Low cost solution for home brewing and small brewing business using raspberry pi

Abstract

In several countries artisanal beer producers are common and this tendency can be observed also in Brazil where a significant growth of the sector in recent years took place. This work explores an automation option directed to the production of small batches of beer where the important process variables such as times and temperatures are controlled. The implementation of the proposed automation makes use of low cost hardware, the Raspberry Pi 3, along with free software, the CraftBeerPi which easily allow the improvement of the quality and uniformity of brewing process. Since the hardware used has network communication capabilities, it is possible to remote monitoring the process, through “IoT” technology, which allows real-time checking of variables and alerts on all stages of the production process. A production line capable of producing 20 L of beer per batch was set up to perform the tests and prove the concepts, making it simple and effective to follow up and control the process variables by a mobile phone. The conclusions of this work are that the presented automation option has low cost and high flexibility, which makes it an innovative and attractive solution for artisans and small brewing business who seek to reproduce and compose beer recipes that would previously only be possible with the use of sophisticated and expensive equipment.