Innovation is, and always has been, the fuel that drives the Craft Beer Brewing Industry – from fostering creativity to propelling industry dynamics, it is a main contributor to both growth and evolution. While there are many aspects of the industry that benefit from increased innovation, it is innovation specifically in brewing processes, technology, and equipment that has allowed craft brewers to refine and advance their brewing methods – resulting in better flavors, aromas, and overall product quality.
It is innovation that provides brewers with opportunities to tackle new challenges.
Omega's HANI Technology: Brewing Up Innovation
HANI (High Accuracy, Non-Invasive) Clamp Temperature Sensor Technology, Omega’s newest innovation in temperature sensing and measurement, is designed and expertly engineered to address one such challenge: measuring in-pipe media temperature – a challenge craft brewers are all too familiar with.
To accurately measure the temperature of media flowing through a pipe, direct contact with the media has traditionally been needed. This has meant installing invasive sensor probes – like thermocouples or RTDs – into your system.
However, installing in-pipe sensor probes is, let’s just admit it, a pain in the neck.
Cutting. Welding. Hiring contractors. Shutting down processes. Downtime. Money down the drain. Meetings. Headaches. All that.
But not anymore. With Omega’s innovative HANI technology, temperature measurement is as relaxing an experience as sipping on your favorite IPA or Pilsner. That’s because HANI temperature sensors mount with the ease of a surface sensor but perform with the high-accuracy and high-performance of an invasive sensor.
From box to pipe, HANI Clamp-On sensors take about 10 seconds to install – literally. All you do is wrap the sensor around the pipe in the desired location and clamp the quick-latch mechanism.
That’s. It.
There’s no need to cut, weld, drill, or shut down production to install or move a HANI sensor. Within minutes – POOF! – you’ve got accurate temperature measurement.
With such easy and headache-free installation, you can quickly install a HANI sensor at one location, take fast, accurate temperature measurements at that location, uninstall it just as fast, move it somewhere else within your system, and start immediately getting fast, accurate measurements at that new location. All with the same sensor!
That means that a HANI sensor can be used as a verification tool to validate already-installed invasive sensors in your system – you know, those sensors you haven’t had calibrated in… what has it been? Years? Have you even had them calibrated? Just clamp a HANI next to it and compare measurements.
With HANI innovation, the impossible becomes possible: fast, accurate temperature measurement has never been easier!
Located in Lakewood, NY, Southern Tier Brewing Company has been in operation since 2002, growing into an industry leader and one of the top craft beer producers in the US today – a brewing company that is constantly seeking innovative ways to enhance their system. Recently, Southern Tier has implemented HANI Clamp Sensors into their process piping system with great success.
The brewing technicians at Southern Tier use the HANI sensor to effectively sanitize their carbon filter tank. This necessary and vital sanitizing process involves hot water being pumped into the tank. Precise temperature measurement is important as the water needs to be greater than 180°F in order to sanitize effectively but can be no greater than 200 °F – at that temperature the water will vaporize into steam. In addition, given sanitization is a function of temperature and time, accurate temperature measurement can dictate precisely how long the heated water should remain in the tank for sanitization to properly occur – valuable data with the capability to provide a route to decreasing time needed for sanitization and increasing available brewing time.
Prior to the implementation of the HANI sensor, the brewing technicians at Southern Tier had no way of accurately monitoring the water temperature during this vital sanitization process:
Traditional surface sensors could not be used because they are not fast nor accurate enough on the sanitary, stainless-steel pipes that make up Southern Tier’s process system.
Infrared thermometers could not be used because the emissivity (reflection of light) of those same pesky stainless-steel pipes affect the accuracy of these types of sensors.
Invasive, in-pipe sensors, although highly accurate and high performing (perfect for this type of measurement), require an installation and integration process that was determined to be too expensive and would require too much downtime.
The HANI sensor – which is as accurate as in-pipe sensors but can be installed and integrated with the ease, simplicity, and cost efficiency of traditional surface sensors – solves all these challenges.
For the past three decades, Allagash Brewing Company – which today is one of the largest craft breweries in the United States – has been at the forefront of the craft beer movement, brewing up some seriously delicious and creative beers out of their Portland, ME brewery.
In their ongoing efforts to improve efficiency of their process and the quality of their products, the brewing team at Allagash had a Pre-Heating Wort Skid installed in their system – an extremely important investment that, when in full operation, could save them up to 20 minutes per brew cycle.
However, once installed, the Allagash team struggled to commission the wort skid into their system: they encountered issues getting the skid up to the right temperatures.
To assist the manufacturer of the wort skid in troubleshooting the issue, the Allagash brewing team needed a way to collect extremely accurate temperature measurements at very specific locations within their system – locations where there were no existing sensor ports.
Invasive immersion sensors could be used to provide measurements with enough accuracy, but the brewing team would have to install these sensors at these specific locations. This would be an expensive, time-consuming (and did I mention expensive?) process. Allagash would have to purchase the sensors, hire a sanitary welder, shut down their process, and install the sensors – all for a single, one-time temperature measurement. Accurate, yes. But neither a time-saver nor a cost-saver.
The versatility, the non-invasiveness, and the high accuracy of the HANI Clamp temperature sensor helped Allagash expediate the commissioning process of the wort skid – enabling the skid to be deployed, delivering their ROI, and eliminating unnecessary downtime due to faster troubleshooting.
The Brew Master’s Temperature Sensor
HANI sensors do what few thought was even possible: they measure, with very high accuracy, the temperature of moving fluid inside a pipe without the use of an invasive temperature probe. The HANI simply clamps to the outside of the pipe and measures temperature inside the pipe, accurately, in seconds. With no invasive installation process, HANI sensors never come in contact with product – so there’s no risk of contamination or turbulence.
HANI technology can be used to:
- Monitor temperature in incoming water filtration and sanitization
- Check for in-line heat loss from the lauter tun to the boil kettle
- Monitor cooling lines during wort cooling
- Audit temperatures at the bottling line without adding turbulence
To learn more about HANI technology, please click here.
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