For more than a decade, Oregon craft brewer Deschutes has employed Emerson’s intuitive automation solutions to help sustain rapid industry growth. High Resolution Image
Automation solutions improve efficiency of process control to increase production volume while maintaining consistent quality.
NASHVILLE, TENN (May 1, 2018) – For more than a decade, Oregon craft brewer Deschutes has employed Emerson’s intuitive automation solutions to help sustain rapid industry growth. The brewer has leveraged Emerson hardware, software, and services to streamline automation, making it easier to expand production from 100,000 to more than 300,000 barrels annually. The growth will continue for Deschutes at their new facility, to be constructed in Roanoke, Virginia.
As Deschutes grew during the last 15 years, management required an automation solution that would allow increased production without distracting focus from producing the highest-quality beers. The organization turned to Emerson to help standardize process control. Advanced automation solutions from Emerson helped Deschutes reduce malt delivery time by 24 percent, providing the potential for an additional 450 barrels daily.
“We love making beer, but as the brewery grew, so did our need to automate to allow the brewmasters to concentrate on brewing. Emerson’s intimate understanding of our automation system hardware and organizational goals helped us find solutions to keep pace with rapidly increasing demand for our craft beers,” said Brian Faivre, brewmaster of operations. “Better visibility into process control strategy has allowed us to refine our processes to produce consistent quality beer, helping us quickly become a leader in the craft brewing industry.”
Deschutes adopted Emerson’s DeltaV™ standard configuration library, delivering control modules that are preconfigured to operate with standard software structure across a variety of basic operating facilities. These standardized control modules provided streamlined process control and human-centered design principles to bring the most important and relevant information to operators’ eyes, speeding decisions to ensure optimal batch quality and efficiency. In addition, Emerson’s Rosemount instrumentation feeds the DeltaV system vital level, temperature, and flow information to ensure optimal batch quality.
To facilitate continued expansion and improvement, Deschutes will soon upgrade to the latest available release of Emerson’s DeltaV distributed control system. The upgrade will provide more efficient controller loading, improving performance as Deschutes adds another fermentation cellar to their Bend, Oregon facility in late 2018.
“Deschutes’s willingness to adopt leading technologies and explore how automation can change and improve their processes has helped improve their product and expand their reach,” said Christian Grossenbacher, vice president, food and beverages, Emerson Automation Solutions. “Together, Deschutes and Emerson can continue to develop forward-thinking solutions for production that will help Deschutes maintain its place as one of the country’s premier craft brewers.”
For more information on Emerson technologies for brewers, visit www.Emerson.com/Brewing. Industry professionals can visit Emerson at the Craft Brewers Conference and BrewExpo America from May 1 to May 3, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee, booth 2650.
