Article | Biofilm Challenges in Breweries

Biofilm Challenges in Breweries

The brewers take several weeks of painstaking efforts to craft unique beer. But biofilm formation can put the operations behind the planned schedule and adversely impact the beer profile. It can also wreak havoc with public health safety standards, leading to severe brand damage, legal and compliance consequences. However, a timely rapid action or a preventive approach, depending on the extent of the spread of biofilms can help breweries overcome this situation.

Let’s understand this further.

What is a Biofilm and How Does it Pose a Challenge to Breweries?

A biofilm is a dense layer of unicellular organisms such as fungi, bacteria and protists that amass to form a colony. This colony appends itself to a surface with a coating of slimy buildup to create a protective cover around it. If the biofilm continues to grow and mature, it becomes harder to eliminate and kill it.

Usually, beer is a hostile environment for biofilms, but their manifestation can’t be ruled out completely. They commonly grow in tanks, filters, conveyors, pipes, pasteurizing equipment, heat exchangers, cooling towers and bottling equipment – almost at every stage of beer making. Biofilms can also worsen microbiological corrosion and reduce heat transfer efficiency four times more than calcium scale deposits. This creates a ripple effect and disrupts various other processes.

How to Control Biofilms in Breweries?

Biofilm control calls for a three-pronged solution:

• Inspection and Detection: This comprises an in-depth survey to find biofilms and their growth density across the brewery plant.

• Removal, Cleaning and Disinfection: This process includes the use of various physical (scrubbing, spraying) and chemical (non-oxidizing, oxidizing biocides and biodispersants) treatments.

• Maintenance and Prevention: This aspect requires routine industrial maintenance for the prevention of biofilm growth.

Biofilm control calls for industry expertise and experience. NCH Asia Pacific has extensive knowledge of the brewery industry and its operational challenges. Our ChemAqua Biofilm Control Solution can easily remove the biofilm growth and prevent its outbreaks. We have developed bioeXile, a patented product that is one of the most effective biofilm removal cleaning processes. We also have bioDART  that uses optical sensors for real-time monitoring of biofilm formation.

Get in touch with us to know more.