Introduction
Delivering the highest quality craft beer possible is the passion of every brewer. One of the keys to maintaining peak quality from initial grain selection through packaging and distribution is controlling oxygen exposure throughout the process.
Oxygen pickup can lead to a variety of beer defects during production including:
- Development of off-flavors like wet cardboard
- Haziness and cloudiness
- Faster staling and flavor degradation
- Shortened shelf life leading to waste
To maximize quality, efficiency, and profitability, leading craft breweries globally are turning to onsite nitrogen generator systems to produce an unlimited supply of pure nitrogen gas right where it’s needed.
Nitrogen gas offers many benefits over traditional approaches like delivered bulk gas cylinders or CO2 recovery:
- Opex savings of 40-90%
- Enhanced quality and process control
- Sustainable and scalable onsite production
- Flexibility for seasonal production changes
This comprehensive guide aims to provide craft brewers considering expansion everything needed to evaluate if installing an onsite nitrogen generator is the right solution to maximize quality, efficiency, and profitability over the long-term.
Topics covered include:
- Nitrogen’s Properties & Role in Brewing
- How Onsite Nitrogen Generators Work
- Models, Sizing, Placement & Maintenance
- Using Nitrogen to Improve Beer Production
- Economic Analysis & Cases Studies
- Conclusions & Recommendations
Equipped with this information, craft breweries can determine if a capital investment in self-generated nitrogen aligns with their growth plans towards producing more barrels of higher quality beer.
Overview: Benefits of Nitrogen Gas In Brewing
Before examining nitrogen generator technology specifically, it’s useful to understand the unique properties of nitrogen gas and why its used throughout the brewing process:
Inert Gas Prevents Oxygen Degradation
As an inert gas, nitrogen does not react with other substances like ingredients or finished beer. Purging production systems with nitrogen displaces reactive oxygen, preventing unwanted oxidation reactions.
This is crucial in preserving freshness of raw materials like milled grains and hops. It also maintains taste and aroma quality through packaging and distribution – preventing “cardboard” stale flavors.
By excluding air infiltration, nitrogen protects the time, money, and effort spent perfecting recipes all the way through to a beer’s final packaging and consumption.
Unique Textures & Tastes
In addition to preventing defects, nitrogen enables specialty craft beer styles like smooth “nitro stouts” or “cream ales” when blended with carbon dioxide.
The right nitrogen/CO2 mix gives certain beer styles a lush, creamy mouthfeel unattainable with carbon dioxide alone.
Visually Appealing Cascading Bubbles
Infusing beer with nitrogen gas under high pressure allows for a visually appealing cascade of tiny bubbles when dispensed through a specialized “stout faucet”.
This natural nitrogenation creates a thick frothy head similar to a freshly poured Guinness that also lasts the entire pint. The proprietary branded glasses and faucets reinforce brand recognition associated with these prized smooth beer styles.
Extends Shelf Life and Freshness
Minimizing oxygen exposure of packaged beer with sparging processes using nitrogen extends shelf life by over 6 months compared to atmospheric packaging.
This allows longer distribution cycles and flexibility while retaining freshness. Reduced stale product equates to higher sales and profitability.
What is an OnSite Nitrogen Generator?
Traditionally, breweries rely either on delivered tanks of bulk nitrogen gas or installing complex CO2 recovery systems to obtain a non-atmospheric inert gas needed for critical production processes.
Both of these legacy options come with challenges around managing inconsistent deliveries, strict contracts, changing market pricing, and significant upfront investments for CO2 systems. Not to mention the transport’s large carbon footprint.
Onsite nitrogen generator systems overcome these constraints by producing an unlimited supply of 95-99.5% pure nitrogen from compressed atmospheric air right where it’s required using advanced membrane or adsorption technologies self-contained in easily installed equipment.
How Nitrogen Generation Systems Produce N2
Nitrogen generators work via one of two core methodologies – membrane separation or pressure swing adsorption which both remove only the nitrogen from standard compressed air:
- Polymer Membranes – Hollow fiber membranes filter atmospheric air, blocking all gases except nitrogen from passing through as ultra-pure N2 due to the unique physical properties and size of nitrogen gas molecules. Systems contain hundreds of these membranes in parallel to provide desired flow rates.
