The Brewers Journal - Canada edition, Autumn 2016

the magazine for the canadian brewing industry

Brewers T H E

J O U R N A L

AUTUMN 2016 ISSN 2398-6948

Beau's brewery Steve Beauchesne: "oUR PEOPLE ARE EVERYTHING"

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industry trends: 2015 in focus

P.36

clocktower: 20 years young

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tracking: how to prevent keg loss

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he 183rd Oktoberfest has just taken place in Munich, Germany. But, as brewers and drinkers across Canada will be aware, the annual celebration has become much more of a global drinking phenomenon. Brewers up and down the land have turned their hand to brewing Germanic beer styles to mark the time of year or in some cases (Bandit Brewery, I’m looking at you) brewing a whole number of new beers for the occasion.

One company that knows all to well of the draw Oktoberfest holds is Beau’s All Natural Brewing Company. They recently held the the latest iteration of it’s incredibly popular festival that attracts people from far and wide to the area.

The festival featured live music, numerous beer launches, and even has its own app. The Vankleek Hill Fairgrounds event is a big deal, but it’s just one facet of Beau’s role in the wider community. But although Oktoberfest is a major date in the 160-staff Beau’s calendar, the brewery has come a long way since it’s formative stages in 2004.

In our cover feature, Steve Beauchesne, CEO of Beau’s explains that hosting such a major festival seemed something of a pipe dream back in those formative days of 2004, but their values have stayed the same.

Special thanks also to Patrick Fiori, brewmaster at Clocktower who explains that the craft beer boom was more of a whisper in Ottawa when he joined the company back in 2007. He charts his professional development, and that of the brewery in the last decade.

Elsewhere in this issue, we look at the prevalent issue of keg and cask loss. Nearly 10% (9.9%) of beer in Canada last year was sold on draught, according to the Beer Canada Industry Trends report.

But we are in an industry where the loss of kegs and cask vessels is rife, and that is something of an understatement. Many of these disappear in the bar and pub trade. It’s serious and it is simply unsustainable, putting many business, especially the smaller ones, under undue pressure.

This cost burden is a serious problem.

The mounting bill affects everyone, including pubs, licensees and their customers. But it seems that it’s largely an issue that has been either ignored, underestimated or avoided in being addressed.

However, companies in and around the brewing

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Editor's choice Clocktower Brewmaster Patrick Fiori discusses Ontario's changing beer landscape, and how his experiences overseas have helped shape his approach to brewing Page 36

industry are offering products and services that are helping to eliminate these losses, and the breweries are seeing the benefits.

We also look at how small micro breweries to the larger companies producing thousands of barrels a week, they all face a wealth of on-going hygiene, regulatory and business challenges.

And maintaining a clean brewery, so that it can produce a consistent, top quality product, is at the heart of the business. It goes without saying that regardless of the changes taking place in the industry brewery hygiene is still of paramount importance to breweries.

Finally, we are proud for this, our second issue of Brewers Journal Canada, to be going out to breweries across the country.

Thank you for all of your support last time out and we plan to go from strength-to-strength, so your feedback on how we can improve is very welcome.

Thanks again!

Tim Sheahan Editor

Autumn 2016 | Brewers Journal Canada | 3

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without the express prior written consent of the publisher. The Brewers Journal Canada ISSN 2398-6948 is published bimonthly by Reby Media, 42 Crouchfield, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP1 1PA, UK. Subscription records are maintained at Reby Media, 42 Crouchfield, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP1 1PA, UK. The Brewers Journal accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of statements or opinion given within the Journal that is not the expressly designated opinion of the Journal or its publishers. Those opinions expressed in areas other than editorial comment may not be taken as being the opinion of the Journal or its staff, and the aforementioned accept no responsibility or liability for actions that arise therefrom.

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Cover story

26 - Steve Beauchesne, CEO of Beau's All Natural talks us through the first ten years, and why the brewery's team is as important as ever

news 07- Industry news Comments 15 - Andrew Clark from Aligned Insurance talks risk 16 - Renaissance Bioscience on yeast 18 - Brewing a Helles, by Rob Lovatt 20 - Econse discuss wastewater management business insight: beer trends 12 - Transition, growth and development in the Canadian bewing industry meet the brewer: clocktower 36 - Why 2016 has been a landmark year for Clocktower, and how brewmaster Patrick Fiori drives it forward the big interview: sierra nevada 44- Brewery ambassador Steve Grossman on the importance of exports and why he wants drinkers to know more than the company's Pale Ale

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view from the uk: lost and grounded brewer 50- Bristol's newest brewery on expectation, new beers, and the road ahead foreign focus: Brewery Da Brabandere 56 - Brewery De Brabandere talk sour beers technology: keg tracking 62 - We place the spotlight on the latest products and services to help breweries track and protect their costly keg assets technology: hygiene 70 - The importance of brewery hygiene and some key technology in this space science: Pediococcus and Saccharomyces 76 - Timothy Woolley takes a closer look at Pediococcus and Saccharomyces

Autumn 2016 | Brewers Journal Canada | 5

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DME Brewing Solutions merges with Newlands Systems

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ME Brewing Solutions (DME) and Newlands Systems (NSI) have joined forces.

DME Brewing Solutions (DME) and Newlands Systems (NSI) have collaborated to allow both businesses to “fortify their position as global leaders in the craft brewing equipment manufacturing industry”.

DME president and CEO Peter Toombs assumes the role of CEO while Brad McQuhae takes the position of senior vice president of innovation for the combined organization, effective immediately.

Toombs explained: “This amalgamation is a defining step in history for DME and NSI. Both companies have been manufacturing world class microbrewing equipment solutions for over 25 years and are highly respected within the craft beer industry.

“We now have the opportunity to expand upon what both com-

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panies have built and become even stronger in the future.”

The merger is designed to strengthen existing comprehensive solutions to customers worldwide while capitalizing on economies of scale in areas such as purchasing, technical services and administration.

Operations will continue at the firms’ respective facilities in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and Abbotsford, British Columbia.

Additional plans for a new state of the art 50,000sft facility in South Carolina, U.S employing more than 330 people, are underway, too.

Toombs told Brewers Journal Canada the “strategic partnership between our two complementary businesses will allow both DME & NSI to fortify their position as global leaders in craft brewing equipment manufacturing industry”.

He added: “We at DME and NSI recognize that we have a number customer types and needs and our

larger footprint now allows us to provide best in class quality, service and innovations to all of our customer types.

“Furthermore, we have the opportunity to make significant investments in technology which will improve the quality of our products and our additional capacity will allow us to meet market demands in a timely manner.”

He also told us that the move will result in collaboration to enable both DME and NSI to produce the highest quality products.

“We are extremely fortunate to now have three state of the art manufacturing facilities allowing us to maximize output and production efficiency,” he said.

McQuhae added: “We’re extremely fortunate to have been presented with the opportunity to unite with our respected counterparts; DME Brewing Solutions, We look forward to a bright future together.”

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BIG ROCK OPENS NEW ONTARIO FACILITY

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ig Rock Brewery has opened its new brewery on The Queensway, Etobicoke in Ontario. Calgarybased Big Rock Brewery celebrated Toronto Beer Week with the opening of its new brewery in Ontario.

Visitors last weekend were given the chance to look inside its brewhouse, meet its Ontario Brewmaster, Connor K. Patrick, as well as its Head Brewmaster, Paul Gautreau.

There was also the opportunity to taste some of its signature beers, take part in brewery tours, as well as indulge in beer samples, food and live music.

They added: “Big Rock Brewery founder Ed McNally, a retired lawyer and hobby farmer, had a vision to create a craft brewery long before there was even such a term, way back in 1985.

“Fast forward 30 years later, and

we are now proud to have breweries in Vancouver, Calgary, and Etobicoke – making us one of Canada’s largest, independent, and true craft brewers.

“We craft our beer with our brewmasters’ skill and imagination, utilizing local ingredients and innovative processes, all rooted in Ed’s original passion for excellence and in doing things differently and better.”

COLLINGWOOD ROLLS OUT 2016 VINTAGe ale

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he Collingwood Brewery has marked the end of summer with the launch of the 2016 edition of its Vintage Ale. Collingwood, Ontario-based The Collingwood Brewery has released the latest iteration of its Vintage Ale. The 6.9% beer features Beaver Valley Gold honey and Cascade and Chinook hops.

The brewery explained: “Georgian Bay is truly beautiful at the end of summer. The days become shorter, a new season is on the horizon,

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and you can just feel the changes coming.

“This anticipation of a change in season is not lost at The Collingwood Brewery as we are busy brewing our Vintage Ale, a local favourite. This beer boasts all-natural, local ingredients, and is jam packed with fresh hops and local honey to create a truly unique harvest ale.

“After adding 60kg of Beaver Valley Gold honey per brew, Head Brewer, Chris Freeman, added a generous amount of locally grown, fresh Cascade and Chinook hops after fermentation. The hops were as

fresh as they get, collected the same day they were harvested at BigHead Hops in Meaford.

“Wandering around this organic hop farm gave us an even bigger appreciation for this finished product: to see where the hops come from, the time and care it takes to get them from seedling to established hop is a remarkable endeavour. It makes you want to drink more local beer and appreciate our area for what it offers.”

The Collingwood Brewery launched Vintage Ale at an open house party in late September.

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TOOTH AND NAIL launches FIRST ANNIVERSARY BEER

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ooth and Nail Brewing Company has launched a new beer to help celebrate its first anniversary.

Ottawa-based Tooth and Nail Brewing Company has unveiled a new beer, ’Eerste’, to mark it’s first anniversary.

The 5.6% beer is a blend of other beers the company has produced and is available in 500ml bottles.

Matt Tweedy, owner and brewmaster of Tooth and Nail Brewing Company, explained: “For our Anniversary beers, we have decided that each year we would present a beer with several components.

“It has to be a blend of other beers that we’ve made, must have a barrel component, probably some brettanomyces, and must be from the Belgian tradition.

“This year’s version was called Eerste (“first” in Flemish/Dutch), and was a blend of barrel-aged Valor, Streif, White Flag, Discretion, and a kettle soured beer brewed solely for blending purposes.

“Two strains of brett add a funky element. We feel that the end result tastes like what we believe the earliest of farmhouse saisons would have tasted like.”

The company has also recently won awards at both the Ontario Brewing Awards and Canada Beer Awards.

These include Silver and the Farm House Dark category for its ‘Sustenance’ beer, and Silver in the Belgian Style Quadruple category for its ‘Truce’, at the Ontario Brewing Awards.

In the Canada Beer Awards,

Nickel Brook Brewing Co rebrands Burlington Brewery as The Funk Lab

for their Uber Raspberry Berliner Weisse, a sour German wheat beer aged on Canadian raspberries.

“The delicious Uncommon Element Brett Pale Ale and Brett Saison will be year round staples of the Funk Lab, with other unique recipes, such as a Cucumber-Lime Gose, being released throughout the year.”

Nickel Brook Brewing Co has converted its Burlington Brewery to a sour and funk facility.

Nickel Brook Brewing Co’s Burlington Brewery at 864 Drury Lane, Burlington has been rebranded as The Funk Lab. The move enables the brewery to focus solely on sour and funk beer production in Burlington.

Nickel Brook’s core beers that include ‘Headstock IPA’ and ‘Naughty Neighbour APA’ are produced at the Hamilton, Ontario facility it owns with Collective Arts Brewing.

They explained: “The Funk Lab is dedicated to brewing small-batch funk and sour beers using rare and wild yeast strains, as well as barrel-ageing beers such as fan-favourites Cuvée and Winey Bastard.

“Nickel Brook has already made waves with some of its earliest funk creations, including winning a Gold medal at the Canadian Brewing Awards

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Econse pairs with St Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences Canadian water purification company Econse has joined forces with St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences (River Institute) to launch the Craft Beer Waterprints project.

Econse has tied with St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences (River Institute) to launch the project at the Ontario Craft Brewers Conference in Toronto this October.

Craft Beer Waterprints measure and analyzes the wastewater that craft breweries produce to help improve their water quality and make it easier

Tooth And Nail secured silver in the English Style Pale Ale class for ‘Tenacity’ while ‘Valor’ was recognised in the French and Belgian Style Saison category, among others.

to meet local wastewater targets.

The River Institute received funding in addition to both technical and business advisory services from the National Research Council of Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC’s IRAP) to support the Craft Brewers Waterprints project.

Louis Savard, program leader of applied research and technical services with the River Institute, explained that the company has focused on efficiency. “We’ve been focused on practical research initiatives that can be used by industry quickly and easily.

“Our goal from the year-long project is to give craft brewers results within a month that they can apply right away in a step-wise approach to wastewater management.”

Derek Davy who heads up business development at Econse, explained: “We are excited to partner with the River Institute to help small to midsized breweries understand their waterprint so that they can make informed decisions about their operations and have a positive impact on their community.”

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MOOSEHEAD TO BUILD BREWERY CONCEPT IN SAINT JOHN

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oosehead Breweries is to build a 10,000 square feet openconcept brewery and taproom to enable the company to move in to small batch brews.

Moosehead Breweries has confirmed that it will open its new smallbatch brewery in Saint John, New Brunswick, adjacent to Pugsley slip.

Moosehead President Andrew Oland, said: “Returning to the Uptown Saint John area is meaningful and we couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate our company’s milestone anniversary than the opening of this brewery.

“This project is bigger than Moosehead. It’s about the role we can play on Water Street, in the Port of Saint John and in this vibrant and dynamic city we call home. We are so grateful to the City and the Port for their support.”

Moosehead’s Main Street West location will remain the company’s home and principal brewery.

The new small-batch brewery, which is pitched as a centre for education and innovation, will include

The new Moosehead brewery and taproom will be located in Saint John, New Brunswick

two small-scale brewing systems.

Thus will allow the company to explore new product development and new brewing techniques.

The company has also announced the appointment of MackayLyons Sweetapple of Halifax as the architect for the project and FCC Construction of Saint John as the construction manager.

The build is expected to get underway in early 2017, and the

brewery will open later that year.

“We are very excited to have secured such a wonderful location.” explained Patrick Oland, chief financial officer, Moosehead Breweries.

“This beautiful waterfront site in the heart of the city will allow us to build a destination brewery that showcases the Moosehead brewing experience. We can’t wait to open our doors and welcome the public next year.”

BLOOM PUSHES FOR BETTER WATER MANAGEMENT

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ntario-based sustainability and resource management firm Bloom has developed a comprehensive online resource called Water & Beer to make it easier for brewers to solve water problems coming and going.

Bloom, which works actively with Ontario industries to find practical and affordable business solutions that deliver economic, environmental and social benefits, has launched Water & Beer.

It is a practical online platform designed to help craft brewers better manage their water and ingredient use.

The platform is pitched as the ‘go to’ resource for craft brewers that recognize that water management

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is important for their business, their customers and their communities.

Bloom developed Water & Beer in collaboration with Ontario Craft Brewers, individual craft breweries, government agencies, and technology and solution providers.

The company explained: “Ontario craft brewers who pride themselves on making all natural beers without additives or preservatives understand the value of good clean water. They also recognize the importance of being environmental stewards and adopting sustainable water use practices within their operations.

“Water use and wastewater management can present craft brewers with environmental and economic challenges. Successful solutions to those challenges start with an

understanding of the Ins, Outs and In-Betweens of good water management.”

Michael Fagan, senior VP of Bloom, added that improved water management practices begin when a craft brewer understands the Ins, Outs and In-Betweens of production and cleaning.

He explained: “If a craft brewery loses sight of this, they can spend valuable time and money applying band-aid and ‘end of pipe’ approaches to address the symptoms rather than fixing the problems upstream.

“By taking some progressive steps early, craft breweries can reduce operational headaches and a whole lot of pain later. It’s that clean and simple.”

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MEHEEN MANUFACTURING JOINS FORCES WITH WILD GOOSE CANNING

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eheen Manufacturing has combined businesses with Wild Goose Canning.

Wild Goose Canning has joined forces with Meheen, a move that enables the new business to offer canning and bottling lines to customers.

Meheen and Wild Goose confirmed that both businesses would continue to offer and support their current products.

Going forward, they said they plan to harness their “unified experience, industry knowledge and ingenuity to build on their tradition of innovation”.

Dan Cleary, president of Meheen, explained: “We’re thrilled about the Meheen-Wild Goose partnership and the opportunities it creates for our customers and employees.

“Both Meheen and Wild Goose are passionate about supporting craft, and together we’ll be uniquely positioned to do that.

“We know some craft producers prefer cans, some bottles and many want both. Our team will now be empowered to help microbreweries and other craft producers select and purchase the world’s best packaging solutions – cans, bottles or both – for their needs and preferences.”

