Efficient use of energy and energy supply are the challenges of the future. Intelligent solutions are particularly important in thermal energy applications to conserve resources and to ensure sustainability. The brewing industry is characterized by thermal energy input in the low temperature range. Although technically and economically obvious, thermal energy has hardly been provided with renewable energy sources in large brewing plants. In the course of several pilot projects, driven by primary energy and CO2 savings, various approaches have been implemented in recent years. This thesis deals with the current state of the art in large brewing plants regarding to energy efficiency and the knowledge gained in process management and plant engineering. Project partner for this thesis was the craft brewery Linko. Since 2005 beer has been brewed in the family business for its own supply and some surrounding guest houses. To make the bewery more efficient and to reduce the workload an automization of the brewing process was carried out in the course of this thesis. Furthermore, the obtained findings regarding to the current state of the art have been evaluated for small scale implementability in the craft brewery Linko. Starting from the existing brewing plant, the changes made to the plant, respectively to the brewery are presented in this thesis. In addition to the automization of the plant, to come up to an efficient mode of operation, the waste heat potentials in the production process regarding time delayed use and alternative energy supplies for the thermal energy use were evaluated.