- Pressure Swing Adsorption – Uses a chamber packed with a carbon molecular sieve that selectively adsorbs/traps other atmospheric gases under high-pressure, then releases almost pure nitrogen out of the system when pressure reduced. The PSA cycle then repeats continuously without operator intervention.
- A compressor paired with chilling, drying, and filtration equipment produces feed air that goes into the membranes or PSA systems which output between 95-99.5% pure gaseous nitrogen continuously once running.
Buffer and storage tanks connected to generators smooth out flow rates used in intermittent processes. Controls allow blending with CO2 when required for specialty beer styles.
Nitrogen Generator Components
The main components and subsystems that make up a complete turn-key nitrogen generation solution include:
- Feed Air Compressor
- Air treatment equipment
- Filters
- Dryers
- Chiller
- Nitrogen Generator Core
- Polymer membranes or PSA chamber
- PLC Controls & Software
- Buffer Tank – Smooths flow rate changes from intermittent brewing demands
- Connectivity – Monitoring of critical parameters and alerts
As nitrogen generators only involve physical separation without combustion or chemical reactions, systems contain minimal consumable items beyond air filters and nitrogen membranes lasting 2-3 years.
Carbon footprint is slashed compared with delivered tanks while electricity powers the compressed air systems.
Flexible Sizes For Any Production Scale
To meet the needs of breweries from small 10bbl systems up to major regional producers, nitrogen generators are available in sizes supplying nitrogen flows from as small as 10 NM3/hr (35 SCFM) up to 1000+ NM3/hr systems (35,000 SCFM).
Larger systems above 800 NM3/hr may utilize multiple membrane or PSA trains in parallel within one skid package to provide required nitrogen capacity and redundancy.
Packages allow flexible placement with wall mounted enclosures for minimal space dependency, or consolidated containerized skids that locate outdoors.
Service requirements simply include consumable replacements like air filters plus annual maintenance routines.
How Nitrogen Enhances Brewing Production Quality
Now that we’ve covered the background of what onsite nitrogen gas generators are, next we examine the top uses of nitrogen throughout the typical brewing process to prevent defects and enable specialty styles unmatched via solely CO2-based production.
1. Purging Tanks & Fermenters
Sparging raw ingredients like grain, malt, and water with nitrogen gas before entering the mash tun for brewing removes oxygen picked up during handling and storage.
This protects oxidation-sensitive organic compounds, preserving fresh bold flavors to carry through to finished beer instead of developing stale, cardboard notes.
Post-brew nitrogen purging eliminates residual oxygen from fermenters, bright tanks, and storage vessels. Maintaining an oxygen-free CO2 or nitrogen blanket preserves beer post-fermentation, which is particularly sensitive to air infiltration.
Without adequate tank blanketing between process steps, beer rapidly develops dark colors, haziness, and unpleasant bitter flavors.
2. Pressurizing & Pushing Transfer Lines
Moving liquid beer between stages risks oxygen and bacteria infiltration without proper line pressure and hydrosanitary process controls.
Blanketing pipelines with pressurized nitrogen preserves product integrity during transfers while providing motive force. This ensures oxygen does not diffuse into the fluid across lengthy distribution runs.
Smooth operations rely on having adequate nitrogen volumes to push transfer volumes reliably and rapidly without admitting contaminants. Stochastic demand can be smoothed with accumulator tanks.
3. Counterpressure Bottling & Canning
Modern packaging equipment uses inert gases like nitrogen to purge bottles and cans before filling to displace oxygen, then applies counterpressure during liquid transfers to prevent bubbles or foam.
This minimizes product surface exposure to air, retaining taste without needing preservatives while enabling longer sell-by duration.
Crowning bottling on nitrogen bubble foam substitutes air pockets with inert gas – preventing undesirable chemical reactions from occurring inside packages on store shelves that degrade quality over time.
4. Nitrogenating Specialty Beer Styles
While nitrogen is crucial for production and packaging, creative brewers also blend it with CO2 when dispensing certain beers like stouts, Irish reds, or cream ales to achieve uniquely smooth “nitro” mouthfeels.
Strategic nitrogenation between 8-25% nitrogen balanced with CO2 gives a lush, velvety character unattainable with carbon dioxide alone.
