Siemens Introduces Recipe-Controlled PLC Automation with Braumat

In 1983, German engineering company Siemens introduced a recipe-controlled brewery automation system based on programmable logic controllers and marketed as Braumat. Siemens dates its earlier controller-based automation systems to 1973. The 1983 development brought brewing recipes and programmed process sequences into the control of brewery equipment. Earlier control rooms had already centralized instruments and automated individual operations. PLC-based systems made sequences programmable, allowing a recipe to coordinate process steps and operating settings instead of requiring operators to reproduce each step through switchboards and separate controls. Braumat represents a documented stage in brewing’s transition toward software-directed production, with greater scope for repeating batches consistently. It was part of that broader transition, rather than the beginning of all brewery automation.