrient Pad Sets for activation of the nutrient media.
Spoilage detection
Despite beer’s intrinsic anti‐microbial properties and having a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system in place, contamination can still occur at many stages of your brewing process. This can damage customer confidence and consequently your brand and may have a serious financial impact on your company. The main contaminants include: Lactobacillus brevis, Lactobacillus lindneri and Pediococcus damnosus, as well as molds, wild strain yeasts and Saccharomyces species, all of which can survive hostile conditions and can have an undesirable effect on your beer quality.
What to test?
Adhering to a strict, robust sampling plan with in-process controls along the entire production chain from raw materials and brewing water, through fermentation steps, ending with filtration and filling you can easily detect unwanted microbes.
Sartorius has the products and solutions for fast, effective, and efficient detection of potential spoilage- microorganisms in your process.
e.motion Dispenser Membrane filters
e.motion Membrane filters:
Membrane filtration is the established method of choice for beer testing as you can test a higher volume of the sample by concentration of potential contaminants on the membrane filter. This method provides reliable and reproducible results. The recommended filter type for microbiological testing of liquid samples is a cellulose nitrate (mixed cellulose ester) filter with grid lines. Your benefits include:
- Various filter colors allow the optimal contrast to colonies for easy quantification and identification
- High recovery rates of microorganisms
- Fast flow rates of liquid samples with High flow membranes
- Easy colony counting due to clear colony morphology and distinct grid lines.
- No inhibition of microbial growth by grid lines
- Available in 2 different packages sizes
Configured for use with automatic Mircrosart® e.motion dispenser
Microsart® e.motion Dispenser
Microsart e.motion Dispenser: Automatic membrane filter dispensing either by touch of a button, hands-free motion detection or by using a foot switch minimize risks of secondary contamination. Your benefits include:
- Space-saving small footprint
- Automated opening of the filter package makes workflow easier
- Available with battery option that avoids cable clutter
- Big pack with 250 filters avoids re-loading during a shift
Microsart® Manifold
Facilitate your daily microbiological testing procedures with the new Microsart® Manifold: select the proper manifold for your individual microbiological testing procedure, choose between reusable and single use funnels or filtration units, and decide between different sizes of manifolds and enjoy the manifold that adapts to your needs.
Microsart® e.jet pump
Liquid transfer pump connects to Microsart® Manifold as the vacuum source for the filtration of your liquid samples. Your benefits include:
- Small footprint
- Can be adapted directly to the manifold, no need for suction flask or Woulffs bottle
- External pump head, making it easy to change pump direction or exchange entirely
Biosart® 250 Funnel
Reusable funnel with a volume of 250mL, adapted to a cellulose nitrate membrane filter on the Microsart® Manifold. Your benefits include:
- Can be autoclaved up to 20-30 times
- No need for flaming of the funnels after each filtration step
Microsart® 250 Funnel
Single use funnel with a volume of 250 mL, adapted to a cellulose nitrate membrane filter on the Microsart® Manifold. Your benefit includes:
- Single use funnel for minimized risk of secondary contamination
- No autoclaving of the funnels needed
- No need for flaming of the funnels after each filtration step
Biosart® 100 Monitors
Ready-to-use sterile filtration unit in 100ml volume. Combine a funnel, a lid, a filter base, a gridded membrane filter and a cellulose pad in one unit. Your benefit includes:
- Saves time and handling steps as autoclaving of funnels and base is not needed
- Minimize the risk of secondary contamination
- Available in different pore sizes and membrane colors
- Different ampoule media types available for water testing
Biosart® 100 Nutrient Media
Sterile ready to use liquid Media in a 2.5ml ampoule. For use with Biosart Monitors or Cellulose Pads in Petri dishes. Your benefit includes:
- Saves time because no preparation of media needed
- Saves space in laboratory refridgerator
- Different media types for water and beer testing available
- Long shelf life of 9-12 months
Microsart® @filter
Ready-to-use sterile filtration unit in 100 or 250ml volume. Combine a funnel, a filter base and a gridded
membrane filter in one unit. Your benefit includes:
- Saves time and handling steps as autoclaving of funnels and base is not needed
- Minimize the risk of secondary contamination
- Reliable results as no liquid remains after filtration
Nutrient Pad Sets (NPS)
An attractive alternative to agar plates, NPS are dehydrated media pads in petri dishes, packed in double layer Aluminium protective bag, come along with suitable membrane filters for economical, time-saving microbiological quality control of water and brewery samples. Your benefits include:
- Eliminate time-consuming, labor-intensive culture media preparation
- No need for cooling of the NPS during storage or transportation due to dehydrated media
- Long shelf-life of 2 years
- Suitable membrane filter included (pore size and color)
Prospenser Plus
Bottle-top Dispenser, dispenses an exact volume of sterile water for wetting the Nutrient Pad Sets for activation of the nutrient media.
