Baxbier – Van van den Berg

With professional process control you earn euros and a strong image

Of the many good breweries in the city of Groningen, Baxbier is one of the most talked about. Van van den Berg is the head brewer here. As a collaboration partner in the development of Beer-o-Meter, he is one of the first customers and shares his experiences. What advantages does he see in the most advantageous and easiest way for craft brewers to work on process control in their brewery?

As a craft brewer, you have a chance of success if you come up with distinctive beers and brew them with optimum quality: not once, but again and again. You then have to get them bottled properly and deliver them to your customers in the best possible way. When you talk about quality, you are talking about flavor stability and a consistent product that always meets the high expectations of customers.

For consistent quality check the TFS

To brew consistently, one factor is most important to me. That’s why I use Beer-o-Meter the most: Total Fermentable Sugars (TFS). It gives me accurate data on the sugar levels in my beer in a simple and cheap way. At Baxbier, we monitor TFS closely during the entire development process of all our beers, so over time when you are brewing new batches again and again.

At Baxbier we brew a lot of hop forward beers, with dry hopping. Especially with this type of beer it is vital that they ferment well. That makes TFS such an important indicator. If a beer still has residual sugars, you open the door to hop creep: uncontrolled secondary fermentation due to dry hopping. That has a negative effect on the taste. And it is a huge risk for the stability of your beer. A difference of 1° Plato can already make a can explode. Not measuring is not an option. Not doing quality control costs you euros and ultimately your image.

I only pay for what I need

If you want to take quality analysis seriously, there are many solutions on the market for craft brewers. All from different suppliers, each with their own service contract. These agreements often force you to pay for options that are not relevant to your brewery at all. And they come with a hefty price tag: for a complete solution you will quickly spend around 30K.

Another option is to use things that work for the hobby brewer. That will cost you considerably less. But then you will get quality that is sufficient for hobby beer. Will that get you far as a commercial brewer? I wonder…

With Beer-O-Meter I have a solution in-house that easily delivers lab-standard measurement results, which I can really use. Moreover, with Beer-o-Meter I can take exactly what I need for Baxbier and I don’t pay for what I don’t use anyway.

More euros and a strong image for your brewery?

Quality is not a luxury; it is a must.

Contact us and discover how smart process control can help you get more out of your brewery.