“This combination makes tre-

mendous sense on so many levels,” added Alexis Foreman, the President and one of Wild Goose’s founders.

Foreman said: “Wild Goose and Meheen have crossed paths for years, and we’ve come to recognize we have a lot in common – from our dedication to serving craft, to our tradition of innovation, to a long list of common customers.

“When the opportunity to join forces arose, we immediately saw the benefits it would generate.

We’re looking forward to taking advantage of the best both companies have to offer to better serve our customers.”

REFINED FOOL BREWING SET FOR SECOND SITE

when it opened in 2013, is set to open a second site.

The brewery’s co-owner, Nathan Colquhoun, told the council that the business is focused on revitalizing the city’s downtown and job creation, reported Blackburn News.

The council praised the city’s first craft brewery on its success to date, which has helped pave the way for the

brewery to open a new site on Christina Street, Sarnia. .

Councillor Anne-Marie Gillis was impressed with the “professionalism” of the brewery’s proposal, which spanned 202pp, according to local press.

The Refined Fool Brewing Company’s site at 153 Christina St would be focus on beer production for restaurant and LCBO deliveries.

The Refined Fool Brewing Company is on course to open a second facility following a positive meeting with the city's council.

The Refined Fool Brewing Company, which became Sarnia Ontario's first brewery in more than a hundred years

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HALO BREWERY LAUNCHES SYSTEM OVERLOAD

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oronto-based Halo Brewery has launched its latest Imperial IPA. Halo Brewery, based on Wallace Avenue in Toronto, has unveiled ‘System Overload’, an 8% Imperial IPA. The beer is nearly entirely dryhopped, bar a small bittering addition, with Citra.

The brewery explained: “System Overload is intended to be a pure expression of this unique hop that

is known for its juicy tropical, citrus and lychee fruit flavours.

“As a result of limited Citra hop availability, it is not expected that this beer will be brewed again until 2017.”

Halo is a small brewery, tasting room, and bottle shop located in Toronto’s Junction Triangle.

The brewery added: “We make ales that are rooted in the Belgian and American brewing philosophies of artistry and experimentation,

which is just a fancy way of saying that we refuse to let the same old beer styles restrict us.

“We use fruit, spices, and other unique ingredients in our recipes to complement the flavours of our malt, hops, and yeast.

“The more interesting the ingredient, the better. So if you happen to be a gene-splicing scientist hellbent on creating the latest novel fruit or fermentative microorganism, we should talk.”

BANDIT BREWERY unveil OKTOBERFEST BEERS

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oronto, Ontario-based Bandit Brewery has used the Autumn season to introduce four new German beers to celebrate Oktoberfest.

Bandit Brewery, which is located in the heart of Roncesvalles, kicked off Oktoberfest with a party on 1 October.

The 10bbl brewery launched four

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new beers, an Altbier, Dunkles Bock, Maibock and Vienna Lager, as part of the Oktoberfest celebrations.

They explained that the time of year enabled the brewery to turn its hand to a number of different beer styles.

It said: “We are a group of passionate beer heads who don’t take ourselves too seriously and we

focus on making great beer we’d like to drink ourselves. Our goal is to create an open and relaxed space where people can get together and enjoy themselves."

They added: “With October, we couldn’t help but share our love of German beer.

"We introduced four classic German style beers to our menu.”

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SIDE LAUNCH SCOOPS TOP BREWERY ACCOLADE

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ollingwood-based Side Launch Brewing Company has been awarded the ‘Canadian Brewery of The Year for 2016’ title.

Side Launch Brewing Company, which was established in May 2014, has been crowned the best brewery in Canada for 2016 at a recent awards event.

The award caps a successful first half of the year for the brewery, located at 200 Mountain Road, which sealed three gold medals for their Side Launch Wheat, Side Launch Huronic Tripel, and Side Launch Germanic Bock.

In April at the Ontario Brewing Awards, the brewery took home four medals with Side Launch Huronic Tripel winning Gold and Side Launch Mountain Lager, Side Launch Dark Lager and the barrelaged Side Launch Dunkelbach all

scoring bronze medals.

While in early May, the Ontario Beer Guide, released by co-authors Jordan St. John and Robin Leblanc named the 30-staff business the “Top Brewery in Ontario” Chuck Galea, V.P. of Sales and Marketing, explained: “We are very excited and honoured to have won this award. We have had a huge year so far in regards to awards and we

are really excited at the notion of us helping put Collingwood on the map as a craft beer destination.

“Winning all this hardware and being recognized as the top brewery in our province has everything to do with the beer that our Head Brewer, Michael Hancock, makes. In addition, we have an amazing crew and are very proud of what we have accomplished.”

BIG RIG BEERS TO HIT ONTARIO GROCERY STORES

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ig Rig Brewery is introducing three of its beers into grocery stores across Ontario.

Alpha Bomb, Canadian Amber and Salute 1179 from Big Red Brewery hit select Ontario grocery stores in August The beers, that are available in 473ml cans, comprise the 6.2% Alpha Bomb, a 6.2% unfiltered IPA that uses a trio of hops, and is double dry-hopped for a big, fragrant punch.

Also in the mix is Canadian Amber, a 5.2% amber ale with light malt sweetness and balanced hops to allow its depth of flavour to shine while Salute 1179 is a 4% light lager based on the brewery’s Gold Medal-winning pilsner.

Lon Ladell, Big Rig Brewery’s coowner and brewmaster explained: “Having the ability to sell beer in grocery stores across Ontario has been a game changer. It allows us to sell beers to the public that up

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until now may not have been available in retail spaces outside of our brewery store.

“They are all quite different stylistically, but they showcase different strengths of our brewery. Alpha Bomb blends multiple hop varieties to craft something greater than the sum of its parts; Canadian Amber is

malt-forward, balanced and accessible; and Salute 1179 is an incredibly refreshing craft lager that doesn’t sacrifice any flavour. I think we’ve succeeded to create something everyone can enjoy!”

Alpha Bomb and Salute 1179 will cost $2.95 per can, and Canadian Amber for $2.85 per can.

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FILTEC LAUNCHES PRESSURE DETECTION UNIT

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n-line inspection firm Filtec has launched Auratec, a pressure detection unit designed for glass beverage and aluminium can containers.

Filtec has unveiled Auratec, a pressure detection unit for glass beverage and aluminium can containers.

The unit is a laser-based inspection system that detects pressure inconsistencies in glass and can containers.

It uses multi-point laser scanning technology to generate 3D maps of container surfaces, detecting pressure variations with extremely high

accuracy.

According to the manufacturer, Auratec accurately performs with nearly a six sigma margin detecting acceptable vs unacceptable common aluminium beverage cans.

“Beneath its compact profile, the Auratec packs the powerful punch of a high intelligence machine,” explained Leon Coetzee, vice president of product marketing at Filtec.

He added: “The Auratec stands out for its ability to produce powerful 3D assessments of the container’s pressure profile, at inspection speeds exceeding 1200 containers per minute.

“The system is not affected by container positioning variances on the X, Y, or Z axis, thus being very tolerant to normal production line conditions.

“The Auratec obsoletes traditional analogue or acoustic based technologies, replacing them with an ultrahigh resolution 3D vision solution that also excels in robustness and longevity.”

Available for delivery in the fourth quarter of this year. Auratec’s advanced pressure detection system can be utilised as as a stand alone inspection unit or integrated with existing Filtec products.

COAST MOUNTAIN BREWING OPEN FOR BUSINESS

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oast Mountain Brewing, a new brewery and taproom, has opened for business in Function Junction, Whistler.

A new brewery and taproom designed to share “the very best and most memorable beers with family and friends” has opened in Whistler.

Coast Mountain Brewing came into being when a husband and wife team started out as homebrewers with a passion in Permber-

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ton, BC. They explained: “We were able to spin that love of water, malt, hops and yeast into full-time careers.

Continually immersing ourselves into our passion, we ventured far and wide seeking the very best pints we could find, brew and enjoy.

“Knowing we had found our true love, it was time to write the business plan and set a course for what would inevitably become Coast Mountain Brewing.

“Simply said, we love what we do and we love sharing the very best and most memorable beers with family and friends.”

As Canadian Beer News reports, the brewery has been founded by Kevin Winter, who has previously worked at Mission Springs Brewing and Whistler Brewing.

Coast Mountain Brewing is located on a 2,300sqm facility has has an annual production capacity go 170,000 litres.

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Risk

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Safety First In contrast to the wide variety of beers being brewed by Canadian breweries, the variability in the risk issues and the insurance coverages needed to protect a brewery are fairly consistent and similar from one brewery to the next, explains Andrew Clark, president and CEO of Toronto, Ontario-headquartered Aligned Insurance.

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ntrepreneurs are often described as passionate, driven and sometimes eccentric and those entering the Canadian beer industry are no different. Often motivated by a love for beer and a dream to share it with others people are starting breweries on a regular basis and it is resulting in rapid growth in the craft brewery sector and making a positive impact on the Canadian economy.

Also, much like the diversity of brewers the diversity of the beers being brewed is rapidly increasing too!. Whether it’s specialty cask finished, extreme “hoppiness” or the incorporation of artisanal or unusual ingredients in the brewing process, the variety of beers being brewed has never been greater.

Thankfully, Canadian beer drinking consumers are embracing these entrepreneurs and their creative beers.

New breweries & brewpubs seem to be popping up almost daily and the number of breweries in Canada has grown considerably in the last three-five years and shows no sign of slowing down!

Small Business Accelerator – a division of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre of the University of British Columbia – reports that “according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in their report, The Canadian Brewery Industry, approximately 10 million Canadians drink beer and the sales of goods manufactured by the Canadian brewery industry in 2009 were worth $4,671.2 million. The Brewers Association of Canada states that beer brewed in Canada accounts for 1.2% of Canada’s GDP, 190,000 direct and indirect jobs and $4.3 billion in tax revenue.”1 Because of this trend, insurance brokers and insurance companies have begun to develop and offer specialized “Craft Brewery” Insurance policies that address numerous exposures/risks faced by this growing industry. However, in contrast to the wide variety of beers being brewed the variability in the risk issues and the insurance coverages needed to protect a brewery are fairly consistent/similar from one brewery to the next.

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Key Brewery Insurance Products:

• Commercial General Liability (CGL): The CGL policy is a product which nearly all businesses do or should purchase as it protects the business from liability arising from bodily injury and/or property damage caused to third parties as a result of the operations of the business. CGL insurance is particularly important for breweries because this is where product Liability coverage can be found.

Product liability issues are considered by many to be the #1 risk breweries face.

The liability from products manufactured is deeply entrenched in our legal system as established through Donoghue v Stevenson, which is a famous and an important legal case for all breweries to be aware of, and ironically was related to the brewing of ginger beer, as it effectively established legal precedent that manufacturers can be held liable for illness, injuries etc. that result from the use and/or consumption of products.

• Commercial Property Insurance: Although the value of the assets in a small business are often minimal the importance of those assets like ingredients, bottles, finished product are of greater “value” when organizations are small as often a considerable amount of time and investment is spent prior to the first batch and the theft or destruction of the assets could be financially crippling to an organization. Ensuring sufficient insurance to cover the chance of theft or destruction of assets is key for any/ breweries.

In addition to the above there are numerous other risk considerations like: how to handle a product recall situation, supply chain risk considerations. potential liability from employees etc., but the key to managing the many risks inherent in starting and operating a brewery is to identify risks, prioritize them based on their threat to your business and then to explore options to manage those risks with the guidance of a risk professional with the appropriate experience and expertise.

Sources referenced: https://sba.ubc.ca/blog/ industry-overview-craft-breweries-microbreweries

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y e a s t

The Emerging Revolution in Yeast for Craft Brewers The emerging revolution in brewer’s yeast means even more intriguing variations in craft beer styles and flavours, as well as improved quality control and consistency, are shortly on the way, says Cormac O’Cleirigh, Chief Business Development Officer at Renaissance Bioscience

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ith the majority of beer’s flavour and style created by yeast, it’s no stretch to say that yeast is a large part of what puts the “craft” in craft brewing. What’s exciting for craft brewers is that the emerging revolution in brewer’s yeast means even more intriguing variations in craft beer styles and flavours, as well as improved quality control and consistency, are shortly on the way.

With more breweries operating in the U.S. now than at any time in its history, and amid an ever-increasing consumer appetite for diversity in craft beers, the industry is about to get a helping hand from the oldest and perhaps most traditional of ingredients. A new golden age of yeast is upon us.

Yeast has unwittingly been used by people for millennia as an essential ingredient in foods and beverages such as bread, wine, beer and cider.

However, up until now we’ve been realizing only a fraction of yeast’s intrinsic potential. In fact, it’s only in the last 150 years that we have even begun to understand yeast’s valuable biodiversity — although this hasn’t always been capitalized on, as evidenced by the fact that only a handful of commercial yeast strains are responsible for the vast majority of the beer produced globally.

During that time, these dominant strains have been gradually selected for easy-to-quantify and industrially advantageous traits: temperature tolerance, neutral flavour profiles, attenuation and flocculation, and ultimately the ability to consistently produce and deliver large quantities of beer. Unfortunately, this has often been at the expense of diversity.

Given yeast’s long-established position in the beverage industries, it’s easy to take this microbe for granted and assume it’s a simplistic ingredient.

In fact, the opposite is true. The impact yeast has is truly transformative — just think about the difference between wort and beer. It is ultimately yeast that is

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responsible for turning hopped wort into beer with all the power and subtlety, boldness and nuance we know it can have.

However, with yeast traditionally being pigeonholed as a workhorse ingredient — applied principally in large, commodity-type applications such as baking and brewing — it’s hardly surprising that less than 1% of commercially viable yeast strains are currently in production. While this might be desirable from an industrial efficiency viewpoint, it does limit the variety of the end products that can be developed and produced commercially at any scale.

That needn’t be the case. What we’ve failed to capitalize on fully to date is the enormous range of natural biodiversity and interesting traits inherent in the wider yeast population. Similar to barley or hop breeding programs recent improvements in yeast technology — particularly in the areas of classical breeding and directed evolution, in which natural diversity can be utilized to unlock and optimize traits of interest — have led to some truly remarkable

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Y e a s t

advances in commercial strain development.

Correcting a desirable but otherwise malfunctioning trait through adaptive evolution is one such technical advance. Another involves introducing a new trait into an existing strain through breeding, all the while maintaining the background strain’s functional performance and strengths. In fact, these classical techniques are now a preferred method of choice when it comes to complex or multiple traits (such as flavour and aroma). Advances in this area are being used to generate strains that brew as normal —or better yet produce enhanced flavour and aroma profiles — all the while offering clean labelling.

So, with all of the opportunity offered by applying new technology to classical yeast biology, what is the future of brewer’s yeast? The answer: better, exciting new functionality and traits. Given the ongoing need of craft breweries to address consumers’ insatiable desire for new flavours, the advances in strain development should be welcome news to brewmasters and their customers. Indeed, the future can look

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C o m m en t

forward to yeast not only as it is now, but also how it could be: delivering on its promise to open up a world of new tastes for the global craft brewing industry.

About the author Cormac O’Cleirigh, Ph.D., is Chief Business Development Officer at Renaissance Bioscience of Vancouver, BC, a leading global yeast technology company that develops yeast-based platform technologies to solve industrial efficiency and consumer health problems in the food, beverage, alcohol, biofuel and pharmaceutical industries.

Bright Brewer’s Yeast is a wholly owned subsidiary of Renaissance that focuses on breeding, marketing and selling innovative brewer’s yeasts to brewmasters around the world to help them enhance their product flavour, quality and consistency. Prior to joining Renaissance, Dr. O’Cleirigh was Head of Business Development & Innovation for AB Mauri Global Bakery Ingredients.

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H e ll e s

THE ART OF HELLES Despite brewing a Vienna Lager, Smoked lager, Oktoberfest, Pilsner and numerous Weisse beers at the UK brewery Thornbridge, head brewer and production director Rob Lovatt has only now turned his hand to brewing a Helles. Here, he talks us through the brewing process and what makes the style so delicate and drinkable

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f I was to sit down and try articulate what made a world class Helles, I would probably use adjectives such as delicate, soft, deft and rounded. I probably wouldn’t use those words to describe most craft beers and certainly not any mass produced lagers.

Other than buying imported German Helles, it is almost impossible to enjoy a wellcrafted, authentic German style example in the UK. Unfortunately, your average drinker really hasn’t been exposed to such a perfectly crafted beer. UK lagers from the big brewers are so far removed from the style it’s an absolute travesty. With frequent visits to Bavaria, when I was a young brewer, and with some help from some amazing brewers in Bavaria, I really got a feel for German brewing traditions and the thought processes behind these beers and I now feel very comfortable brewing almost any German style.

