Microbrewery

Established in 2022 as a research and teaching facility, with support from the School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials and the Faculty of Sciences, Engineering & Technology, the microbrewery at Waite facilitates the integration and collaborative efforts between process/chemical engineers and agriculture, food and wine scientists in the barley breeding, malting, and brewed/ fermented beverages space. 

People standing inside the Microbrewery

Location: Hartley Grove, Urrbrae  

Facilities  

The microbrewery features approximately $100k of new equipment, including:  

  • 6 x 200L fermenters with separate glycol chillers and temperature controls 
  • 500L cooling water system  
  • 270L brewing system including hot liquor, mash lauter tun and boil kettle  
  • A clean in-place system for the fermenters to clean and sanitise between fermentations  

Teaching  

Up to six groups of approximately five students per class will undertake the elective course in Brewery Engineering for both Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) and Master of Engineering (Chemical) students. The course combines science and engineering and allows a true hands-on experience of brewing process operations. Topics of interest include:  

  • Biochemical reactions  
  • Process engineering  
  • Yeast/enzyme kinetics 
  • Heat transfer 
  • Clean in place systems  
  • Fluid and particle mechanics