Plant Tour

Our group toured Summit Brewing Company in St. Paul, MN. Summit Brewing Company is a regional craft brewery that brews a wide selection of beers and even root beer. Their tagline is “Brewing passionately crafted, passionately enjoyed beer since 1986” (http://www.summitbrewing.com). During our tour, we were able to see and hear about several of the work centers required for the brewing process. This helped to gain a better understanding of how their production process works. We also spoke with a tour guide to help provide us with further information on process and quality at Summit Brewing Company.

1. Which of the Product Flow Characteristics (line, batch or project) do they operate by? Or do they use a mixture? If a mixture, what is used for what?

Summit Brewing Company uses a mixture of product flow characteristics that they operate by. The first type of product flow Summit uses is the batch flow process. This process is used during the time in which Summit is making the beer. The batch flow process is, “characterized by production of the product in batches or lots” (Schroeder, pg. 65). During the tour of the Summit plant, it was explained that there are many work centers the beer travels through while in the process of production. Figure 1 is a photo of the kettles used during the brew process.

Figure 1: Kettles in the Kettle Room

The other type of product flow Summit uses is the assembly line process. During the bottling and packaging stages of production, the line process is utilized. This is apparent because Summit uses, “a linear sequence of operations” during these stages (Schroeder, pg. 63). As noticed while on the tour, the equipment used during this time is made to be very efficient, allowing for high volume and standardization.

2. If it’s a line process, describe briefly the major processes the product goes through to get built. If it’s a batch process, briefly describe the major work centers.

During the process of making the beer, Summit uses the batch flow approach. There are seven different work centers the beer must travel through. Our tour guide provided information about these specific process steps. First, the malt barley is sent to the milling station to be crushed. This is called the ‘grist’, according to our tour guide. The grist is sent to the mashing station where it is cooked, turning it into a ‘wort’. The wort is then transferred to the lautering station where the solids are separated from the liquid wort. After being separated from the solids, the wort is brought to an additional station where it is boiled and the hops are added. “The hopped wort is then spun in a whirlpool. This separates the spent hops and unwanted proteins from the brew”, (http://www.summitbrewing.com/culture/brewing-process). Now, the liquid is finally ready to be transported to the fermentation station. During this phase, yeast is added.