Brewer uses smart pump to harvest yeast

In the US, Mother Earth Brewing (MEB) has installed a Verderflex Smart unit to improve the quality of its yeast harvest.

MEB had been using pressure tanks to transfer their yeast harvest, which was a lengthy process, costly due to the CO₂ and inconsistent relative to maintaining the quality of the yeast. Additionally, this process of transferring yeast had a very complicated set-up procedure.

The yeast is transferred from a vat into a keg for storage and cooled to be dosed into another batch, which under their current system required several coordinated valves opening and closing to ensure the proper vessels were pressurised, then relying on the pressurised/vessels to perform the harvest. After discussing their application parameters and the advantages of a peristaltic pump to simplify their process, they purchased a Smart S30 Model B with 15.9 x 3.2 mm Verderprene tubing. The result was their transfer time for the yeast harvest was cut from three hours to one hour and the yeast quality was also greatly improved due to the ability of the Smart pump to safely and gently handle sheer-sensitive materials.

Josh Brewer, Brewmaster for MEB, comments on the use of the Verderflex Smart: “I purchased the Verderflex Smart Pump in an effort to minimise the labour costs associated with the lengthy process of harvesting yeast and to improve the quality of the yeast harvest. Ultimately, these factors allow our brewery to yield more brews per week. To say I’m satisfied with the pump’s performance is an understatement. Mother Earth Brewing has been in a constant growth spurt and the Verderflex Smart Pump is helping us save money and increase output to meet demand, all while maintaining exceptional yeast handling sanitation. Breweries harvest yeast in all kinds of ways but I’m confident that with the use of our new Verderflex Smart Pump we are at the very cutting edge of yeast management.”

Easily repeatable procedures over time have resulted in a reduction in man hours for the yeast harvest which can now be dedicated to other responsibilities. Additionally, there are fewer hours required for set-up time as well as clean-up, as the tubing is the only thing to come in contact with the pumped fluid and can be replaced in a matter of minutes.