Despite brewing an amazing range of forwardthinking ales, Thornbridge didn’t have a ‘Germanic style’ in its core selection. When I took the helm six years ago, I naturally wanted to add lager styles to the already impressive range. Since then, we have brewed a Vienna Lager, Smoked lager, Oktoberfest, Pilsner and numerous Weisse beers. I cannot believe it took me until this year to brew a Helles, the most popular style in Bavaria by far.

I remember years ago an old brewer told me that brewing is all about separation. I don’t think until the last few years as I have grown older it truly made sense to me. When I talk about separation, I’m talking about separation from start to finish.

When we mash in, we are separating the sugars from the malt. That’s not as simple as you might think. We mash in at a specific temperature in order to obtain the right spectrum of sugars, so: a) We hit the correct final gravity, which will do so much for mouth feel and drinkability; b) We hit the right original gravity, so the ABV is what we’re aiming for.

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Not only is temperature important, but also pH and liquor-to-grist ratio should be correct. It’s also important we mash in as gently as possible, so we don’t cause any unnecessary sheer forces, damaging the husk. Control of all these parameters will prevent us from extracting any undesirable compounds resulting in astringency in the finished beer.

Onto lautering, which is separating the sweet wort we have produced during mashing from the malt. It’s important to have the right bed loading and raking profile, so we produce a relatively bright wort which is free of undesirable compounds, but still has the desired extract. I personally believe that a traditional infusion mash will produce the best quality worts, but careful and controlled lautering can still produce a fantastic quality wort (I would need an entire blog post to put my argument forward!).

There are a whole multitude of reasons why we boil as brewers, but, in terms of separation, we want to separate as much of the trub as possible from the wort that goes into the fermenter and also evaporate undesirable compounds. So a good aggressive boil, with sufficient evaporation, the correct level of copper finings and a well-designed whirlpool ale aid with this process. I personally don’t favour some modern German brewhouses which concentrate on efficiency, where evaporation rates are low and concentrate on only the elimination of DMS as a measure of efficacy.

This, in my opinion, results in a distinct flavour profile and a poorer quality wort. I have spoken to other lager brewers who also advocate an aggressive boil throughout and good evaporation; I guess the proof is there to be drunk.

We are so careful to eliminate trub from our lighter German beers. We watch each cast out, to make sure none of the trub from the whirlpool is taken through into the fermenter. Rapid wort chilling also ensures the formation and optimal removal of cold break. We also employ a flotation vessel and trub off the first few mornings of fermentation. I even know of brewers in Bavaria who skim off the hop drive on the initial

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day of fermentation, as this is supposed to contain astringent compounds, but this is a step too far for us!

There are of course other considerations when making a Helles. The use of German Pilsner malt, the choice of yeast strain, the choice of hops. However, with the quality of raw materials at hand for brewers these days, only a fool could pick badly here! We are well known for using Bamberger Malt for our Germanic styles and the hops we use for Lukas at the moment are Hallertau Tradition, from the Hallertau region of Bavaria.

Onto fermentation - I know, from experience, when I lowered what would be considered a relatively cool fermentation temperature from 12C to 9C across the board for my lager styles, the improvement in perception of softness was significant. Low fermentation temperature reduce the already low ester formation and result in a much cleaner, more delicate beer. What is absolutely essential though, is getting a solid fermentation at these low temperatures, as a sluggish formation could do more damage than good.

After the primary fermentation we lager our Helles for five weeks. During this process the yeast slowly metabolises by-products, which were produced during the fermentation, and utilises any remaining gravity.

Prolonged lagering essentially smooths out any rough edges and creates a much more delicate product. I have read many times that prolonged lagering is not strictly necessary, but the proof is well and truly in the pudding here. I defy anyone to show me a Helles which is lagered for a minimum amount of time which can complete with a world class Helles. We also make sure we only carbonate naturally by krausening each batch. This takes some jiggery-pokery with the brewing schedule sometimes, but ensures a much finer carbon dioxide bubble, which breaks out of solution much more slowly when compared to forced carbonation.

Probably the most obvious example of separation is producing a bright beer, using either filtration or centrifugation. This style is most commonly enjoyed sparklingly bright. Not only is this demanded from an aesthetical point of view, but also yeast masks flavour and alters the mouth feel (try drinking a ‘Kristal Weisse’ next to a normal Weisse beer). I know there is a trend amongst a section of the craft brewing fraternity for cloudy beer, but I’m not convinced it’s cloudy for the right reasons. I would advocate a tank beer if the yeast count was tightly controlled and supply chain could guarantee the product was drunk

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fresh. We might still brew a ‘Keller’ version of our Helles at some point in future, but I still need my arm twisting a little bit tighter…

The correct water profile is also very important. I remember brewing with relatively hard water and after tasting a lager in Bamberg, which used an RO plant to produce soft water, invested in a RO plant straight away. Our brewing liquor in Bakewell is (thankfully) naturally very soft. What difference does soft water bring to the table? The best way I can describe it is that a lager goes from being 2D to 3D! One other final point is the overall structure of the beer, to me this is of fundamental importance. When I first set out to brew a Helles, I rounded up samples of some the best around and measured the final gravity and bitterness. The relationship between final gravity and bitterness ensures supreme drinkability. We monitor every batch extremely closely to make sure they are in specification. If we are slightly out, we hold back and blend with another batch to correct it.

So, I hope you see what I mean about how important separation is when brewing this style, as faults will stick out like a sore thumb and ruin the desired soft palate. There is a reason why Helles is so popular in Germany and that is because of its supreme drinkability and thirst -quenching attributes. They might not be as fashionable as hazy DIPAs at the moment, but I know what I’d be prefer to be drinking when the mercury hits 30oC.

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W a s t e wat e r

Water’s Toxic Brew Wastewater management is an issue that craft brewers everywhere, but it can be an opportunity for improving business sustainability, explains Derek Davy, head of business development for Econse, a next generation water purification company for small and midsized businesses.

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astewater management is an issue that craft brewers everywhere are dealing with. Craft breweries across North America are being tasked by local officials to reduce levels in over-strength wastewater but it doesn’t have to be a crisis. It can be an opportunity for improving business sustainability and for effective, new wastewater solutions to contribute to a clean and safe water supply.

Climate change has put a spotlight on access to clean, safe water. Waterways are being challenged by algae blooms and the effects of toxic spills are intensified by drought, which is affecting water quality and availability. The impact of water quality regulations enforcement is being felt by small and midsized businesses like craft breweries.

North American growth has been supported by infrastructure that needs more upkeep and repair than it’s been receiving. So a water treatment facility that was built for households in cottage country might never have had the capacity to accommodate the untreated wastewater from the craft brewers who are bringing prosperity to small towns. We’re hearing stories where economic development has been essentially capped in midsized urban centres because local wastewater facilities cannot handle the capacity from the existing population and industry – so a craft brewery can’t expand. We see examples everywhere of infrastructure battling invisibly with industrial growth.

It’s a big picture challenge that trickles down to the conversations municipal officials are having with craft breweries about their wastewater.

decentralised or centralised

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nother change affecting craft breweries is a trend towards decentralised solutions so that industry contributes to a region’s clean water. New technologies are offering better solutions that target specific needs more efficiently.

Decentralised solutions help craft brewers manage their wastewater and save money by removing extra

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water fees and fines from the balance sheet, with more savings with less water consumption from reusing the processed water.

To be clear, municipal officials aren’t requiring craft breweries and other food and beverage producers to clean their wastewater to the levels set by the province for waterways and potable water. The burden is shared, with brewers’ targets reduced to a level the municipal facility can handle for all its customers.

Communities are finding that when craft breweries reduce the levels in over-strength water that goes down the drain, municipal facilities are more efficient as a last point for ensuring water safety before it returns back to the environment.

There are five aspects of brewery wastewater that are targeted by municipalities: • BOD (biological oxygen demand) • TSS (total suspended solids) • TKN (total sum of organic nitrogen, ammonia and ammonium) • TP (total phosphorus) • pH (acidity) The first two indicators, BOD and TSS, are the typical parameters that municipalities focus on when discussing over-strength waste water with breweries.

But what is over-strength? As we started travelling to breweries across Ontario with the Econse mobile treatment unit to test, analyze and treat wastewater, we found there wasn’t a uniform set of targets they were working to. The municipalities all report to one set of provincial standards, so why were the targets we were trying to achieve all different?

over-strength

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he answer seems to be that local facilities balance the output of the breweries with their total capacity and output requirements. As a result, craft breweries can’t use an off-the-rack solution for wastewater management. Craft breweries need technology that adapts easily to their production situation and can reduce over-strength wastewater to specific levels, is modular so that brewers aren’t required to buy a bigger solution than they need at the outset and can add on as their business grows. Let’s dig in to

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the science of BODs and TSS, as they are the most common issue facing brewers at this time.

Biological Oxygen demand

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iological Oxygen Demand (BOD) is the measure of how much oxygen is used to break down the organic material in the wastewater over a period of time. With beer, BODs come from the carbohydrate-rich mix of yeast, sugars, hops and grains. This level matters to municipalities because the organisms that digest the organic material need dissolved oxygen (which brewery wastewater doesn’t contain much of), to do their job.

BODs are measured in weight to volume of water (mg/L) and are frequently used to describe the amount of organic pollution coming from a brewery.

With the craft breweries we’ve been testing with, we’ve been seeing BOD levels of about 7,000-14,000+ mg/L, where local officials are setting targets at 300 to 500 mg/L, which we’ve found is an achievable target for post-treatment.

total SUspended solids

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otal Suspended Solids (TTS) is the other big concern for municipalities from brewers; the total suspended solids come from the yeast and sludge some breweries dump down the drain and are costly for municipal systems to treat and remove from the wastewater.

In our experience, we’ve seen 750-10,000 mg/L of TSS where the average output municipalities were asking for was 300 mg/L. For both of these levels, municipalities aren’t asking for complete elimination as they are prepared to take the remaining step to reduce to the levels they are required to meet posttreatment.

TKN and TK – nitrogen and phosphorus – are two more wastewater villains that concern municipalities because they contribute to algae blooms that choke out marine life. Water acidity, or pH, is the other metric we look at with craft beer wastewater; we found that all of these can be easily managed to target levels through a combination of side streaming and treatment.

Nature can handle a level of BOD but not to the level that industry produces Canada and the U.S. have clean water water legislation that set the standards for regulating discharges of pollutants and regulating quality for surface waters. Water fees and fines are being enforced in the thousands, tens of thousands and even a hundred thousand dollars and more – yet the penalties haven’t eliminated the problem. There’s an ongoing challenge where there’s been barriers for small and midsized businesses like craft breweries to access effective technologies that will improve their wastewater quality. And without scalable and

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affordable solutions, the fines set by municipalities might be the death knell for the small and midsized businesses that contribute to their communities’ prosperity.

the positive benefits

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e think short term impacts are achievable for craft breweries and municipalities, with results that are exciting for everyone. It’s easy for water enforcement to seem adversarial. After all, brewers just want to make more beer and run a profitable businesses, contributing to jobs in the community along the way. We’re more interested in changing the nature of the dialogue with partnerships that get people working together so craft breweries can handle their wastewater effectively.

Working with breweries to manage wastewater quality, we’ve been bringing all the parties to the table – the municipal officials enforcing water regulations, the craft brewers as well as local economic development representatives – each with their unique lens on the situation. We’re doing something similar in the farm sector. It’s a positive way to address everyone’s interests and concerns at once. Solutions can move forward that meets regulators’ requirements while craft brewers can contribute to their community as valued corporate citizens.

Autumn 2016 | Brewers Journal Canada | 21

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a look at the trends The last several years have been a period of transition, growth, and development for the Canadian brewing industry. We look at some of the key changes taking place.

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arlier this year Beer Canada released its latest Industry Trends report, placing the spotlight on how the brewing industry performed in 2015. The Ottawa, Ontario-based trade association, offers up some in-depth figures regarding the health of the sector in 2015, and how these compares to each year since 2010. In this piece, we draw some of the key findings from the report.

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brewery licenses

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he number of licensed breweries in Canada has risen almost 108% over the past five years. As of 2015, there are 644 operating, a figure that would easily have increased since.

More than half of these breweries make their beers in Ontario and QuĂŠbec.

New Brunswick has experienced marked growth

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CANADA Number of Licensed Breweries by Production Level mar k e t

since 2013, which had 10 such companies that year, Hectolitres 2010 2011 20 in 2014, reaching 30 in 2015. Nova Scotia also saw a similar increase, up from 20 in 2013 to 40 last year. < 2,000 220 240 Yukon, NWT/Nunavut and Newfoundland also had 2,001 to < 5,000 30 in Beer Canada’s 30 their first licensed breweries recorded 5,001 to < 15,000 20 20 recent records that span back to 2010.

In terms of production levels, the most significant 15,001 to < 50,000 10 10 jump was in the category of breweries producing 50,001 to < 75,000 10 10 less than 2,000hl increasing from 380 to 490. Those >75,000 20 20 in the bracket of 2,001 to < 5,000 and 5,001 to < Total remained static, while breweries 310 15,000 operating330 in the 15,001 to < 50,000 field increased by ten between

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2014 producing 2012 and 2015. There 2013 were 30 breweries 2014 2015 more than 75,000hl in 2015.

490

270

320

beer sales380

40

40

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50

30

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40

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enjoyed 20n 2015, Canadians 10 2022,707,133 30 hectolitres (hL) of beer. Canadian beer accounts 0 0 0 0 for 84% of this figure, totalling 18,973,357 hL, 20an increase of 0.2% 30 30 30 compared to 2014. Imported 370sales increased 430 520to a total of 640 beer by 4.5% in 2015 3,733,776 hL. Since 2010, the Canadian beer category

Number of Licensed Breweries by Production Level < 2,000

Size of Licensed Brewery (HL)

2,001 to < 5,000

5,001 to < 15,000

15,001 to < 50,000

50,001 to < 75,000

>75,000

Total 0

100

200

300

CANADA 2010 2015 CANADA

400

500

600

700

Canadian and Imported Beer Sales in Hectolitres Canadian and Imported Beer Sales in Hectolitres 2013 2013

2014 2014

2015 2015

% change 2015/2014 % change 2015/2014

10,600,932 9,806,161 8,996,378 8,219,305 10,600,932 9,806,161 8,996,378 8,219,305 7,184,887 7,873,722 8,721,989 9,083,362 7,184,887 7,873,722 8,721,989 9,083,362 17,785,819 17,679,883 17,718,367 17,302,667 17,785,819 17,679,883 17,718,367 17,302,667 Draught 1,851,404 1,838,671 1,843,001 1,865,947 Draught 1,851,404 1,838,671 1,843,001 1,865,947 Sub‐Total 19,637,222 19,518,457 19,561,420 19,168,617 Sub‐Total 19,637,222 19,518,457 19,561,420 19,168,617 Imported 3,459,052 3,349,076 3,411,084 3,443,536 Imported 3,459,052 3,349,076 3,411,084 3,443,536 Total Sales 23,096,274 22,867,533 22,972,504 22,612,153 Note: For confidentiality, all counts and quantities are rounded to the nearest ten.

Total Sales 23,096,274 22,867,533 22,972,504 22,612,153 Source: Canada Revenue Agency Share of Canadian Beer Sales by Package Type Share of Canadian Beer Sales by Package Type Bottles (%) 54.0 50.2 46.0 42.9 Bottles (%) 54.0 50.2 46.0 42.9 Cans (%) 36.6 40.3 44.6 47.4 2015 Industry Trends Page 4 Cans (%) 36.6 40.3 44.6 47.4 Draught (%) 9.4 9.4 9.4 9.7 Draught (%) 9.4 9.4 9.4 9.7

7,400,771 7,400,771 9,671,201 9,671,201 17,071,972 17,071,972 1,872,241 1,872,241 18,944,275 18,944,275 3,571,558 3,571,558 22,515,833 22,515,833

6,720,486 6,720,486 10,381,901 10,381,901 17,102,386 17,102,386 1,870,939 1,870,939 18,973,357 18,973,357 3,733,776 3,733,776 22,707,133 22,707,133

‐9.2 ‐9.2 7.3 7.3 0.2 0.2 ‐0.1 ‐0.1 0.2 0.2 4.5 4.5 0.8 0.8

39.1 39.1 51.1 51.1 9.9 9.9

35.4 35.4 54.7 54.7 9.9 9.9

Canadian Canadian Bottles Bottles Cans Cans

2010 2010

Share of Canadian and Imported Beer Sales Share of Canadian and Imported Beer Sales Canadian (%) 85.0 www.brewersjournal.ca Canadian (%) 85.0 Imported (%) 15.0 Imported (%) 15.0 United States (%) 23.2

2011 2011

85.4 85.4 14.6 14.6 24.2

2012 2012

85.2 85.2 14.8 14.8 22.9

84.8 84.1 83.6 Autumn 2016 | Brewers Journal Canada | 23 84.8 84.1 83.6 15.2 15.9 16.4 15.2 15.9 16.4 23.1 21.8 22.8

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CANADA CANADA

Canadian and Imported Beer Sales Ranked by Market Size Canadian and Imported Beer Sales Ranked by Market Size

Ontario Ontario Québec Québec British Columbia British Columbia Alberta Alberta Manitoba Manitoba Saskatchewan Saskatchewan Nova Scotia Nova Scotia New Brunswick New Brunswick Newfoundland Newfoundland

2015 Volume (hL) 2015 Volume (hL) 2010 Volume (hL)

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island

2010 Volume (hL) 0 0

2,000,000 2,000,000

4,000,000 4,000,000 Hectolitres

6,000,000 6,000,000

8,000,000 8,000,000

Hectolitres has declined by 663,865 hL or 3.4%. It is important to note that 1 hectolitre (hL) equals 100 litres (L) = 12.2 cases of 24 x 341 mL bottles.

