Beer Production System Requirements--NEED INPUT!

Alright folks--now's your chance to hire four aerospace engineers to design your beer rig.

I am working on my masters degree at night here while working full time. For my current class project, we need to define a product and/or system and work through the entire system design cycle. I'll spare the other, even more boring, details but one of my groupmates suggested a homebrewing system. I was of course on board.

We are in the requirements definition stage, so the goal here is to define WHAT the system should (or should not) do, not HOW. Here's what we've got so far:

1. The system shall produce 19L batches of beer.
2. The system shall be capable of ale production.
3. The system shall be capable of lager production.
4. The system shall produce beer only from water, milled malt, hops, yeast, and adjuncts.
5. The system shall be capable of wort production with a maximum original gravity of 1.100.
6. The system shall be capable of wort production with a minimum original gravity of 1.030.
7. The system shall be capable of achieving target original gravity readings within +/-0.002.
8. The system shall be capable of achieving target original volumes within +/- 1L.
9. The sum of all cleaning activities shall be less than one (1) hour.
10. The system shall be capable of producing one batch every 30 days of ale.
11. The system shall be capable of producing one batch every 90 days of lager.
12. The system shall be capable of storage in a volume measuring L by W by D.
13. The time required from the start of a batch to chilled wort shall take no more than 5 hours.
14. The sum of the development and production costs shall not exceed $1,000.
15. The beer shall be free of infection from organisms excluding the yeast chosen for the batch at all stages of production.
16. The finished beer shall be free of detectable astringent flavors.
17. The finished beer shall be free of detectable levels of fusel alcohols unless desired for the beer style.
18. The finished beer shall be free of detectable levels of esters unless desired by the beer style.
19. The finished beer shall be free of detectable levels of diacetyl unless desired by the beer style.
20. The finished beer shall be free of detectable levels of dimethyl sulfides unless desired by the beer style
21. The finished beer shall not taste metallic.

So, my request of the great community of HBT is to suggest as many new requirements like the examples above as possible, or to suggest modifications to the above requirements. I would greatly appreciate any input!

Thanks!

Hey, Where did you get the specs for my system?

You and everybody else!

One thing I didn't include here was the ability to do multi temp rests or decoction brewing. How important do you think those capabilities are?

hokieengr said:

Alright folks--now's your chance to hire four aerospace engineers to design your beer rig.

• The sum of the development and production costs shall not exceed $1,000.

Click to expand...

Does this $1,000 limit include the fees/salary for the four aerospace engineers?

Nope. They work for beer.