The technology of the beer industry has been changing rapidly to cater to new environmental and economical differences. In the past beer would always be brewed in small scale systems, brewing in batches that are small, which was good when transport was difficult, communities’ small, and drinking had less of a culture than it had today. As humanity became more globally connected by transport and a large social drinking culture emerging the need for more and more beer was needed. Beer production moved to large scale, continuous method brewing, allowing more beer to be produced more quickly. This change in technology and method keeps the beer industry ahead of the consumer demand, and as demand increases the production must be continually increased to keep up. This means there is an opportunity in the future for a technological development that increases the production speed and quantity. If fermentation was sped up, or more of the barley extracted into the Wort while preserving the character of the beer, then the beer industry will be able to make more, beer quicker, and cheaper.

 

Changes in production and cost are the two changes seen most often in the beer industry. Another change that could affect the industry is changes to waste products of the beer process. Efficiency and energy usage also will be a large change in the future with technology increasing the efficiency of the process and decreasing the amount of electricity to produce the end product. The efficiency is more likely to increase in the future as the beer industry wouldn’t get equipment and procedures that make the process slower and more expensive. Energy consumption may increase as more equipment is needed to keep up with consumer demands, but energy consumption per unit of product is more likely to decrease in the same way that efficiency will increase. There is an opportunity to increase the efficiency of the beer production process, creating a cheaper process, allowing for larger profits for the beer production industry. Another opportunity is to reduce the emissions and carbon footprint of the process. This would not only help consumers feel more positive about beer, but also would open opportunities of applying the new systems into other industries, growing the economy and lowering the ecological damage.

 

Beer production leaves behind a few wastage products, including carbon dioxide from fermenting, yeast, and waste solids and liquids. There may be ways to incorporate these waste products into the brewing process, which could replace things that are ongoing costs meaning that the cost is removed from the process. Carbon dioxide doesn’t support aerobic growth and so it could be used to purge aerobes from the products or could be cooled to a fluid to preserve other products. The waste solids are fibrous and insoluble so could be used for textiles or compressed and used as filters. If these low-value by products can be turned into high-value desirables then the value of the industry will jump up dramatically.

 

The major risks that are likely to affect the beer industry in the future are based on two main issues. In the future there is a large chance that new technology will be created that will make current machinery and processes redundant. If new technology makes it cheap, quick, and easy to produce high quality beer at home, then this technology will make all the machinery that the beer industry currently has completely worthless. All the processes and systems to create large quantities of beer will be unnecessary leading to a loss of profit in the beer industry all around. Already there has been development of 3D printed homebrew equipment, making it easy to produce and replace homebrew equipment (Belli, 2014).

 

Another risk that could affect the beer industry is that of the materials used in the production of the machinery used in the factories. Currently the machines are made of food grade metal, usually copper or stainless steel, but are used extensively in our global community. At the current rate we are using copper it has been calculated that the supply of recoverable copper ore could run out in 23 years (Kessler, 2013). This would result in the only available copper being from recycling, which requires a lot of energy to prepare and reform into usable metal. Copper is used extensively in small electronics, meaning recycling would be even more difficult and time consuming. All these factors would drive the price up considerably or stop supply completely, which in turn would reduce or remove profits for any beer companies using copper systems. Stainless steel is less likely to run out as it contains much more abundant metals and ingredients, meaning in the future it may be necessary to replace all factory equipment with stainless steel counterparts. As of right now copper is preferred in the heating sections of the process as copper is excellent for conducting heat, but in the future there might not be a choice, making the system less effective. This would decrease the profit of the system for the industry.