The amount of Canadian beer sales by package type showed a considerable 3.7% decrease, to 35.4%, in the amount being sold in bottle. This continues a downwards trend that has dipped by an average of 4% each year since 2010 (the start of the record in this case).

Canned beer has enjoyed the opposite in this instance, increasing its prominence in the field by 3-4% each year, jumping from 51.1% to 54.7% between 2014 and 2015. Draught beer accounts for 9.9% of beer sales, the same as 2014 and a 0.5% increase since 2010.

beer consumption

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etail prices for beer increased 4.9%. Spirits saw a 0.9% increase and wine increased 0.6%. Domestic consumption of Canadian and imported beer in 2015 stood at 63.34 litres per person based on total population.

At the provincial level, per capita consumption is highest in Newfoundland at 77.32 litres. Québec and Alberta have the second and third highest per capita consumption at 71.91 and 66.23 litres respectively.

Ontario and Quebec lead the way in 2015 in terms of Canadian and imported beer sales when ranked by

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urce: Member brewers, provincial associations, provincial distributors and provincial liquor jurisdictions.

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market size. In a poll of member brewers, provincial associations, provincial distributors and provincial liquor jurisdictions, British Columbia stands in third, followed by Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.

The United States is the leading exporter of beer into Canada, followed in second by Netherlands, Mexico, Belgium, Germany and United Kingdom.

However, when it comes to Canada exporting to its biggest US markets, there was a near across the board decline. The top five customers of New York, Michigan, New Jersey, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania all demonstrated this drop.

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raw material imports

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he volume of roasted malt in Metric Tons (MT) dropped from 11,458 MT in 2014 to 7,162 in 2015. The amount of malt that it is not roasted increased in the same period from 89,514 to 93,952 MT. Focusing on hops, Canadian breweries increased their consumption of pellets in kilograms (kg) from 1,032,549 to 1,160,729kg.

Grounded and powdered hop demand went up from 158,466 to 233,578kg while hop extracts jumped considerably from 47,310kg to 103,956kg. Demand of cones went up from 57,523 to 75,407kg.

CANADA

CANADA

Top 20 Beer Imports into Canada Top 20 Beer Imports into Canada

United States United States Netherlands Netherlands Mexico Mexico Belgium Belgium Germany Germany United Kingdom United Kingdom Ireland Ireland France France Denmark Denmark Poland Poland Czech Republic Czech Republic Austria Austria Italy Italy All Other All Other Turkey Turkey Jamaica Jamaica China China Spain Spain Japan Japan Thailand Thailand Slovakia Slovakia

2015 2015 0 0

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200,000 200,000

400,000 400,000 Hectolitres Hectolitres

600,000 600,000

800,000 800,000

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Be au ’ s

Bre wery

Organic Growth Back in 2004, Steve Beauchesne and his father Tim hatched the idea for Beau’s All Natural. It was a plan driven by the desire to open a brewery focused on quality beer and the importance of people in that process. 12 years later, and with 160 staff in tow, the Vankleek Hill, Ontario company is in the process of being sold to those employees to ensure the Beau’s ethos remains for the next 12 years, and beyond. Steve Beauchesne, the company's CEO, takes up the story.

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t always has to start with the beer, and it always has to come back to the beer.

That’s always been our focus. This brewery is based on family, it’s based on friends, but that doesn’t mean we don’t worry about the beer!” explains a passionate Steve Beauchesne, CEO of Beau’s All Natural. It’s late September, Beauchesne and his team are gearing up for its incredibly popular Oktoberfest event later that week. The festival features live music, numerous beer launches, and even has its own app.

The Vankleek Hill Fairgrounds event is a big deal, but it’s just one facet of Beau’s role in the wider community.

Hosting such a major festival must have seemed something of a pipe dream back in those formative days of 2004. And while the origins of Beau’s were not necessarily conventional, it’s rather fitting that brewing is taking place at the site it does.

“My dad Tim had been running a textile plant,

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which is where the brewery is now. But he came to visit me in Toronto at some point in 2004 to let me know that the last client he had for his plant had gone bankrupt,” he recalls.

Tim Beauchesne had been planning his retirement, but it was time to refocus.

Over a beer, or several, the father and son discussed what they could do with the plant and naturally, the idea of opening a brewery entered the equation.

“He was the one that came up with that idea of a craft brewery in Ontario,” says Steve. “I told him that if he was serious, I’d sell my house and move back to Ontario,” explains Beauchesne.

And much to their surprise, after sobering up the next day, it still seemed like a good idea.

It took two full years for Beau’s to get off the ground but this time enabled the team to face, and pass, a number of hurdles that included finding the right brewmaster, to securing the necessary funding to continue their journey.

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b r e w er All images: Jakub Mulik and Beau's

Be au â&#x20AC;&#x2122; s

Steve Beauchesne, September 2016

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Beauchesne enjoying some QC

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Be au ’ s

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“I had been an amateur brewer but thankfully we found Matt, our master brewer early on and fell in love with everything he stood for, what he could do, and his qualities as a person,” says Beauchesne. Matt O’Hara, Beau’s brewmaster, previously worked for McAuslan Brewing in Montreal and Upper Canada Brewing Company in Guelph, Ontario.

Although Beau’s had their brewmaster, the major bump in the road that needed navigating was raising the funds to properly get the brewery going.

“The biggest problem was the money. In those days, there was myth that you couldn’t run a successful brewery in Eastern Ontario. Maybe it's because a few had failed, so banks and other institutions wouldn’t go near us at first,” he explains. “But once we started delivering samples, people soon changed their minds.

People were telling us we were onto something good, and that we could really make a go of this. So we got a mortgage on the building my dad owned, with the Business Development Bank of Canada the ones finally coming through for us.”

However, this application was eventually overturned with the team only being offered only a fraction of the sum they initially had been. It was a major knock back, but they continued undeterred.

“We ended up only being able to afford two fermentors. We were able to call on our friends at Church-Key in Campbellford, where we brewed several days a month, which we remain grateful for. That beer ended up winning us awards, and with people enjoying our beer, people started coming back out of the woodwork for us. It showed us we were doing something right,” he says. “Amusingly, that beer was our popular Lug Tread Lagered Ale but let’s call it a “special” version of it.”

The glycol chiller the team were using had been installed incorrectly and ended up freezing a batch of it.

“It was accidentally imperialized, it was not the Kölsch we were expecting but it was delicious, Beauchesne says wryly.”

To give homage to that batch, they recently brewed another Kölsch called “Haters Gonna Hate” as a sly nod to the detractors of that particular beer, and the success it ended up having.

And while the Beau’s operation is a major one in 2016, it was a team of six at the beginning, which included Steve’s mum who worked around another job to ensure the family could eat and get by. “But over the last 10 years, every penny has been reinvested back into this brewery. We have more support from the banks now, but we don’t forget where we came from,” he adds.

With 160 staff on board at Beau’s in 2016, the brewery is able to dedicate significant numbers to its brewing, distribution and marketing operations.

“We don’t outsource any marketing so we do that all in house. We have big marketing team and we’re part of the same family, with a 'do it yourself' mentality that resonates throughout. Our major distribution team in Ontario ensures we have visibility

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across the province and we also have lots of local support for the restaurants we distribute to. We have a considerable admin team, making sure the cheques go out, and they come in!”

Last year the brewery produced 50,000hl of beer.

Lug Tread is still Beau’s “baby” accounting for around 70% of what they brew. Beauchesne explains that they never wanted to be a one beer brewery, owing to the fact they drink lots of different ones themselves, so experimentation has always been part of their ethos.

“We have a nice mix here with a love of tradition and classical styles, as well as trying things that haven’t been done before, or done for a long time. To accommodate this, and to find the balance, we created a numner of series to home these,” he explains.

Among these is The Farm Table Series which Beau’s launched in August 2015. Farm Table Series beers are inspired by tradition, and each brewed true to a classic style, with each Farm Table release featured seasonally.

“Look at the Farm Table Series, where we explore Vienna Lagers, Märzens and Bitters, among others.

These are solid, storied beers that shouldn’t be forgotten. We also have Wild Oat Series where we look at experimental styles, and is dedicated to exploring bold flavours and exciting aromas that have the capability of literally changing how you think and feel about beer," he says. “One thing we do very well is have fun. We have fun in the way we approach beer.

We take it very seriously, too, and we make sure we add fun to what we’re doing. In marketing, labelling, and in the beer styles we take on. We won’t shy away from it.”

Another string to Beau’s bow, and one that is close to Beauchesne’s heart, is the B-Side Brewing Label, which was created to boost the diversity and availability of quality, fresh craft beer in the province of Ontario.

“When I was in Toronto, I ran a record label that was focused on the Indie scene and one of the things that struck me is how independent beer shares a lot in common with independent music,” he says. “They embrace scenes, areas, environments. You have these labels that really shouldn’t exist because of the giants, and that is the same with breweries. We’ve worked with breweries or brewers that couldn’t get their beer into the Ontario market, so we helped brew, market, and sell it, much like a record label would do. It is kind of a collaboration, a little like contract brewing, but we’re not open and we won’t do that for anybody.

It’s through friendship and bonds we’ve created.”

He adds: “B-Side is rooted at the Beau’s brewery but is not a Beau’s brand; rather it aims to create a portfolio of international brands of excellence being produced fresh and locally for the Ontario market.”

If elements of Beau’s such as the B-Side Brewing Label play a key role in its beer proposition, it’s the subject of acquisitions, and the brewery’s recent announcement of its sale through an Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP), that reflect the importance of the human element of business for Beauchesne.

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Steve Beauchesne (l), Matt O'Hara (c) , Tim Beauchesne (r)

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breweries making good beer, it’s a great thing. But what I feel is important is that craft beer doesn’t become commoditized. It’s not so long ago where we were living in a world where it was impossible to easily find a good beer. And now you see these large multi-national breweries on the acquisition trail. It was under their stewardship that things got to where they did in terms of the types of beer you were able to buy,” he says firmly. “They could have been putting out an Imperial Stout in the 80s, they just chose not to. I’ve got no issue with companies such as AB doing that now, but it has to be done for the right reason and that isn’t always the case.”

He explains: I have an issue when these major breweries put out anything and call it craft. It confuses the issue and helps nobody in the process.

You might really like the table you bought from IKEA, but you’re not going to tell your friends you bought this nice artisanal table.

“Something cannot be craft if it’s come from a company making 30% of the world’s anything. You have to look at things internally, too. That’s important to me, and that’s why it is important my brewery stays independent. You hear that people are buying your beer because they don’t want to buy from a brewery that has since been acquired by one of these giants. I owe everything to these people, they have built us up,

they are the ones that have told me to never sell out, and never change.

“These are the people I owe everything to. These people are dedicated and they are the ones that have helped us. For me now to turn around, thank them for their help, and sell, I am just not going to do the one thing I said I wouldn’t do. I am not being judgemental of breweries that choose to sell, it’s their prerogative, but this is also mine. It would just break my heart to do so.”

And it is that mentality that helped drive the decision for Beau’s to confirm in July of this year that it was to be sold under an Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP). The move enables employees to become co-owners and a bigger part of the Beau’s family, with shared responsibility for the brewery’s future and continued growth as it sets to expand further.

“The brewery has got a size where there are not many choices left if you’re not going to sell to a larger brewing business, and it’s not easy to sell something of this size quickly. Through the ESOP, I can slowly sell the brewery to the employees of Beau’s over the next 30-40 years. It is great because nothing is mandatory, everything is optional,” he explains.

The ESOP runs each year, ensuring it is not exclusive to employees employed at the start of the plan. It starts by asking investors if there are any

Beau's: The brewery produced 50,000hl of beer in 2015

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shares they want to sell in that period. Those that do then have them offered to employees, with a third party bank valuing them, realistically.

“Employees are given the option to pay for these through a payroll deduction or in cash, and then this is transferred to the selling party. It will repeat each year, and we also have safeguards to ensure there are shares available each year. If there are none available from selling parties, then we issue brand new shares so people can buy some that year. It means you have a revolving pool of shares. While you’re with us, you can see them grow along the success of the brewery. It works for everyone,” explains Beauchesne.

Making things work for everyone, in the best way possible, was the Beaus’s mentality in the early days in 2004 and remains that way today. Among the ways it has marked its 10th birthday celebrations, the team announced that beginning with the 2016/2017 academic year, the brewery will be awarding three $1,000 awards and one $2,000 scholarship annually to students enrolled in the Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management program at Niagara College.

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It has also launched a project that will help a female entrepreneur start up a locally owned and operated craft brewery in the African republic of Rwanda. Beau’s will be providing financing, expertise, and hands-on employee training to the start-up brewery, and has sourced brewing equipment from industry suppliers. The company is also launching a Kickstarter campaign for the Rwanda Craft Brewery Project that aims to raise $95,000 in donations over the next two months to fund the purchase of a bottling line.

“The pinnacle is giving back to the communities that have helped us grow, and those further afield.

The ESOP was the gift to employees and through bursaries, and scholarships in the areas, it’s a thank you to the brewing community, too, says Beauchesne.

He concludes: “Beau’s is a close-knit, family-andfriends run craft brewery. We’ve had people support us, and we want to support them. Our beer and our brewery are a labour of love from start to finish, and everyone pitches in. We want it to stay that way for a long time to come.”

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Right Place Right Time 2016 has been a landmark year for Clocktower.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the Ottawa, Ontario-based business now has five brew pub sites across Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capital city. Patrick Fiori, brewmaster at Clocktower for nearly a decade, has witnessed the industry change dramatically around him in that period. But for Fiori, a considered approach to business, and brewing, is the reason Clocktower has stood the test of time. www.brewersjournal.ca

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askatchewan > Edinburgh > Saskatchewan > Ottawa is unlikely to be much of a well-worn path for many brewers in the industry but, then again, the fact that there isn’t a one size fits all approach in brewing means the sector is all the better for it. However, that particular journey was the one taken by Patrick Fiori, brewmaster at Clocktower. Since stepping through the doors of the original Brew Pub on 575 Bank Street in 2007, Fiori has helped ensure the brewery continues to cater for drinker’s tastes across the province. And he places a great emphasis on his background for the approach to brewing the continues to take.

“I started developing an interest in beer and brewing during my university days when I was

studying for my BSc Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Saskatchewan. What interested my was not just home brewing, but the culture that surrounds beer, and how it has influenced history. It was fascinating to me,” he says.

Fiori, as he explains, was reluctant to work in a laboratory so his interest in beer led him to the revered International Centre for Brewing and Distilling at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland.

“I felt at home. It was a great programme led by those steeped in academia as well as those with decades of industry experience, true veterans.

Spending spare time in proper pubs drinking beers from Harviestoun and Caledonian that were lower ABV, but still packed the right amount of flavour and punch, were the places I was comfortable. These experiences gave me an idea of the warm, personable

Clocktower core beers

The flavour of this beer is complex. At first taste, sweet caramel and light toffees are overwhelming. As the flavour develops, a mix of fruity, spicy and citrus start to present themselves and eventually take over the sweeter flavours.

The ESB is perfect to pair with traditional English foods such as fish and chips or bangers and mash.

• International Bittering Units = 32 • Standard Reference Method = 8 • % Alcohol By Volume = 5.0

Kölsch Kölsch is our flagship brand and our lightest offering.

Patterned off of German Kölsch that was originally produced in the city of Köln, Germany. Traditionally, this beer was brewed using a portion of the grain as wheat instead of barley.