Analytical QC
To ensure your beer’s quality and flavor meet the highest standards, you need to perform quality control with analytical testing, on your incoming raw ingredients, during intermediate production steps, as well as before final release. These tests can detect the following:
- Sugar content, nitrogen compounds, salts and minerals, and other compounds that may be extracted in the mash or wort
- Alcohol content
- Measurement of pH value
- Compounds such as international bitterness units (IBUs), polyphenols, free amino nitrogen (FAN), sulfur dioxide, and color measurements
To run any analytical or sensory tests, you need the right tools for sample preparation, such as pipettes, laboratory balances, syringe filters, and filter papers. Additionally, no matter which analytical tests you are performing, high-quality, ultrapure water is important for preparing stock solutions, buffers and sample dilution for use in all your lab’s standard analytical applications.
What to test?
- Analytical tests can include Wet Chemistry Assays, pH, Gas Chromatography (GC), Atomic Adsorption (AA), Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP)
- High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) can also provide you with valuable information about undesirable compounds in your raw ingredients.
The quality of your results is dependent on the quality of your samples, we provide the right products and solutions to make your analytical testing sample preparation fast, effective, and efficient.
Arium® Mini UV Water Filtration System
High-quality water is important to all analytical processes, but it is especially important when performing chromatographic analysis, such as HPLC, GC-MS, or ICP.
Arium® Mini lab water system: a compact ultrapure water system specially designed for labs with requirements up to 15 liters per day. Key advantages:
- Constantly low conductivity: ASTM Type 1 water to increase sensitivity of analytical results and minimize chemical ion interference
- Consistently low TOC levels: Remove TOC levels down to a minimum and avoid background noises in chromatograms
- Reliable process stability: Offering a variety of services, e.g. installation, equipment qualification (IQ|OQ), preventative maintenance etc. ensuring consistently reliable water quality along the entire life cycle of the system.
- Ease-of-use: Intuitive menu navigation with easy-to-use touch display
- Space-saving unit with a width of only 28 cm (11 inches)
Filter papers
Many analytical QC tests in brewery labs require a filtration step prior to the testing procedure to pre-process the sample. Circular, pleated filter papers of different grades are placed into a funnel leading to a receptacle and are used to remove turbidity from wort, to remove yeast cells after fermentation and to reduce CO² or degas the sample prior to tests such as density measurement or specific gravity.
The filter papers fitting best into your beer process are these types:
- Filter paper grade 292a : FT-4-215-320
- Filter paper grade 1289: FT-4-207-320
- Filter paper grade 6: FT-4-312-320
- Filter paper grade 4b: FT-4-309-320
Cubis®️ II Premium Laboratory Balance
A completely configurable, high-performance portfolio of lab balance hardware and software that will align with your unique demands and compliance requirements to maximize operational efficiency and experimental outcomes. Your benefits include:
- Large 7“ color display, including touch, scroll, swipe functionality with factory installed essential weighing applications and diverse QApp Packages for optional software extension
- Built-in applications guide you through your workflows
- Fast and easy levelling guaranteed with automatic, motorized levelling function
- Status Center for user notifications and alerts. User management including centralized password management support, high security password configuration, login rules.
Quintix® Lab Balance
A reliable lab balance for faster and better weighing results. Your benefits include:
- The Start Assistant function and SmartTouch user interface enable you to operate the balance right-out-of-the-box and feel at ease using all the functions available
- Intuitive applications guide you through simple steps in each of your workflows.
- Quickly and easily transfer, evaluate, further process, or save and document weighing results in perfect compliance with legal requirements – just by using Plug & Play technology, without the need for any extra software or complicated settings
Prospenser and Prospenser Plus
- Provides accurate and precise dispensing throughout their long lifetime thanks to the high-quality materials
- Low weight provides comfortable usability
- Excellent chemical resistance
Tacta® Pipette
- Superb comfort and incontestable reliability helps you to achieve minimal variation throughout the working day.
