关键词: 优化, 变尺度蚁群算法, 全局搜索, 啤酒配方

Abstract: The optimization of beer recipe is a powerful approach to improve the efficiency of beer company.But for recipe optimization problems，the traditional mathematical optimization methods achieve more complex and lack an overall search for the optimal solution robustness.Ant Colony Algorithm（ACA） is fit to solve the combinatorial optimization problems，but it has disadvantage of slow convergence and time-consuming in the process of evolution.Therefore，the variable scale ant colony algorithm is presented and the scope of the search is shorted in the iterative process to improve the efficiency of optimization in the paper.Then the study of new ACA of the formulation of beer recipe is also presented，which in meeting production targets，and achieve the lowest total cost of the raw materials.Simulation results show that compared with the traditional ACA，the improved ACA has more global search capability and better robustness，also has practical value because of its easy implementation.

Key words: optimization, variable scale ant colony algorithm, global search, beer recipe