Groundbreaking hop dosing solution for brewers

The brewing industry is evolving rapidly. Brewers are constantly looking for new processes and flexible solutions to produce high-quality and interesting beers in a controlled manner. With AHOP, a safe, controlled and automatic or manual hop dosing solution, Agidens offers them the opportunity to efficiently address dry hopping and dosing of additives while improving the quality and taste of their beer.

Adding hops while boiling the wort gives beer mainly a bitter and - to a lesser extent - aromatic character. The more spicy and fruity aromas can also be added via dry hopping. In this process, the brewer adds aroma hops during fermentation or lagering. The purpose of dry hopping is to allow the aromas from the added hops to soak into the beer, making the final beer more aromatic in flavor.

Impact IPA revolution

According to Kim Verschueren, Director of Process Engineering at Agidens, a new generation of beers with a more pronounced and aromatic (hop) flavor is gaining popularity among a broad enthusiast audience. "That trend fits into the IPA (India Pale Ale) revolution, a very popular beer style in recent years. IPAs are extra hoppy and/or spicier and fruitier," Verschueren points out. "As specialty beer volumes increase, current dry hop and dosing techniques must be able to handle ever-increasing volumes of hops. Current process techniques cause quite a few brewers headaches. Getting hops in and out of beer is often a time-consuming, beer-wasting and complex task. Brewers are all too familiar with problems such as blockages resulting from swollen hop pellets, oxygen uptake, limited batches, cleaning capabilities and flexibility."

Complex process

With dry hopping, brewers have to take a lot of parameters into account," Verschueren points out. "Besides beer and yeast type, the quality of the hops as a raw material is of great influence. These include variety, harvest, amount of alpha and beta acids and essential oils. And to get the right hop flavor in the beer, many physical parameters also play a role to promote the diffusion of the necessary components from the hops into the beer. Consider, for example, the contact surface of the hop particles exposed to the beer, the contact time between beer and hops, the temperature, both of the hops and the beer, and agitation or flow to promote diffusion." From a quality standpoint, a brewer should avoid oxygenation after primary fermentation, he adds. "Not only to protect the beer from oxidative reactions and (re)formation of diacetyl, but also to prevent oxidative degradation of the hops' sensitive beta acids or lupulones, which are known to be pernicious to the beer's flavor."

Innovative dosing solution

With the AHOP solution, Agidens developed a fully automatic and a manual solution for dosing solids and liquids, such as hop pellets, powders, spices and liquid flavors. The AHOP dosing units answer most of the challenges of existing dry-hop techniques and guarantee addition of quantities without oxygen absorption. The portable unit has been extensively tested for the easy dosing of unlimited quantities of hop pellets in beer and provides greater efficiency and quality in
the brewing process.

Numerous benefits

The AHOP solution offers brewers numerous advantages, including an uninterrupted dosing process, the administration of unlimited hop volumes - with rapid input and guaranteed negligible oxygen uptake - and improved aroma absorption. There are also an integrated (transfer) pumping function and flexible additive dosing, of coffee, spices or dried fruit, for example. Moreover, the AHOP dosing units are also fully CIP-compatible.

About Agidens

Agidens continuously improves industrial manufacturing processes. The company believes that the right automation solutions, digital technologies and value added services result in manufacturing processes that improve every day. Agidens consultants ensure that manufacturing processes continue to perform at the highest level. Processes that are safer, better and smarter. Flexible and more sustainable. "Because we have to be ready for what's to come. Because progress never stops.'"

Source: white paper 'Dry Hopping Challenges' (author: Kim Verschueren), Agidens International NV