- Best ergonomics with soft tip attachment and light ejection protects the user.
- Only three parts to clean enforces contamination free pipetting – combine with Safe-Cone filters or SafetySpace Filter tips to boost contamination control and prolong the pipettes lifetime.
Optifit Tips
- Perfect fitting and sealing with Sartorius pipettes secures the highest possible accuracy and precision.
- Wide volume range and packaging options to suit your application and use.
- Optifit tips meet the highest purity and quality standards.
Minisart® Syringe Filters
- Minisart® RC is optimized for aqueous liquids and solvents and is compatible with DMSO, other amides, ketones, esters and ethers.
- Minisart® NY Plus uses a pure quartz glass fiber prefilter optimized for sample preparation for all medium to highly particle-laden samples prior to analytical tests.
- Minisart® High Flow offers fast flow rates for low to medium particle-laden samples without any prefilter material, without increasing hold-up volume.
Claristep®
- The Claristep® Filtration System is the best choice for easy handling and low hold-up volume for small sample volumes.
- See our application note for Claristep® and food/beverage.
Air Monitoring
Process hygiene is critical in beer production and knowing which microorganisms are present in your brewery is the first step to ensuring contamination free operation. Introducing contaminants at any stage in your brewing process may cause changes in flavour and odor, as well as oxidation, and spoilage leading to poor quality beer, which may be unsafe to drink.
What to test?
Test ambient air for airborne microorganisms, for example at your filling line and at critical points in your production areas.
Sartorius provides you with products and solutions to make testing for airborne microorganisms fast, effective, and efficient.
MD8 Airport
A portable device to monitor microbiological air quality in your beer production area and at the filling line. Your benefits include:
- Battery operated and portable
- Ergonomically designed and easy to clean
- User-friendly prompting with the option of four languages: English, French, German and Spanish
- Flexible options for customized use, including adjustable air throughput and air flow rate
- Storage of last-used parameters, even after automatic shut-off
- Can be calibrated on-site
Check Weighing
Our balances are a great partner when quantity controlling your filling process. Using the Check Weighing program with defined limits and visual aids means you can accurately control your actual contents or nominal gross weights. With the integrated temperature and time controlled self-adjustment functionality isoCAL in all Quintix®, Cubis® II and Entris® II models, accuracy is guaranteed every time, regardless of the conditions. Cubis® II offers additionally an integrated levelling warning with motorized self-levelling function for highest accuracy and convenience.
Features
- Check weight is included in our essential weighing applications package with Cubis® II (MCA), Quintix, Secura® and Entris® II balances.
- Check weight determines whether a weight value falls within a specified tolerance range. This application makes your analytical QC team’s job easier as it helps them prepare samples to a specified target weight range.
- Print out each measure and change to the next identical bottle or can and get the stats in the end at the touch of a button.
Recommendations, norms, regulations and directives our balances work according to, include:
OIML R 79, R 87 & R138
Directives 76/211/EEC, 2007/45/EC, 2009/34/EC & 75/107/EEC
NIST Handbook 133, 21-C.F.R. Part 101 and 27-CFR Parts 7, 25 & 27
Cubis®️ II Premium Laboratory Balance
A completely configurable, high-performance portfolio of lab balance hardware and software that will align with your unique demands and compliance requirements to maximize operational efficiency and experimental outcomes. Your benefits include:
- Large 7“ color display, including touch, scroll, swipe functionality with factory installed essential weighing applications and diverse QApp Packages for optional software extension
- Built-in applications guide you through your workflows
- Fast and easy levelling guaranteed with automatic, motorized levelling function
- Status Center for user notifications and alerts. User management including centralized password management support, high security password configuration, login rules.
Quintix® Lab Balance
A reliable lab balance for faster and better weighing results. Your benefits include:
- The Start Assistant function and SmartTouch user interface enable you to operate the balance right-out-of-the-box and feel at ease using all the functions available
- Intuitive applications guide you through simple steps in each of your workflows.
- Quickly and easily transfer, evaluate, further process, or save and document weighing results in perfect compliance with legal requirements – just by using Plug & Play technology, without the need for any extra software or complicated settings
Entris® II Lab Balance
- Best Value in its Class for Basic Weighing Tasks.
- Unrivalled value at a budget price point, Entris® II is the only balance in its class featuring isoCAL, LED touch technology and 12 built-in applications.
- High chemical resistance ensured using parts made from hard-wearing polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), stainless steel and glass
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