The aroma is that of cereal grains with a light floral note at the end. Upon drinking, the flavours subtly take over the mouth leaving very little bitterness. There is a noticeably sweet taste that appears just before the carbonation cleans the palate.

This beer is perfect for those experimenting with craft beer for the first time.

• International Bittering Units = 25 • Standard Reference Method = 3 • % Alcohol By Volume = 4.4% Bytown Brown The Bytown Brown is light drinking beer with complex blend of sweet and roasted malts that leaves you feeling refreshed.

There are seven different types of malt in the Brown that range from coffee, chocolate, toffee and caramel malts. The malts have been well balanced to ensure that one flavour does not dominate your palette.

This is the perfect pint to match with a burger, steak, stew, or pizza.

• International Bittering Units = 28 • Standard Reference Method = 17 • % Alcohol By Volume = 4.8% Wishart’s ESB The Wishart’s ESB is in the tradition of a British Extra Special Bitter. ESB’s typically have more flavour, aroma and alcohol than a standard bitter. Our ESB is copper in colour and the nose is a blend of sweet caramel and fruity aromas.

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Clocktower Red Our most complex beer, the Clocktower Red is brewed with a blend of five different types of malt and two types of hops.

Aside from the rich colour, the malts add varying degrees of sweetness: caramel, chocolate, and toffee can all be found in both the flavour and aroma. Perhaps most interesting is the presence of a nuttiness, that presents itself on the nose and mouth.

The hops used in the Clocktower Red are best characterized as citrus or pine flavours. The citrus and pines notes stick around in the mouth afterwards leaving a very pleasant after taste.

• International Bittering Units = 43 • Standard Reference Method = 15 • % Alcohol By Volume = 5.3% Raspberry Wheat The Raspberry Wheat is a crisp, refreshing beer with just a hint of raspberry flavour. The flavour is not tart but lightly sweet, reminiscent of summer berries.

The Raspberry Wheat is made with premium Canadian 2-row barley and wheat. Just enough imported Czech Saaz hops are added to give a light floral note to compliment the raspberry flavour.

This is an extremely drinkable, crisp, refreshing anytime beer.

• International Bittering Units = 25 • Standard Reference Method = 4 • % Alcohol By Volume = 4.4%

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type of environments I enjoyed drinking beer in,” says Fiori.

But with the end of the course, and a MSc in Brewing and Distilling secured, he briefly returned to Saskatchewan before his wife received a job offer from an employer in Ottawa, so off they went.

“It was the case of the right place and the right time. I rolled in to Clocktower, which only existed on Bank Street at that point, and asked for a job. They were looking for a brewer, and I was a brewer! There were not many brew pubs in town at the time and in Ottawa, the craft boom was more of a whisper at that point, but it was a great opportunity,” he says. "When I started, I was brewing once, maybe twice a week.

Now in 2016 we have five sites, more than 100 staff, and brew at least five times week. We are at capacity so we also use a partner facility at Lowertown Brewery to help meet the demand we experience.”

The need for a partner facility is perhaps unsurprising considering the Bank Street site serves all five Clocktower pubs, as well as a growing presence across the province, which includes the Beer Store, LCBO and an increasing number of grocery stores.

The brewery sells 3,000hl a year with around 2,500hl produced at its own facility. A recent investment in a three-head canning system from Cask Brewing Systems has enabled the company to expand its small-pack sales, too.

2016 has been a year of development for Clocktower, but when it comes to developing its beer portfolio, Fiori and his brewing team maintain a considered approach to its recipes “One thing at Clocktower does well is staying in the 4.5% and 5.5% range of beers. We’ve never really looked at high ABV, because we are approachable and we want to stay that way. We think of ourselves as a gateway,” he says. “There are others in town do those much-higher ABV beers, and they do that well. But we can still be fun without going that far out.”

He adds: “For myself, drinking in pubs in Scotland, and the UK as whole, these were the gold standards of pubs and the ones I enjoy, which is what Clocktower was aiming for. And that is reflected in the beers, too.

So we went for as close as we could get to those types of environments. There’s not an awful lot of places over here trying to imitate the UK style of pub. They are going on the volume approach. It’s not cool, it’s not personal, and I don’t get on with it.”

Fiori points to the Clocktower restaurant clientele that it serves as a major reason for this considered approach, but is keen to point out that the team doesn't simply rests on its laurels when it comes to brewing.

“We were the first to bring a Pumpkin beer to Ottawa eight years ago, and the same with a Berliner Weisse. It’s fun without having to push boundaries for the sake of it. Only this past year we did an official Star Trek beer, and we continue to push the envelope with the implementation of different styles and different ingredients,” he says. “Some breweries do that for the sake of it, that’s the game they want to

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play and the beers that they probably want to drink.

Arguably they are brewing for their own palette and not other people’s. That is their decision. What is also important is that we show drinkers that just because they drink one type of a style, that there is room for manoeuvre. The North American IPA style is one style of IPA, it is not the ONLY style!”

Fiori adds: “There are lots of people that still just drink blonde beers. That is fine. But by coming to us, we can hopefully do something to convert them to other styles such as Reds, Wit beers and Brown ales.”

At Clocktower, its Kölsch is the number one seller, often followed by the seasonal beer they have on at that period in time. But during Fiori’s near 10 years at the business, he has noticed considerable shifts in people’s drinking habits in and around the province.

“People’s perception around craft beer has definitely changed. When it first started, the situation was very much that if you wanted to drink something good, you had to look at Stella or Heineken. So what’s interesting for me, is that people have come to accept change. It was easy to see the early adopters that moved on to drinking blondes, Reds, and IPAs. As a result, breweries popped up to cater for that,” he explains. “But there are other groups that took a bit longer to slowly get their minds around it, and that’s important. What’s key is those beers are not on the fringe anymore. It’s there, everyone knows it’s there, and that is great.”

And while there has been marked changes across the drinking landscape in Ontario, Fiori explains that the emphasis breweries are placing on quality and consistency continues to change and develop, too.

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He says: “It’s an interesting thing. In Ontario there are a lot of trained brewers, but we have to make sure that with all the new facilities opening, everyone is keeping to the level of quality and consistency that is expected of us.

“It hurts everybody if you put out a bad beer because there are still people that generalise craft beer so everyone gets hurt by a negative experience. We need to elevate people because a negative experience is the one thing that can derail all the good work done by this industry.

“Here at Clocktower, we have a lab and an experienced crew so it’s also about having firm protocol and procedure to ensure everyone is doing the same, all of the time. It can be something as basic as drinking your beer, several times, before it goes out.

We are constantly improving and it is something you have to work at because it is easy to let slip if you don’t keep that at the forefront of the agenda.”

With quality and consistency a prerequisite for Clocktower, Fiori and his team are looking ahead at the next stage of the brewery’s development.

The Cask canning line arrived earlier this year, new delivery vehicles will arrive in the coming months and the company is continuing to grow its sales team to broaden the visibility of Clocktower. It is also gearing up for the 150th birthday of the country it calls home, and the ways it can celebrate this.

He adds: “In my ten years, I have never had two years that were similar, they have always been wildly different.

"We are forced to adapt, to change, to grow and expand. And we will continue to do that.”

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The export market for Sierra Nevada accounts for 5% its business, while new distribution relationships aim to ensure that the brewery is known for more than its popular Pale Ale. We sat down with Steve Grossman, brand ambassador of the brewery, and brother of its founder Ken, to talk the past, present, and the future.

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aking good beer is not easy. To make it to a consistently high quality, and to make it consistent, full stop, is very challenging. To have a brewer that really knows what they are doing, that is all important. And that is what will ensure you have longevity and success.”

I’ve been told that directly, almost verbatim, by two people. Garrett Oliver, brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery and now, Steve Grossman. The rate of breweries opening, producing all manner of beer styles, shows no sign of slowing down, but how many were catalysed to start brewing following their first taste of a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or a Brooklyn Lager?

When they talk, people listen.

We caught up Grossman in Europe, as he so frequently is these days. As brand ambassador

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for Sierra Nevada, for whom the UK is its largest export destination, he is here on a regular basis to help plot the route map for a brewery that has long been something of a byword for quality Pale Ale. But it is that association that he wants to help, not necessarily move away from but, form part of a bigger brewing picture in the eyes of drinkers.

And Sierra Nevada beer is popping up a lot more frequently in Europe of late. That’s in no small part due to the brewery’s growing relationship with distributor Westside Drinks, a division in association with Fuller’s. Granted, the brewery’s beer is available here in more guises than ever before but for many, they'll still ask for a pint of Sierra Nevada. Do we ask for a pint of Beavertown, BrewDog, Northern Monk, Magic Rock, Fuller’s? Unlikely. And it’s this transition that is being focused on, to increase the presence of the brewery’s seasonal output, and lesser seen styles, in the UK, and elsewhere.

“Pale is still our primary beer at 55% of sales, which is awesome, but it’s great that people see

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everything else we put out, too. It’s important we are getting representation of the other brands,” Grossman says. “We want to show people what great work our brewers are doing. We’ve always made a lot of decent beers, but many would be only sold locally or at the taproom. Brewing is in our nature. Last year, we made 160-something beers so getting some of those in front of drinkers that only know us for Pale Ale is important.”

Ben Hird, account manager for Westside Drinks, explains that he is witnessing something of a “quest” from bar and pub owners to be at the front of the queue when it comes to seeking the newest beers they can offer from the brewery.

“Sierra Nevada is reacting, with us, to an everincreasing demand from managers and consumers for these beers. Thanks to the growing prevalence of social media, they know what we have the second it is released. So if the brewery has enough to go around, it makes sense to try and satisfy that,” he says.

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Grossman caveats though, stating that distribution of these beers to a wider base hasn’t always been a key focus for Sierra Nevada.

“Exports are only 5% of our business. We are in 11 markets outside the US and these scenes are changing all of the time. So it is very important for us to keep our eyes and ears open to what is going on,” he says. “The reality is that there is a lot of competition but at the same time, for Sierra Nevada, it’s more a case of doing our thing and concentrating on getting the best beer we can to people, regardless of the situation that surrounds us.”

And for Sierra Nevada, Grossman enthuses that is has always been the brewery’s philosophy to make great beer each and every time, something he wants to impart on others.

“There is an interesting trend now where breweries are actively looking to make beer different each time, by experimenting with the profiles in each batch and looking at other ways to change that recipe. That’s interesting to me,” he explains.

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“You know, you drink beer for different reasons.

Sometimes there is that comfort and reassurance in getting the beer you know, expect, and like. And there are other times where you want to experiment with something and see how it goes. But from the brewing side, this decision to experiment should not be an excuse for not putting out a fantastic beer each time. It’s not something you should expect to hide behind in case it doesn’t work as planned.”

He adds: “Beer is fashionable now. That much is true. But as a result, people are getting into the scene without a solid brewing background, or even one at all. And let’s be honest, there are some beers out there that should not be sold commercially. It’s wrong.

“That is bad for the whole industry, not just their reputation. For one, the brewery is generally given one chance, maybe two, for a person to try your beer and decide if they like it or don’t like it.

“Secondly, if it is someone’s first time trying craft beer and they have a bad experience due to you putting out bad beer, then it can give the whole industry a black eye. So that’s why we’re telling new people in the industry to make good beer. Learn from others. Learn from us, come and see us. If you have issues, we are willing to share best practices. It’s for the greater good. Don’t hold back.”

Is this approach by newer breweries ignorance or arrogance?

“Probably both,” Grossman muses. “In the late 80s, there was an emergence of microbreweries. A lot of them made some bad beers so there was a natural drop-off as many of these went out of business.

Right now, I don’t think we’ll have that level of dropoff as there are too many making good beer. When I first started visiting here, there were three breweries in London. Now how many are there?”

He explains: “To keep this fantastic industry growing, it’s simple. As a new brewery finding your

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feet, don’t put out beer that is not as good a beer as you can possibly put out. Don’t settle for second best or settle for mediocre.

“If someone starts out and drinks a lot of their own beer, then they develop a palette where they might end up unaware of issues going on like an infection. If you drink one thing all of the time, then you run the very real risk of becoming too accustomed to what you’re doing and little else. We make a point of drinking a lot of different beers. We have been doing this a long time and we know what our beer tastes like so it is important to keep that variation.”

And it’s variation that Grossman and Sierra Nevada are focused on pushing overseas in the months and years ahead. Some of these beers (outlined in the box-out) such as the year-round 4.5% Otra Vez will become more prevalent in the UK and elsewhere.

Grossman even touches on the possibility of Sierra Nevada rolling out its popular American collaboration programme Beer Camp with breweries overseas.

“It’s certainly not out of the question, though,” he explains.

One thing that is out of question though is Sierra Nevada allowing its beers to be brewed under license and outside of its two US breweries.

“Would we approve brewing under license?

No. Collaborations? Sure. The former is not something we want to do. We are always looking into collaborations. But my brother? He’s a control freak and we want corneal of the quality and the equipment coupled with out team and the dedication,” he says. “You know, there are some great breweries around. But we do things our own way and if we had one of our brewers over here, or at wherever, running a brewery then it might be something different. We always look at options for our beer, and that's the best way. The future is looking good.”

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Lost and Grounded Brewers opened for business this July, however this story is more than twenty years in the making.

Featuring talent from across the globe, the UK-based brewery founded by Alex Troncoso and his partner Annie Clements, want to create a name that is known as much for its people, as it is for its beer.

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he point of Lost and Grounded Brewers is that it is not about us, but the entity. It’s about creation, inclusion, and recognising that everyone has something to offer.

Everyone is equal. We need to remember that we are not curing cancer, we’re only making bloody beer. But that’s not to say that the beer we produce shouldn’t be amazing either.” It’s the end of another long day in the world of Lost and Grounded Brewers, but despite literally just racing in the door to take my call, Alex Troncoso and his partner Annie Clements, the brewery’s founders, are in a considered and

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contemplative frame of mind.

It’s mid-June. Six fermenters and a bright beer tank from Krones had arrived earlier that day, ahead of the brewhouse and more cellar equipment due the following week. And although the manifestation of Lost and Grounded Brewers continues to take on an increasingly physical form, the duo are still able to draw a line in the sand between how they want their creation to work as a business and equally, how they want it to act as a place to escape, for the team itself and for the growing legion of eager drinkers the brewer is accruing. And that’s before their first beer has even been brewed. They are busy creating a universe for their beer. Oh, and everyone is welcome.

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While you get the impression that the weight of expectation on the seven-strong team is something the duo would sooner avoid, the anticipation and goodwill extended to the them, long before their core beers had even been outlined, is something they are both gracious and appreciative of.

“We are firm believers that what goes around comes around. If you treat people well then you hope that you will be treated well, too. Whether that is in the present or in the future,” explains Annie. “We are trying to apply everything that has annoyed us in our lives and ask ourselves: ‘What is the opposite of that?’ and that’s what we are doing with Lost and Grounded Brewers. Everything we do has a basis in

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what is important and what is the right thing to do.

That ranges from how you speak to someone in the brewery, on the phone, or in the way you respond to a CV from a potential applicant. Don’t get me started on CVs. People and companies that adopt radio silence on CVs is one of those things. It’s so rude, just don’t do it!”

The name, Lost and Grounded Brewers, is carefully selected. As Annie explains, the whole point is to bring everything back to the people. Granted not everyone in the team is a brewer by profession but in this world, they are. They all have the same purpose and that’s what the duo wants to do, give people a purpose.

“If you have a purpose you feel more grounded. As brewers, we all have a purpose, it’s not about having a hierarchy. We just want to create something. All we want to do is grow a respected regional business.

Something we can end up looking back on in a few years and believe that we have established something special, and given people careers,” she says.

And who are we to argue.

The Lost and Grounded Brewers journey started more than 23 years ago when Alex got in to brewing.

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Alejandro Troncoso, or Alex as he has long been known, was born in Guatemala to a Chilean father and American mother. He moved back to Australia aged 22, where he would eventually meet Annie, in Tasmania to be exact. The couple met 18 years ago and having travelled to 11 different countries together, Annie’s passion is also in beer, despite holding positions away from the industry. That didn’t stop her beating Alex in a hombrew competition, however….

Alex’s journey in beer has been long and varied.

Upon graduating as a chemical engineer, he had numerous jobs he disliked, carried out hundreds of homebrews and enrolled himself in a Graduate Certificate of Brewing, joining the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and completing his Diploma in Brewing.

“Over the years I probably got rejected for something like 20 or 30 jobs in the brewing industry.”

His break, as he puts it, came aged 29 at a small brewery in Melbourne called Stockade but upon making cream liqueur endlessly, it was a sure fire way to zap the motivation of a brewer that had already been on the receiving end of seven years of rejection.

