Process Engineering | Brewing & Malting

First Key provides specialized and practical expertise to ensure your customers receive your best beer every time.

We provide complete system design, commissioning and operational readiness for the following areas:

Grains Handling and Milling

Mash mixer
Cereal cooker
Lauter tun
Mash filter
Brew receivers
Kettle
Whirlpool
Wort cooler
Hot and cold brewing liquor tanks
Trub handling
Spent grains handling
Kettle stack heat recovery systems
Wort stripping including all related pumps, piping systems, valves, instrumentation and controls
Complete steam & condensate piping systems design, including control valves, steam traps, vacuum breakers, air vents and condensate return systems.

Spent grains storage tanks
Dense phase conveying systems, (e.g. Pondorff)
Screw conveying systems
De-watering systems
Drying systems including all related piping and utility systems, instrumentation and controls.

Wort aeration/oxygenation facilities
Yeast storage tanks
Surplus yeast storage and truck loading facilities
Yeast propagation facilities
Yeast monitoring and injection facilities
C.I.P and sterile steam S.I.P facilities, including all related pumps, piping, cooling systems, valves, instrumentation and controls
Design of facilities to maintain a sterile environment in yeast handling rooms including HEPA filtered / U/V sterilized +ve pressure air supplies and building air cooling and dehumidification systems.

CCT tank farms for either uni-tank or multi-use systems
CO₂ collection facilities
CO₂ Counter-pressure facilities
Tank CIP under CO₂ counterpressure
Dropping coolers
Collection and distribution valve manifolds including all related pumps, piping, cooling systems, valves, instrumentation and controls.

DE Filtration
PVPP Filtration
Cross flow filtration
Trap filters
Ingredient injection systems
DCW blending
Carbonation systems
Touch-up cooling systems including all related pumps, piping, cooling systems, valves, instrumentation and controls.
Bright beer tanks
Bright beer distribution valve manifolds

Ammonia refrigeration systems
Reciprocating, twin-screw, mono-screw compressors
Variable speed control
Evaporation condensers with floating pressure control
High and low pressure receivers
Dump traps
Air eliminators
Control systems for handling widely varying process loads including all related pumps, and piping systems
Glycol distribution systems with control systems for widely varying process loads including, ammonia/glycol chillers, including all related pumps, piping, valves, instrumentation and controls
Steam and condensate systems, boilers, deaerators, cogen systems
Brewing water deaeration systems
Energy and water optimization

From small local single systems to centralized CIP systems, including design of systems for line CIP, tank CIP, tank CIP under CO₂ counter-pressure.
Automated systems including multiple simultaneous CIP loops, automated tank make-up, in-line heat exchangers to minimize temperature shock to sensitive equipment, priority based loop selection control systems.
Concentrated acid and caustic handling systems, including all related pumps, piping, heating systems, valves, instrumentation and controls.

Piping systems design from simple hose based systems for craft breweries, through manual piping systems with jumper panel connections, to fully automated double seat matrix style valving systems, for all areas of the brewing operation.

Full range of control systems from local, manual system controls, through automated centralized control systems to recipe driven oversight control of automated systems.