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Automated Barley Inspection at Viking Malt

“We see the VideometerLab with Autofeeder as a gain for our laboratory. It removed the subjectivity and repetition linked to manual inspection and helped us save time. We were always met with a smile by the Videometer employees, and this made our experience with the instrument even better.”

Dorthe Renneberg, Laboratory Coordinator

The VideometerLab with Autofeeder at Viking Malt

For more than 10 years, the Viking Malt malthouse in Vordingborg (once DMG) has been utilizing the VideometerLab with Autofeeder to screen samples of their barley.
This screening helps the technicians ensure standardized, objective, and documented quality of their barley, ensuring better quality, as set forth by the Europen Brewery Convention standards, and, hence, better safety for the malt consumers.
Previously, the inspection was performed manually by checking each kernel individually in a sample.

The objective of Viking Malt in utilising the VideometerLab with Autofeeder was to help avoid subjective inspection and interpretations, which could cause errors or deficiencies in the quality standards. Barley samples are quite heterogenous, which can drive to misinterpretations when inspected manually. The VideometerLab with Autofeeder reduces the risks for subjectivity by standardizing the quality inspection through advanced machine learning and mathematical models. 

“Each year, the malthouse uses approximately 150.000 tons of barley, meaning that the VideometerLab with Autofeeder is used on a daily basis to screen its samples. The instrument analyses a 200g samples in about 10-15 minutes, which has a positive impact for our laboratories in regard to time and labour efficiency.” Explain Dorthe Renneberg and Lene Otte, respectively the Laboratory Coordinator and Quality Manager.

Better Results in Shorter Time

Overall, besides saving time and standardizing the inspection process, Viking Malt believes that the results of their analysis have increased in validity, ensuring the high quality and safety of the barley used for their malting operations.

“We can handle bigger sample dimensions, which is an advantage because barley samples aren’t always homogenous. This means we also get more valid results” say the two technicians.

Fast and Documented
Red Fusarium Detection

“2011 was a year we were particularly happy about having the VideometerLab with Autofeeder” says Lene Otte, Viking Malt Vordingborg’s Quality Manager. She explains that that year harvested barley presented higher amounts of red fusarium, which can later cause excessive foaming in the beer produced.
“Red fusarium can be hard to visualize by the naked eye only. The VideometerLab with Autofeeder really helped us detect an increased number of it in the barley screening process, which we could have otherwise not done manually” stresses Lene Otte, Viking Malt Vordingborg’s Quality Manager

Watch the VideometerLab with Autofeeder in action (min. 4.03) at the VikingMalt Vordingborg plant in the following interview for Danish TV Channel, TV2 Øst.
Learn about the automated quality inspection provided by the instrument and its capability to show every single detail of the barley sample.

Visit the Malting Barley Page!

Learn More!