A beer brewer in the United States is using the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to fine tune its Trappist Monk-style beer.

The four-year-old Sugar Creek Brewing Company in North Carolina is using the technology to stop beer spilling during the bottling process and to prevent bottles being filled inconsistently, according to a blog post on IBM’s web site.

The brewery uses flow meters and Bosch sensors to collect data about fill time, temperature, pH, gravity, pressure, carbonation and fill level. Then IBM Watson IoT Platform then analyses the data.

This helped pinpoint the cause of excessive foaming during bottling, which was wasting beer. The company is also throwing out fewer bottles that weren’t filled to the right level.

That has saved the brewery US$10,000 a month, claims Joe Vogelbacher, CEO and Co-founder of Sugar Creek Brewing Company, in the blog post.

“In addition, we have more controlled, precise fermentations which leads to a better flavor in the bottle,” Vogelbacher stated.

Of course, it’s no surprise to see IoT being used by brewers, given their need to measure and control many aspects of the brewing process.

Australians have also found ways that beer makers can use IoT. For example, Binary Beer sells a sensor that attaches to kegs and uses wireless networking to report beer temperature, keg location and when kegs are ready for collection.

And US company CraftMetrics floats Bluetooth Low Energy sensors inside beer kegs to record the density of the liquid. That helps brewers to monitor the fermentation process, even when they’re away from their brewery.