Following a six month tenure there, Little Creatures Brewing in Fremantle came calling.

He explains: “Whilst I was lucky to get this job, it

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was a big gamble for my partner Annie and myself: I had to take a significant pay cut after already taking a pay cut to get my first job in brewing, for the most part (as it was a junior position) we had to fund our own relocation and we would now be living 3,500km away from our friends and family.

“Little Creatures was an amazing experience and a unique training ground as not everyone gets the chance to work in a former crocodile farm on a beautiful harbour. The hop back in the brewhouse, the precision bottle conditioning and the unwavering insistence for quality was demanding.

“For the first few years I worked long weeks: 12 hrs+ a day, normally five to six days a week, but it was a labour of love as for the first time I was learning whilst making something in which I truly believed. I worked for Little Creatures from 2004 to 2012 and during that time we went from ca. 10,000HL per annum up to around 100,000HL per annum.

“They certainly weren’t easy years and we certainly had our casualties along the way as that level of growth and intensity is not for everyone. Eventually we were fully bought by Kirin in 2012 (they always had a 30-odd percent shareholding) and we decided to make a move to London.”

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Following the move to England, and a stint at Camden Town Brewery, the cogs in Alex’s head started to turn, and the question of what a long-term future in this industry would look like was ever-present.

“Was a life in London for us, or do we belong somewhere else? What would my ideal brewery look like if I could build it? What would our ideal company look like if we could make it? What is important to us? Can we make something special if we believe in ourselves? Will we be able to leave a legacy behind one day, giving something back to the industry we love, that has been so good to us?” he recalls.

While Lost and Grounded Brewers start brewing this month (July), the idea of the brewery really started to take shape 18 months ago. In that time, Annie would bound up in the middle of the night with names for beers or how something at the brewery could work.

“We’d be waking up at 2am with beer names, I’d shout ‘Running with Sceptres’ and after Alex stopped wondering what on earth I was on about, we’d both get up and start putting together those ideas. We have learned a lot from the US, Belgium, Germany and we have a great deal of respect for those styles. Those leanings have informed what we are doing with our

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Building the dream: Lost and Grounded Brewers, Bristol, 2016

beers and we will do the best we can with those.” she explains.

It wasn’t only the naming of the beers that played a key role in the building of Lost and Grounded Brewers but the artwork, too. And the dripfeed of these assets have been greeted with a palpable enthusiasm from the industry.

“All of these beers have been influenced by our collective past and styles with which we are fascinated.

We aim to take everything we have learned in our studies, travels and experiences to head in new directions. The past is exactly that: we want to create something new,” Alex says.

He adds: “For us, Lost and Grounded Brewers is now a place to belong, and an adventure that we want to share with all. When thinking about our branding we knew we wanted an illustrative approach that would reflect what we aim to create: a world that is fresh, friendly and curious. We chose to work with independent artists and designers to do this project, and particularly wanted to work with people who had little to no experience with brewing; we didn’t want past experiences to constrain new ideas. We love the diversity of branding in the UK brewing industry and really wanted to make our own mark.

"We were very excited when we discovered Alexia Tucker’s portfolio (alexiatuckerillustration.com) and have had a great time working together to give our

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initial range of beers an identity. We had a very distinct idea of what we wanted to portray and Lex was able to translate our vision and crazy notions into what we think has become something very special.

For the finishing touches they used local independent graphic designer Sam Davis (samdavisdesign.com) and said it was great to have the diversity of the team and are really excited with the results. On the beer itself, travel has been an influencing factor that will help define the Bristolbased team. People have long asked what the duo intend on making at Lost and Grounded Brewers.

“For me personally I am excited by the challenge of not repeating history, but rather trying to make new beers which I have seldom been involved in brewing such as Saisons, Tripels and Bocks. It is not about trying to imitate these great beers, but rather to take influence from these styles to create something new,” Alex explains. That inspiration has been expressed in the form of an initial five beers. ‘Keller Pils: Hop Bitter Lager Beer’, ‘Running with Sceptres: Special Lager Beer’, ‘Hop-Hand Fallacy: Farmhouse Ale’, ‘No Rest for Dancer: Hoppy Red Ale’ and finally, ‘Apophenia: Tripel’.

Initially, Alex explains, the team were going to do two beers but that didn’t sit well with Annie who deemed the approach ‘boring’ with a wry laugh.

It then became three. Then four. But following a

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conversation with Moor Beer Co’s Justin Hawke, who declared four as unlucky in some cultures, the magical five were settled on.

“The way it is working is that we thought about doing things a bit different,” he says, “What are we fascinated about? What do we enjoy? Belgian and German brewing traditions are among those but we didn’t want to brand ourselves as that, either. None of us are German, none of us are Belgian, we can’t trade on that, we are Lost and Grounded.”

These beers will be produced at the team’s Bristolbased facility. At 13,000sqft and 12 metres tall in the middle, it’s a big space but the old engineering works is not something they ended up in by accident. Having come across the site last February, the duo “rolled the dice” and drove to see it, deciding to go for it after only seeing the outside. Once all of the kit is in, the company, with storage, will occupy between 60-70% of the space, giving them space to expand, which is key for the team.

The Lost and Grounded Brewers team is completed by head brewer Stuart Howe (formerly of Sharps), brewer Catherine Bates (formerly Flowerpots), brewer Marc Marc Muraz-Dulaurier (formerly Mad Hatter), Samuel Curley (formerly Strawberry Thief) in sales and Mikey Harvey (formerly Hop and Berry) who will be doing kegging, deliveries, sales. The lot.

“It was important to us, to actually get diversity,

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the right people with the right outlook. I know how to make beer, Stuart knows how to make beer, so it was about getting the cross section of personalities in the team. Those things are hard to replicate, the organic mix that is hard to get,” enthuses Alex.

From the off, kegging will be the focus for Lost and Grounded Brewers, with in-house bottling being arranged at the time of writing.

“We are pretty much there. We don’t want to pasteurise the beer if we can. As soon as you contract pack, your hand is forced on that front,” he says.

In terms of distribution, there is a strong focus on the local. The team is also in dialogue with wholesalers for the UK, too. Alex says he is lucky that he has the contacts that have opened doors, but also believes that the hard work put in over his career is paying off.

“The circle has turned,” he claims.

Annie, however, is more direct.

“Our dream has always been to do this. It’s an opportunity for us all to reinvent ourselves. Focusing on what’s important and what’s different. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done before. We are all created equal, and we all have a future.

“What goes around, comes around. We’ve put in a lot of hard work over our careers and we hope that now pays off.” And with his classic dry humour, Alex adds some final words of wisdom “The world is a small place, so always be careful who you piss off.”

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"Everything we do here ties to our values"

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power of sour Earlier this year, Brewery De Brabandere forged further partnerships to officially launch its popular range of Petrus sour beers outside of its home country.

We speak to Albert De Brabandere, the brewery’s retail manager and son of brewery owner Ignace, about respecting tradition, the company’s shift in focus, and his hopes for Petrus beyond Belgium.

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Bre wery

he story of Brewery De Brabandere is one of evolution.

One that has taken place over many years. We started many, many years ago from this same location but people change, companies change and we have changed,” explains a pensive Albert De Brabandere. He is both considered and enthused by the future. One that is currently buoyed by the growing reach of the brewery’s Petrus sour beers. Partnerships have enabled Brewery De Brabandere to have its respected sour beers reach an increasingly diverse audience.

Albert recalls that in 2014 the Belgian company changed its strategy, a move away from a focus on Pilsner and a migration towards speciality beers.

“We changed our name back to the original name and we redefined the values of our brewery, these values are crucial. Everything we do now ties in to those values, and everything comes back to those values. These values are based on passionately driven people, it’s about bringing people together, having a beer. It is the most beautiful thing in the world. Is there a more beautiful thing? I think not. It is the best way to enjoy a beer,” he adds.

Albert continues: “The second value, is value-driven authenticity. What do we mean by that? Yes we have the past. I do care but I don’t care that much, it’s

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about the way we brew our beers in the here and now. Our idea of brewing beers is to do according to what we have learned and that’s by using the best ingredients.

“And the most important ingredient? That is time.

“Our idea of a Pilsner is a solid one, a respected one. The points that define that are no high gravity brewing, to have stability and balance within the product, to only use aroma hops and no bittering hops. Another point is time and the investment of time. We give our product 38 days, even the Pilsner.

You can do it shorter, the finances are better but it’s not in the best interest of the beer. Do you want a stable product? The same taste nine months later?

You need to have lagered it for that time to give it the stability. And finally, pasteurising. No compromise.”

It is this patience that has Albert excited about how the UK will react to the brewery’s Petrus Sour beers.

After all, they’ve been producing them since 1894.

These beers are created using Saaz aroma hops, pale malt, water and house yeast, and aged for two years in 220 HL oak foeders.

The brewery has helped develop a well-balanced ecosystem of wild yeast and bacteria within the wooden walls because unlike cask aging, the use of such large foeders limits exposure to the wood and subsequent oak flavour. Instead, the French oak acts a permeable wall for controlled oxidation and is the

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ideal breeding ground for the six micro-organisms to convert remaining sugars from the main fermentation into acid, higher alcohol content and esters.

And over 24 months of aging, the microbiological flora in the wood reacts with the beer to produce its refreshing sour taste, complex fruity notes and distinctive aroma. Albert says the De Brabanderes are confident enough not to pasteurise any of their beers other than Petrus Sours, which are flash pasteurised, purely

Petrus Aged Pale, the ‘Mother Beer’ 7.3% ABV

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100% foeder blonde beer, Petrus Aged Pale has won multiple gold medals in international beer competitions, including World’s Best Speciality Pale Ale and World’s Best Flavoured Wood Aged in the World Beer Awards. However, the De Brabandere family never intended for it to be bottled and traditionally it was used solely as a blending beer to give a fresh, slightly sour flavour and aroma. For this reason the blonde ale is known as the ‘Mother Beer’ and forms the base of the Flemish red brown Petrus Oud Bruin and the sweet and sour Petrus Aged Red. Petrus Aged Pale has a markedly dry taste with the freshness of sour apples, sherry and fruit aromas.

The distinctive sour flavour is popular in Belgium and contrasts well with the sweetness of shellfish, oily fish and soft cheese.

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to ensure the intriguing, original flavour cannot be replicated.

While Albert and the team respect the past, tradition, and heritage, they are not resting on their laurels, however. The last three years has bore witness to €15m of investment across the brewery and he believes that with around 1% of the market share in Belgium, that is space to grow, expand, and increase this share.

“We now have room to grow, to grow our own brands in the coming years. It’s also about sticking to your values, and these are fuelling our growth and other projects.

We make new investments, but these are quality driven investments. and the quality is improved through these,” he says. “It is about winning in the long run. That’s what we focus on. We are not combating economies of scale, we are doing things our own way. We are in the middle of adding a

Petrus Oud Bruin, 5.5% ABV

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etrus Oud Bruin is a traditional Flemish red brown beer, typical of the Kortrijk and Roeselare region. Aged in oak foeders for two years, it is a blend of 33% Petrus Aged Pale and 67% young, brown beer, accounting for the deep, dark red colour. Refreshing and relatively light, Petrus Oud Bruin is predominantly sour, but has aromas of dried fruit, cherry and peach, with scents of malt, butter and caramel. It is popular as an aperitif or served with mild cheese and seafood.

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"There has been an evolution in flavours for consumers"

new warehouse, our biggest issue is that exports are growing but for that, we need our product to be done by hand and with new investments, this will remain in-house.”

It’s exports that are playing an increased part of Albert’s, and the brewery’s day-to-day schedule.

Albert also has strong views on the place its Petrus beers will have in market.

He stresses: “There has been an evolution is flavours for consumers. Everything was once sweet, but in my opinion it should be crisp and dry. Then there were the hopheads, which is fine too. But there

Petrus Aged Red, 8.5% ABV

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nlike a traditional kriek, Petrus Aged Red is not based on a spontaneously-fermented lambic beer. This unique, dark fruit beer is an expertly crafted blend of 15% Petrus Aged Pale and 85% dubbel bruin with cherries matured for 24 months in oak foeders. The distinctive sour flavour of Petrus Aged Pale is sweetened by the mild, sweet, ruby-red cherries, resulting in a rich and fruity, yet surprisingly refreshing, slightly sour beer that compliments red meat, dark chocolate and blue cheese. All Petrus Sour Beers are best enjoyed in a tulip-shaped glass on a tall stem or large wine glass.

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is a limit. You can’t be chewing on the hops till the next morning. But we have seen the growth in sours.

It has exploded. The US consumer is closer to the Anglo-Saxon consumer, so that’s why have looked to Australia, US, the UK.” Albert and the brewery have strength in their vision but are also indebted to the influence and impact the late beer writer Michael Jackson had in increasing the visibility of their beers.

He explains that Jackson became a regular visit to the brewery, visiting several times at least and it was on his third visit that he was given an ultimatum on buying some of a beer he had become enamoured with. That he had to purchase a not inconsiderable 75hl in one batch, the entire foeder, something he immediately agreed to. This is the equivalent of 22,727 33cl bottles. hAnd, as beer folklore recalls, he was also asked to help name said beer, a drink that is now known as Aged Pale due to his direct deconstruction of the style.

“You can’t say no to him twice after he came back and we are glad we didn’t!” he explains. “The only reason it came on the market in its pure version was due to him. It wasn’t made for sale but here we are.

“At the beginning, we didn’t even know we had such a jewel in-house. The big difference is that we also have a pale version, too. A blonde version is much more difficult to make, if you screw up, you notice it early on so we thank him, and we thank the English for that, too. We love seeing the innovation, people enjoy too. Perception of sour in the UK can be negative for many but we are getting there and we are confident people will enjoy our beers.”

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keep track

Missing kegs and casks cost Canadian breweries millions of dollars each year. But Canada is not alone in this plight, far from it. Recent research from the UK sector placed this figure at upwards of an astounding £50m. Thankfully, tracking technology is becoming more prevalent in the brewing industry and, as a result, there are an increasing number of ways for breweries to keep control of their valuable assets.

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eg loss is an assumed cost for many people. It’s wrong as many companies hadn’t seen this as a problem and just accepted it. But that’s starting to change, thankfully,” explains Mike Eagar, co-founder and CEO at Ottawa, Ontario-based Kegshoe. “But companies such as ours are making people focus on the issue and look at how they can work with us to solve the problem. It’s a case of education, but people are listening.”

Nearly 10% (9.9%) of beer in Canada last year was sold on draught, according to the Beer Canada

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Industry Trends report. Kegs and casks, as most are aware, are used then returned to the brewery for re-filling, with the exception of one-way kegs such as KeyKeg. Nothing surprising here. But we are in an industry where the loss of these vessels is rife, and that is something of an understatement. Many of these disappear in the bar and pub trade. It’s serious and it is simply unsustainable, putting many business, especially the smaller ones, under undue pressure.

This cost burden is a serious problem.The mounting bill affects everyone, including pubs, licensees and their customers. But it seems that it’s largely an issue that has been either ignored, underestimated or avoided in being addressed. However, companies in

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and around the brewing industry are offering products and services that are helping to eliminate these losses, and breweries are seeing the benefits.

Keghoe’s Eagar saw this problem first hand.

“Brewers came to us. We have a reputation locally for being a group that is technically-minded and fans of good beer. Our programmer, who does design work for a brewery here, was approached about the problem of inventory loss and management, so it made sense we looked in to it,” he says.

But instead of putting together a solution as a oneoff, it made sense for Eagar and his colleagues to look at how they could implement it on a broader scale, and address a bigger issue.

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He says: “We have an intimate relationship with brewers in our hometown and our system is based on user interactions. The stronger the participation, the more effective it will work. We are seeing breweries experience a median time at licensee for their kegs sit at around 17 says, which is half of what they are used to. So as a result they are getting beer out in those kegs twice as frequently.

“People are seeing results, and seeing the benefits.

The focus is to push further into the industry and also look at how we can offer more fully-fledged programmes in a modular fashion," he adds. “Smaller brewers don’t need all 20 tools, and they don’t want to pay for them, either. Modular technology is the way

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fast tech is going, anyway, so it makes sense for all concerned.”

One company that has benefited from the Kegshoe proposition is Ontario’s Big Rig Brewery, which implemented the manufacturer’s keg tracking software.

“Big Rig Brewery has been able to eliminate their costly, inefficient, and outdated keg management practices. Their enhanced visibility over their entire keg inventory has allowed their business to grow exponentially faster and gain a stronger competitive edge in the craft beer industry,” he says.