Visually, cascading nitrogen bubble chains excite customers, reinforce branding, and justify pricing premiums for establishments pouring true nitro brews from nitrogen-infused kegs using specialized faucets.
5. Flexibility for New Recipes & Formats
As brewers test out new styles, adjunct ingredients like fruit or vanilla, alternative fermentables like sorghum, or innovative formats like nitrogenated IPAs – having an on-demand nitrogen supply future-proofs flexibility to create uniqueness without contamination.
No longer reliant on fixed contracted gas deliveries, creative R&D can rapidly iterate without impacting core production pipelines.
Economics & Benefits of OnSite Generation
Now that we examined usages across the brewing process, next we cover the financial implications and compelling advantages justifying installing onsite nitrogen generation versus traditional bulk deliveries or CO2 recovery.
Dramatically Lower Operating Costs
The OpEx savings from displacing delivered liquid nitrogen or outsourced vendor contracts are significant – 40-90% reductions depending on usage levels and negotiations. And that instant savings applies from day one of operations.
This is achievable because nitrogen makes up 78% of air we breathe – it’s available anywhere simply by filtering out the other gases cost effectively. There’s no need to cool it to extremely low cryogenic temperatures for transportation.
Analysis shows converting from delivery trucks to onsite production drops the incremental cost per unit Nm3 85+% typically. Instead of paying markup on transport and profiteering middlemen, the brewery pays only incremental electricity drawing from existing compressed air infrastructure at efficiencies of scale.
Additional Bottom Line Benefits
Beyond direct energy savings, installing an onsite nitrogen generator boosts the bottom line through:
- Production chain flexibility adapting to seasonal or short-term demands without penalties
- Minimizing write-offs of spoiled or stale product
- Enabling higher quality standards to justify price premiums
- Improving reputation via eco-friendly positioning
- Qualifying for green energy investments & tax incentives
All of these secondary benefits have tangible financial implications improving profitability, valuation, and investor attractiveness long term.
Capital Costs & Rapid ROI
Upfront capital costs depend significantly on the scale, features, and degree of redundancy sought. Smaller craft breweries may invest from $50-$150K for sufficient capacity needs with room for growth. Initial layouts can evolve in phases if structured appropriately.
Larger tier one producers with extensive distribution centers generally install redundant systems with combined generation capacities exceeding 1,500 Nm3/hour for costs ranging from $500K to $1.5M after incorporating all ancillary equipment.
The profitability analysis proves extremely attractive though when incorporated over a 7-10 year horizon.
Case studies show an average ROI realized in 12-24 months maximally for reasonably efficient installations.
Thereafter the cumulative operating savings keep accelerating. This makes the decision much simpler than other investments requiring 3-5+ years to break even.
Conclusions & Next Steps
This comprehensive guide aimed to equip craft breweries considering investing in modernization for scaling production and distribution with an understanding of how onsite nitrogen gas enhances quality, efficiency, and profitability.
We examined nitrogen’s benefits preventing oxygen degradation, explored nitrogen generation technology producing a cost-effective unlimited supply, discussed production process enhancements, and ran through the compelling financial justification supporting installations.
Key Takeaways:
- Nitrogen exclusion of air prevents defects across brewing
- Generator systems produce 99% pure nitrogen from air at ~10-15% the cost
- Rapid ROIs within 12-24 months from opex savings
- Enables higher-quality specialty styles
- More sustainable than CO2 recovery or bulk delivery options
For most craft breweries using over 500 Nm3 annually of nitrogen, investing $100K-$250K into an appropriately sized onsite generator system is likely to prove the most profitable and operationally flexible solution supportive of 5+ years of growth.
To determine if a brewery nitrogen generator aligns with your quality and expansion objectives, consult a qualified provider such as:
OxyNitra Leading nitrogen generator manufacturer of craft brewing solutions.
Our team can assess needs, provide transparent pricing, calculate ROIs, handle turnkey implementations, and support lasting operations – all tailored to your brewery’s goals.
Now is the ideal time to leverage technology addressing changing market pressures through increased quality, efficiency and environmentally sound production. Reach out today to start the conversation around boosting profitability over the long-term sustainably.
