Inline Yeast & Additive Dosing — Zero Product Damage

The Challenge

VALLAIR's brewery needed to dose multiple additives and yeasts inline during the beer filtration process. Manual and mechanical dosing methods were creating two critical problems: poor dosing accuracy and recurring priming failures that interrupted production.

Yeasts and biological additives are sensitive to mechanical shear. Any pump that passes the product through rotating impellers, progressing cavities, or reciprocating pistons risks damaging the biological structure of the product — affecting final beer quality.

The two-stage filtration process required a pump capable of: (1) pumping a diatomaceous earth suspension to pre-coat the filter, and (2) continuously dosing additives during beer filtration startup — both on the same closed beer line.

The Solution

KECO specified Rotho S Series peristaltic pumps (PSF1, PSF2, and PSF3 models) for VALLAIR's inline dosing application. The peristaltic operating principle was the defining factor: product never contacts the pump mechanism — only the interior of a flexible tube — so biological integrity is fully preserved.

The S Series pumps handle the full two-stage process. In stage one, the pump meters diatomaceous earth suspension through the closed beer line to build the filter pre-coat layer. In stage two, the same pump transitions to continuous additive dosing as beer filtration begins.

Self-priming capability — one of the core advantages of peristaltic design — means the pump restarts instantly after any process interruption without manual re-priming. This alone resolved the recurring downtime that mechanical dosing methods had caused.

Results

Why Peristaltic Pumping Works in Brewing

In brewing and beverage applications, product integrity is non-negotiable. Peristaltic pumps are the only pump type where the fluid is completely isolated from all moving parts — the product passes only through a replaceable hose, never touching rollers, rotors, or seals.

This makes peristaltic pumps ideally suited for:

• Yeast and live culture dosing (shear-sensitive)
• Diatomaceous earth and filter aid slurries (abrasive)
• Hop extract and flavoring additions (precise metering required)
• Tank-to-tank transfer of fermented products

The S Series also supports variable-speed drives (inverter control), enabling precise flow rate adjustment without changing pump hardware — critical for recipe-driven dosing in modern brewing operations.