According to Eagar, Big Rig recently realized their methods for managing their keg inventory were both inefficient and costly. Relying solely on their financial system to manage their kegs, it was impossible for Big Rig to accurately gauge their keg inventory levels and effectively manage their draught production.

He explains: “The result was that kegs routinely spent 30 to 40 days (and sometimes longer) at a licensee before being returned to the brewery.

Shortages of empty kegs to refill were common, and keg loss rates were reaching levels as high as 10% annually. Big Rig would need to purchase a new batch of kegs three to four times a year, yet the number of licensees was not growing at nearly the same rate.

“Even retrieving kegs from a licensee was a tedious process, where staff printed off weekly accounts receivables reports and called each individual licensee to verify if they had any kegs that need to be returned. Big Rig realized changes would be required to resolve these inventory management issues.

Last year, Big Rig began using Kegshoe’s keg tracking software. Within weeks of starting with the software, Big Rig was able to have a complete picture of their entire keg inventory.

They were able to see which licensees had which kegs and for how long, track how many clean and dirty kegs were at each storage location, and view their entire draught production levels.

“With mobile iOS and Android scanning apps, the software has been easily integrated throughout the workforce. This enhanced visibility has had a major impact on Big Rig and has allowed the business to grow faster,” he adds.

The key benefits from using the software saw Big Rig cut annual keg loss from 10% to 1.4%, and reduce the median time at licensee from 35 days to 17.

Another supplier, OrchestratedBEER, offers brewery management software and boasts built-in reporting to perform your own keg tracking without the spreadsheets and additional equipment.

The system works by knowing what gets shipped to customers based on the Bill of Lading and can assign keg deposits on a shipment. That deposit is then held in a liability account until the keg shell is returned.

Once returned, OBeer automatically applies invoice credit to the customer’s account.

The company explains: “The keg container activity report uses this process to determine what was shipped out and what was returned. The net

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difference indicates what’s on hand at your customers & distributors.

“OBeer can tell you how many kegs went out, how many were returned and the net difference between the two.If you want to serialize your kegs and know exactly which kegs are out floating around, then consider investing in a RFID or barcode scanning system to provide that information.

“Ask yourself if it’s really worth investing significant time and money into RFID or barcode keg tracking just to have the satisfaction of knowing exactly where keg #1234 is at any time. Yes, RFID & barcode scanning can track the number of turns per keg and notify when it’s time to refurbish. But a trained eye can tell you the same thing. Is it worth the investment just so you can automate what your eyes can already tell you for free?”

“The system has solved the keg tracking conundrum with a keg container activity report to show how many kegs went out to a customer and how many were returned. The net difference between went out and what came back is what they should still have on hand.”

Elsewhere, Scott Moorad, VP of business development and strategy at SLG, is a keen advocate of the brewing industry and has previously helped set up a software company, KegID. “Why? he questions. “Because we knew colleagues in brewing that were losing kegs left, right and centre, which wasn’t right. When you look at the broader premise that kegs are not tracked today, it is mindblowing, It really is.

“My instinct was that there was not answer to this issue at that point. But you need to look at the bottom line, and when you look at it that way, you are only able to sell as much as those kegs move. Forget about them not coming back, if they don’t come back fast, then you are being slowed down. This was in 2011,” he says. “SLG, who own Kegspediter are on the path to collect 8m empty kegs this year. This model is used to speed up how fast you can get your kegs back to use them again. This enables companies to use them more often and reduce the mount you buy by 30%,” he states.

Moorad believes that logistics was previously the emphasis, now that lies firmly on tracking.

“Every keg will be tracked in ten years time,” he stresses.

He explains: “In tracking, scanning a keg, whether it’s a barcode, RFID or whatever, it’s about what you do with it once you scan it. It’s the analytics, these show you where it is, and when you see leg by leg, you see where the inefficiencies are and then where are they not returning, it’s a case of accountability. We can pinpoint numbers, where they were, what was in them and the cost that exists to breweries. To me, that is why keg tracking hasn’t taken hold yet because I don’t have a way to tell my customer that they are the problem. There hasn’t been a way.

“Look at keg invoicing and write-off tools, if you have a fixed asset on your books, depreciating it over

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time and factoring in for loss. With that audit trail, you can sit down with your customer and break down the cost of lost kegs, as you can say that we are all in it together. It’s a collaborative conversation not an adversarial conversation. It presents you with the facts and with the figures. It allows you to write them off if it comes to it. It’s a popular desire. It’s education.

Nobody wants to lose kegs. With our system we are seeing 5-6% loss, possibly up to 10% and with our customers that are on top of it, it can be down to 2%.”

Moored emphasises that it is about quality.

“One of the beauties of this big beer movement, of those dozen opening each month is that they are in it for the love and passion of beer, they are looking at making the best beer they can. Quality is very important to them, of course it is. So kegs are a massive part of this. And that is very important to us and our connection with them. Its a preventative and proactive approach. The journey of the beer is only starting when it leaves the brewery, not ending. There are so many different benefits across the spectrum,” he adds.

We also have an ROI calculator that can blow people away. We ask what it costs to lost 5% of your kegs a year. Or if you improve your efficiency by even 3%, how that can improve the bottom line. Also, how do we get traction with brewers. We always start with one question. how many kegs do you own? They don’t know.

Elsewhere, TrackX offers a keg tracking and management solution based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.

This, as the company explains, helps brewers automate the process of keg tracking and managing their kegs. RFID tags are placed on the kegs, and at any stage in the cycle, the keg’s status can be checked as it passes through a fixed RFID portal, or when it is scanned using a wireless handheld scanner during keg delivery and pickup.

The company’s AssetTrack software solution processes the RFID scans and then provides brewers with up-to-date information about their kegs. This includes the keg’s last location, which customers have which kegs, how long the kegs have been at the customer site, which customers keep kegs the longest.

They explain: “With AssetTrack, brewers have analytic tools to help them better plan and manage the movement of their kegs. AssetTrack can create custom and ad hoc reports that detail keg movement, status, and cycle time statistics, which helps with planning. Better visibility and planning improves keg control, security and utilization.

“Brewers can use AssetTrack and RFID to uniquely identify each keg and its contents, and capture important data throughout its journey through the supply chain. Using the cloud-based system, brewers have accurate, up-to-date information and reports on keg fills, status, movement, customer location, returns, keg repair and maintenance. TrackX’s keg management system is end-to-end (software, hardware

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and services) and will start providing benefits on the first day.”

Finally, Andy Dorr, managing director at Athelia UK, offers a UK viewpoint and believes the industry is slowly starting to catch up with a lot of other supply chains.

“It’s quite strange to me, how things are changing and developing. It is become the norm to track, and sign. It’s a common problem in using returnable assets, you can only count around 20% of the assets you own. Sure, the brewery has a few more problems than other industries with returnable assets. And sometimes when speaking to people outside of it, you sit there and think, I’m not even going to attempt to try and defend the industry that sees such high losses.

But it is a case of education, and we are getting there,” he says.

Dorr explains: “Without the right technology, you may have a vague idea of the loss rates, but only with it can you react to it and make a difference. In the five years I spent with Trendstar, I was responsible in purchasing 2m cask and kegs, replacing up to 30% of the container population in the UK in the process.

8th Wonder Brewery Since opening its doors in 2013, 8th Wonder Brewery has been a favourite of craft beer aficionados in the greater Houston area — and for good reason. The popular brewer uses only the freshest ingredients of the highest quality.

Each batch of beer the company brews undergoes strict flavour analysis and quality control. Located in a domelike warehouse in the shadow of the Houston skyline just blocks from the Astros, Dynamo, and Rockets stadiums, 8th Wonder is the craft beer for the home team.

The craft beer industry has seen more than a decade of growth, posting double-digit gains in recent years.

These small, independent brewers are growing demand for specialty beers with enthusiastic support across the distribution system from brewer to wholesale distributor to retailer.

However, this three-tiered distribution system lacks accountability.

Most brewers have limited visibility into the movement of their product beyond distribution to a wholesaler. In losing control of their supply chain, craft breweries are also losing kegs — typically up to five percent of their inventory each year. At an average of $130 per keg, that can have a significant impact on the bottom line.

8th Wonder Brewery recognizes the critical role that keg tracking can play in preventing loss and maximizing the use of these valuable assets. In fact, they believe that it is so vital that they implemented KegID asset tracking, now a solution from Satellite Logistics Group (SLG), when they first rolled out their craft beer in 2013.

Each of the brewer’s 1,300 kegs is now tagged with a metal QR code. Keeping track of them is as simple as scanning each keg every time it changes possession. A Bluetooth scanner is attached to a smartphone which runs

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Many positive things have happened in recent years.

Acceptance of the problem, in my opinion, hadn’t really taken place until then.

“Breweries have started working together too, working on assets, and a focus on the supply chain.

Look at metal theft, it’s a big problem. From our industry, if someone steels a keg, it’s seen as a victimless crime, and nobody knows about it. Unlike a power station losing cable and the negative impact on their service that will have. The impact and effect is different. The industry didn't publicise the scale of the problem so not to potentially make the problem any worse and encourage other people to worsen the issue.

He says the whole situation is cyclical. Different breweries have taken up their own initiatives and that’s positive. Most people he speaks to now, says there is an air of inevitability of doing this rather than an option.

Dorr and Athelia have enjoyed great success with its KegFlow offering, a proven RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag driven keg and cask tracking and management solution. Created by the Athelia, Portinox

the proprietary application.

The technology, which is designed specifically for the three-tier brewing industry, gives 8th Wonder access to a wealth of information. They now know where each keg is, what’s in it, and how long it has been gone.

8th Wonder can leverage online automated inventory and monthly production web reports, so they can see what kegs they have by size, style, and status at any time. Google Maps integration, Web-based reporting, email alerts and other features further aid visibility.

The brewer can gain a clear picture of what each retailer and distributor possess. They’re able to track internal kegcleaning and repair needs, as well.

“We have better control and visibility into our cooperage,” says Alex Vassilakidis, 8th Wonder CFO. “We are anticipating PAR levels, turn times, and retention rates.”

Automated reports also allow the brewer to develop better long-term analytical capability. With good, complete data, 8th Wonder can review a year’s worth of information and analyze how long each customer holds on to kegs, determine a better distribution of keg sizes and use trends to forecast future needs.

This in-depth business intelligence can help 8th Wonder to increase accountability, maximize asset use, reduce keg loss, and make more informed business decisions.

At 8th Wonder, plans are in the works to double the size of the brewery, so tracking keg inventory will be even more important. As new kegs enter the pipeline, they will be coded and added to inventory. Accommodating the expansion will be seamless since the KegID technology is designed to grow with the brewer.

Tagging kegs for scanning costs less than a dollar per keg. Vassilakidis believes the investment in KegID is well worth it. He notes that cooperage is the only component of the final product that is reusable.

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and Kegspertise, it is pitched as a “comprehensive, scalable and powerful” system that has been developed specifically with brewers needs in mind.

“Quite simply, it enables brewers to realise true return on investment from the tracking and managing of their valuable supply chain assets. It is a solution that delves deep into brewers processes. For example the solution calculates ongoing cycle times so that you can forecast keg and cask purchase accurately.

Clever tracking technology pinpoints asset losses and loss rate trends,” the company adds.

KegFlow is fully automated using RFID tags and scanners, eliminating the need for manual intervention at the scanning and tag level.

Tags in this instance can be retrofitted or integrated during manufacture and the containers are tracked and managed from the filling line offering fill-to-fill cycle management as well as fill-to-return.

The company explains: “Specially developed bulk scanning technology allows the system to read entire trailers full of kegs with over 99% accuracy. This happens transparently and automatically every time a trailer goes through a warehouse gate.

The system is updated with quality data

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continuously, without the need to tap into labour extensive processes.

“KegFlow offers actionable game changing information that accurately informs decision making.

Its cloud-based software solution has a dashboard that can be easily configured to suit personal needs, whether you are in Finance, Production, Sales or Planning.

“The solution can be integrated with all ERP systems. It comes with a comprehensive suite of software modules with the option to extend the system into areas such as maintenance, customer service and product recall.

Its highly intelligent, intuitive and easy to use format is so popular that some clients are requesting bespoke modules of their own, outside of the realms of keg tracking.”

The company has clients such as Molson Coors and Carlsberg UK on its books with Neil Harrison, head of primary logistics at Carlsberg UK adding: “Our containers are a costly and valuable resource and we needed an accurate solution that would improve our ability to manage them. KegFlow is a robust, reliable, and importantly scalable RFID solution."

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Consistent Cleanliness CIP, hygiene and sanitation are key facets of the brewing landscape. In this feature, we catch up with some leading manufacturers and suppliers this space to look at some the key trends and developments taking place across this spectrum.

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rom small micro breweries to the larger companies producing thousands of barrels a week, they all face a wealth of on-going hygiene, regulatory and business challenges.

And maintaining a clean brewery so that it can produce a consistent, top quality product is at the heart of this.

It goes without saying that regardless of the changes taking place in the industry brewery hygiene is still of paramount importance to breweries.

“Consistency is key and brewers need to ensure that the product they are delivering is in top condition, and meets the customers’ requirements.

"The pressure is high to ensure that this is maintained because if the end customer isn’t satisfied, then they will simply buy another product, and the repercussions will be clearly felt in the sales figures,” explains Nick Edwards from hygiene technology firm Holchem.

He says: “This isn’t a ‘trend’ confined to 2016; it’s one that is a constant in the industry. Contaminants in small numbers can become a bigger problem during the production process, and cleaning and disinfecting thoroughly will help deliver a high quality beer, delivering customer satisfaction and avoiding the potential for loss of revenue.

“There are a relatively small number of microorganisms which can spoil the quality of the beer,

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but the relatively small numbers have the potential to have a devastating effect on the end product, severely altering flavour and taste or causing the beer to go cloudy. It’s key to remember that there is no one solution to cleaning and hygiene and it can’t be bought ‘off the peg’.”

According to Edwards, the company works with its clients to ensure they have a sound bespoke hygiene management system in place, which is a complete, method to manage their hygiene operation on site, both for open plan cleaning and cleaning in place (CIP) and its system complies with all known industry standards.

“All parties have to understand that it is a package of the relationship, knowledge, experience, and quality products blended with application skills that solve problems. No mater what the size of the brewery we provide a full range of products and technical ‘know how’ to maintain the consistency that the end customer is looking for, and expects from their purchase,” he says.

“The industry is becoming more and more competitive on a daily basis with a high level of NPD and companies are fighting to gain the trust and loyalty of the end customer. A high standard of hygiene is a key factor in helping them produce a top quality reliable product that will help them gain the advantage, and create a product that is second to none.”

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contamination challenge

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amloops-based Brewhouse Supplies reinforces that contamination can spoil any batch of beer, which explains why all of its brewery tanks and stainless steel kegs are made of food safe materials.

They add: “However, the brewing process is not the only point where proper hygiene is a must. When transporting beers to their final destination, the kegs must be thoroughly sanitized, along with all of the keg filling materials that will come into contact with the beer. Canadian Brewhouse Supplies is proud to supply only the best keg cleaning and filling machinery.

“Our product line features, expandable production capacity that ranges from 10 to 35 kegs per hour, while cycles include emptying, depressurization, cold water flush, sanitizing, cold water rinse, steam sterilization, CO2 Fill and keg filling.

“Microbrewery establishments or pubs, or restaurants that tap beer from kegs, rather than directly from tanks, also need appropriate keg cleaning equipment to ensure proper sanitation. This equipment can be used to fill kegs of cider, wine or other beverages.”

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For Gary Shaw, managing director at Flextech Hose, the hose industry that it operates in is highly commoditised and price orientated. It’s full of mainly poor quality hoses that are not suitable for what they are suggested to be used for and are not fit for purpose.

“Many of the poor quality hoses are imported and sold/advertised as being suitable but are not. They don’t comply to legislation. Many people unknowingly buy poor quality hoses due to being Illy advised by hose companies or people who don’t actually understand hoses. They’re there to make quick cash,” he stresses.

Shaw pinpoints PVC, which has been certified as safe to use for food and drinks production by European legislation, however this is a certain grade of PVC. He explains: “The PVC hose/tube people are buying to brew their beers etc is almost never this grade and so would not comply. PVC is a petroleum based product that leaches. Plasticisers are what make PVC hose flexible and when a PVC hose becomes stiff and discoloured it means the plasticisers and other chemicals have leached into the product being conveyed. The discolouration comes from the beer permeating the hose.

“The dangers of using non-hygienic hoses are

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well known. For example most PVC hoses are made from materials that can leach into your product. The plasticisers and Phthalates found in PVC hose can contaminate your products and even affect the look and taste. Furthermore it is also possible that your final product may be contaminated to the extent that it is not fit for human consumption which could have a significant impact on your business and reputation.

