New HMI (Human Machine Interface) Options Improve Efficiency, Consistency for Craft Brewers
Portland Kettle Works™ is one of the leading American manufacturers of state-of-the-art stainless steel brewing equipment. We manufacture equipment for craft breweries, wineries, kombucha breweries, coffee extractors and other brewing applications. We now offer our optional new HMI (Human Machine Interface) automation control panels for our brewhouses. These new automated control systems replace the traditional brewery controls of mechanical buttons, knobs and switches with “glass cockpit” style LCD touch screen automation controls to improve brewer’s control and batch-to-batch repeatability over their brewing process.
HMI Improves Control and Batch-To-Batch Repeatability
“We’ve been studying how to best implement HMI for our brewing systems for some time now,” says Thad Fisco, President and Founder of Portland Kettle Works. It’s not enough to just be trendy; we demand that it be as absolutely as reliable and effective as all of our system components. We took the time to do it right.”
HMI automation offers brewery operators a number of advantages over traditional manual brewery controls:
- Increased brewing process precision
- Better control over brewing process
- Better batch-to-batch repeatability
- Lower batch production costs
- Save recipes
- Automated controls for better brewhouse safety
Using HMI automation can improve brewery operations and the beer they brew.
More Precise Control
With HMI automation brewers can control their brewing with much greater precision than with mechanical controls. Times and temperatures can be precisely set and accurately monitored to ensure optimum brewing performance. Even better, process settings and recipes can be recorded and saved so that batch-to-batch brewing variability can be virtually eliminated.
Reliable, Repeatable Performance
“One of the most significant aspects of using PKW HMI automation controls is repeatability,” continues Fisco. “Brewhouses equipped with HMI automation controls can record and remember the precise times and temperatures of each step in the brewing process. This lets brewers save their recipes and repeat them time after time; recipes can even be copied by breweries with multiple locations or exchanged with other brewers.”
Plus, from a business standpoint, backing up recipes using HMI eliminates concerns that if a brewmaster leaves unexpectedly for any reason all of the brewery’s best recipes may leave with him or her.
Suitable for Retrofit on Currently Installed Systems
“High on our list of development priorities was to ensure that our newest HMI automation control panels could be retrofitted onto existing Portland Kettle Works breweries,” continues Fisco. “This allows our brewers to perform a brewhouse “tune-up” and gain all the benefits of using HMI automation controls without having to upgrade their breweries to all new equipment.”
In addition to upgrading PKW equipment installations, PKW engineers may even be able to adapt HMI automation controls to brewing equipment manufactured by other equipment manufacturers.
Special Upgrade Offer
To introduce the amazing capabilities of PKW’s new HMI automation control panels to current brewery owners and prospective new brewers, PKW is making an amazing offer: between July 1 and December 31, 2020* upgrade any new brewery system purchased from PKW from manual controls to HMI automation controls FOR FREE! This can save brewers as much as $25,000!!
For more information on PKW HMI just click here for the details.
*This offer subject to modification or withdrawal without notice.
Portland Kettle Works™ was founded in 2011 to build the highest quality stainless steel brewing and beverage equipment applications. Since then we have built and installed over 300 breweries worldwide. Our craft brewers are among the best of the best and they have the gold, silver and bronze medals to prove it. If you’re serious about craft brewing as a business, contact us and we can help you, too. And if you’re located in Mexico or Latin America, click here to visit our Spanish language site.