“However, new legislation is in place to help prevent this misconception of what is or is not a suitable hose.

This is because there are many types and variations of hose available in the current marketplace, some products are marketed and branded as FDA / Hygienic and can be manufactured from inferior compounds often as a result of importing cheap products from other countries.

“Cheap rubber hoses are also problem in the market. Manufacturers use fillers such as chalk to enable them to sell the hose cheaper. A simple test to see if a hose has chalk in it is to flex it and the chalk will start to come through the hose.”

One way the company is combating these issues is its Brewflex product, which was designed over an 18-month period to create, as he explains, a truly unique, high quality product.

It is manufactured in a clean production area on automated machines that use a 316L stainless steel mandrel. This results in a highly clean and pure mirror finish, smooth, butyl lined hygienic hose. It also has an exclusive anti-friction, easy-clean cover enabling it to be moved around a brewery easily, eliminating issues with cumbersome long lengths.

Shaw explains: “I had a conversation with the owner of a brewery who said to me: “In the end, a hose is just a hose isn’t it?” And I replied: “Isn’t that

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like me saying your beer is just like any other beer?”

Well, I certainly don’t believe this, and I know you don’t! So why is it that people believe a hose is just a hose?

“The look, smell and taste are all things that make a beer distinctive and the same goes for hoses: the ingredients they’re made from and the way they’re formulated defines the individual qualities they offer.

Unfortunately, to a person who doesn’t understand beer or hoses they would argue that they are all the same, however they couldn’t be more wrong. We know your product is special whether it’s a beer, a spirit, a wine, a cider or a perry and our brewery hose is too.

I believe the term ‘high quality’ has lost its value and has become a generic phrase for promoting hose products. If I were to tell you that many of the ‘hygienic’ hoses available in todays market were manufactured on dirty, uncleaned, greasy steel mandrels, where foreign particles have been found in the hose liner you wouldn’t believe me… but you should.

“We deal with about 200 or so breweries now.

We’re seeing an attitudinal change slowly emerging.

More and more brewers and breweries are opting for hygienic hose solutions.”

preventing beer spoilage

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s part of a brewery’s Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan the aim should be to reduce the number of opportunities spoilage bacteria have.

Therefore the brewer needs to look at the different sources of contamination within the brewery site

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and control the access bacteria have to the product, explains explains Timothy Woolley, technical director at beer spoilage testing specialists Pura Diagnostics.

Beer is a very stable microbiological medium, the presence of ethanol, a high carbon dioxide content, a low pH, hop acids and finally the reduced availability of nutrients mean that few microorganisms have been able to establish an environmental niche.

Nevertheless, a few bacteria, including Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) of the genera Lactobacillus and Pediococcus and the anaerobic bacteria Pectinatus and Megasphaera can. Because of this these four species are responsible for most beer spoilage events.

Bacterial spoilage often leads to visible turbidity, sediment formation, acidification, off-flavors and ropiness. Paradoxically it is because of beers harsh environment that bacteria are forced to use alternate internal pathways to survive and in doing so produce some of the chemicals connected with spoilage e.g. acetoin and diacetyl.

As part of a breweryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan the aim should be to reduce the number of opportunities spoilage bacteria have. Therefore the brewer needs to look at the different sources of contamination within the brewery site and control the access bacteria have to the product.

Although LAB are responsible for approx. 80%

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of beer infections, recent improvements in filling technology has seen an increase in anaerobic microorganisms of the genus Pectinatus and Megasphaera.

Due to their ability to form microbial biofilms that are present on the surfaces of pipelines, floors, machinery etc. these microorganisms pose a growing threat to brewers, especially as they are capable of infecting beer during the final packing phase (bottling/canning lines).

Although anaerobic bacteria can be present in biofilms around the brewery, LAB are found almost everywhere, and are part of the normal flora of the beers core ingredients. Even the cleanest brewery has spoilage bacteria, and at some point they will come into contact with your beer.

cleaning regime

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o itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a good idea for each brewery to develop its own cleaning regime, and audit its effectiveness on a regular basis. From this the brewer will be able to establish acceptable limits for their site. These limits can be based on experience, scientific literature, or industry and governmental guidelines.

The most important thing that that you document

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your reasoning and that the process is checked and audited on a regular basis. Its especially important to perform testing after a change in any process, be it new equipment, new ways or working, even new staff members.

Bacteria testing should always be proactive, not reactive. A brewer using a good HACCP plan will have looked at all the possible infection points and be able detect a low-grade bacterial infection before its had a chance to cause a serious problem. One of the best ways of doing this is by regular, on-going testing regimes.

To eliminate spoilage bacteria, you need to know at what stage of your brewing process it could be introduced. It might also be helpful to know what species of bacteria this might be, where it might live and how to deal with it.

Periodic testing covering each stage of the brewing process will give you an idea of how good your overall site sanitation is, on-site testing because its quick and easy is ideal for this. If you use a contract lab, you can always send a sample from each area of your production facility over a set period, making sure you cover each identified control point.

The use of an audit schedule can be invaluable. Of cause this can covered in your due diligence screen, however spreading testing over a period of time may give a better reflection of your breweries general hygiene than doing one or two full screens a year.

If you can see a potential issue before it becomes a problem, there will be no need to pour good money down the drain.

Evidence suggests that up to 20-25% of craft beer can be infected with spoilage bacteria, some very recent data even found detectable levels of spoilage organisms in pasteurized beers. As craft brewing companies grow, become more adventurous and produce greater volumes of beer, the finished product can become subject to increased storage and shipping times.

In addition increased frequency of production can put a strain on cleaning processes. To meet the growing demands of a very selective customer base, the need to check site hygiene and product quality is essential.

However many craft brewers do not have the benefit of having their own microbiology laboratory, either because of site restrictions, knowledge, or the because of the expense involved, but microbiological on-site testing isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t beyond even the smallest brewery.

Easy to use on-site testing technologies have been around for some time; of the automated technologies ATP (luciferase) methods are now reasonably common and have proven their worth over decades. ATP relies on the detection of the organismâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s metabolism, and therefore results are said to reflect the microbiolgical bourdon of the area tested.

Results are also produced very quickly, however the reagents used in ATP analysis can be sensitive to degradation in the presence of some cleaning agents, especially hypochlorite based cleaners (false

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negatives), in addition they are not selective and pick up any living organism, so can be responsible for false positive results.

Of the manual methods chromogenic liquid media is growing in popularity. This colour changing liquid media is economical, easy to use and selective for beer spoilers. Beer/wort is mixed with the liquid media, sealed and incubated, if bacteria are present the media changes colour.

This method has the advantage that the initial outlay is negligible compared to other methods, its easier than performing plate analysis, the user requires little or no training and its as quick if not quicker than culture, results are often available in 2-3 days, although it can take up to 5. It does not however tell the brewer exactly what spoilage organism is.

laboratory testing

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n general culture methods still predominate the spoilage testing market, however culture techniques are relatively slow and suffer from a lack of specificity and sensitivity.

As such the array of new rapid technologies available to the brewing industry has exploded, new technologies include, Direct epifluorescence filter techniques, Direct antibody techniques, Insitu hybridization techniques, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).

Most of these sit in the realms of academia or industrial brewing operations, simply because of the expense and expertise required, however a few, especially PCR are now available to the craft brewer.

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these. So although there are on-site options available, the use of a contract lab makes getting access to this technology easier and more economical (at present).

is pcr better than culture

Y

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olymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a technique that is used to amplify trace amounts of DNA. The key to PCR is that every human, animal, plant, or in our case bacteria contains unique genetic material (DNA) that is specific to that organism, and PCR not only picks these unique bits of DNA up it can also give you an approximation of how much of the DNA was in the sample in the first place, and therefore how many bacteria were present.

More importantly its quick, very specific, very sensitive and because of recent advances it now cost about the same as traditional culture techniques.

One of the main advantages of PCR is in the detection of Viable But Non-Culturable (VNC) bacteria. Culture does not identify bacteria in the VNC state, these bacteria are still alive and ticking over but they essentially downgrade their metabolism to survive in harsh conditions, as such they stop rapidly dividing, and do not grow on culture media. However as long as the bacteria are there they can spoil the product, but because there is bacterial DNA present PCR will pick it up.

So what’s the down side of PCR, well the technique is still quite complex, and the equipment still quite expensive, a basic model costs around £10-15K. Cheaper equipment is available but it’s usually a closed system where you have to buy specific reagents from the manufacturer, who makes a margin selling

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ou would expect me to say yes, obviously, but its horses for courses.

Traditional culture methods although relatively slow, are easy to perform and cheap.

The downside is they can pick up bacteria that don’t spoil beer and can miss ones that do.

The agar used although selective for spoilage doesn’t mirror whats in your beer (it doesn’t contain alcohol for instance). However if used right culture its a great tool for the brewer, especially so if its done on-site and used as part of an on-going risk based quality management system.

So where does PCR fit in, well its much quicker (hours compared to days), it doesn’t miss VNC bacteria and it only picks up the bacteria of interest. It can be used as an alternative to culture, or in addition to culture, and certainly that’s the trend we are seeing right now.

Many of the larger US craft brewers as well as the much bigger multinational breweries now have a variety of testing set-ups, some use culture, but are looking at the easier to use colour changing liquid media.

The advantage here is that the brewer can test every relevant part of the brewing process very easily and cheaply, only using PCR for bacteria identification or as a sense check. However we are also seeing some brewers e.g. Avery, Victory, Stone, and Russian River to name but a few, opting to replace culture altogether and now have basic PCR systems on-site. We expect that over the next few years UK brewers to follow suit.

Future trends

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raft brewers are by nature experimental, which comes with risks, so having better control over quality is essential.

Better beer is good business, and more testing can only lead to better beer.

On-site testing ticks most of the boxes a brewer could want ticked. Its far more economical than using a contract lab, its as quick if not quicker in most cases, it can provide more or less the same information and if the brewer either has the skill base to use culture plates or opts for colour changing liquid media there is little in the way of initial outlay.

As a point of reference this is exactly what has happened in the clinical market place, where ‘point of care’ (on-site testing’) has become mainstream.

We have no doubt however that PCR will come to dominate the beer testing market, up until now the cost and expertise required have limited its use, but as PCR is now priced the same as laboratory culture

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methods, there is little stopping any craft brewer accessing this state of the art technology.

For the more adventurous brewers having access to their own systems could well be the next move.

atp testing

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lsewhere, some of the major challenges for brewers are to make safe quality beer that maintains consumer confidence, while meeting retailer expectations and minimising both costs and wastage.

This, Hygiena International explains, has been achieved in many microbreweries by using a simple rapid test, to determine the hygienic quality of their production equipment and working surface areas.

One company has been using Hygiena International’s cleaning systems since 2008. ATP testing is a simple and affordable test method that verifies cleaning effectiveness in seconds.

Central to this is the range of SystemSure Plus to carry out quick and accurate ATP testing of surface areas.

This simple method of testing verifies cleaning effectiveness in seconds, and is based on the detection of organic residues on surfaces and in water samples using a bioluminescent reaction.

The manufacturer offers pen-shaped test devices that contain a modified firefly enzyme that reacts with organic material to produce light.

This is then measured in a handheld meter, a luminometer, which is about the size of a TV remote control.

The luminometer converts the light output into an RLU number (Relative Light Unit. The lower that number, the cleaner the surface, or less contamination in the water sample if a CIP system is being tested.

The brewery relies on quick turnaround, and as soon as a tank is emptied it is immediately deep cleaned ready for the next beer.

Its ATP meter indicates what is clean and also, what is not clean. If occasionally a higher ATP level is indicated, another caustic cleaning cycle is undertaken.

This can take place until the score gives confidence that the vessel is clean enough to ensure the quality and consistency of the next brew.

The attention to cleanliness has resulted in the brewery, established in 2005, being picked by the Food Certification Body SALSA (Safe and Local Supplier Approval) to trial a new brewery focused standard for beer, “SALSA plus Beer”.

The standard, launched last year, allows small breweries and bottlers across the UK to follow a dedicated standard that gives confidence to customers and retailers that their beer is safe, as well as of excellent quality and consistency.

SALSA helps raise quality and compliance standards within the sector while also providing increased confidence for both retailers and ‘on trade’ buyers.

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P e d i ococc u s

Friend and Foe Pediococcus is a genus of Gram-positive lactic acid bacteria (LAB), belonging to the family of Lactobacillacea. They are, as Timothy Woolley, technical director at Pura DX explains, considered facultative anaerobes, and will use aerobic respiration to produce energy if oxygen is present but will switch to fermentation when oxygen is low or absent, they are non-motile and do not produce protective spores.

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ediococcus are homofermentive, in which they utilize glucose to produce lactic acid (using the Embden-MeyerhofParnas pathway). However metabolic end products vary according to the conditions provided, typically beer spoilage Pediococcus produce diacetyl as a major byproduct.

The genus Pediococcus consists of the following species: P. acidilactici, P. pentosaceus, P. damnosus, P. parvulus, P. inopinatus, P. halophilus, P. dextrinicus, and P. urinaeequi. Of which P. damnosus is considered the major beer spoiler.

Pediococcus as with some other LAB have been used as probiotics for many years both as food preservers such as in sauerkraut, kefir, khadi, soy, and dry sausage, as well as a pre-culture and flavour

enhancer in some cheeses and yoghurts. Off flavour properties which include the production of a butter and butterscotch is actually used to enhance the flavour of some beverages e.g wine (esp chardonnay) and cider. Pediococcus is also a major component of a lambic beer culture and can be bought either as a sole inoculant or in a sour beer inoculation mixture along with Lactobacillus.

In addition to their acid producing properties LAB also produce antibacterial proteins known as bacteriocins which have been found along with pH to act as affective preservatives, and since the safety of chemical preservatives have been questioned the use of LAB and their metabolites is generally accepted by consumers as something natural and healthy. As such fermented foods are currently seeing a resurgence in popularity.

There are about 20 gram positive lactic acid

Pediococcus Domain: Bacteria Phylum: Firmicutes Class: Bacilli Order: Lactobacillales Family: Lactobacillaceae Genus: Pediococcus

1: Pour 3-8ml beer/wort directly into the FastOrange tube 2: Incubate tubes at 20-27oC for 2-7 days 3: Beer spoilage bacteria turn the broth orange/yellow

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P e d i ococc u s producing bacteria that have been identified as beer spoilers, of these Lactobacillius brevis is the most common, however Pediococcus species and especially P. damnosus are also a major issue, even more so as its presence in spoiled beer been under reported.

Pedioccocus damnosus was originally named Pediococcus cerevisiae, this was later changed to damnosus, by Claussen in the early 1900’s. A further species of Pedioccocus called claussenii has recently been described as a new beer spoiler as has Pediococcus inopinatus.

Approx 60-90% of beer spoilage incidents are linked to LAB, among the most prevalent of these is Pediococcus damnosus, which between 1992-2002 accounted for anywhere between 3-31% of spoilage incidents per year. It must be noted however that Pediococcus species can be hard to cultivate using traditional microbiological media and either media that has been optimised for Pediococcus or the use of DNA technology is now being used to improve detection rates.

Beer Spoilage by P. damnosus is often characterised by diacetyl formation along with lactic acid production, the amount of diacetyl is often very high and detectable even at low bacterial levels. Because of its ability to grow even at low temperatures spoilage can occur in the fermentation and maturation stage of beer production as well as in bottled products.

Pediococcus contamination is also a problem in pitching yeast, as the bacteria is thought to bind to the yeast cell and is difficult to remove.

Some Pediococcus bacteria are now so specialised as a beer spoiler that some forms cannot live outside of the brewery.

direction

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ediococcus are difficult to detect using traditional culture methods and often require specialised media, because of its propensity to grow at low temperatures the optimum culture temperature is 22-25, unfortunately Pediococcus can in fact often fail to grow even on specialised media including de Man, Rogosa and Sharpe (MRS) as well as Raka-Ray media, the media often recommended for beer spoilage LAB. Therefore new types of liquid culture media are now being widely used. This type of chromogenic media (colour changing) relies on the ability of the bacteria to produce lactic acid which turns the media from one colour into another, making detection easier and often quicker (FastOrange), than waiting for the bacteria to form visible colonies.

Other LAB detection methods include the detection of gas produced by the bacteria (SpeedyBreedy) and probably the gold standard, the detection of Pediococcus DNA and/or the beer spoilage genes themselves that are only found in spoilage LAB (BrewTek).

Highly specialised bacteria such as those found in the brewery are now known to be very fastidious

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and exhibit hard to cultivate characteristics, it is therefore suggested that incident reporting has been underestimated and in fact P. damnosis could be far more prevalent than current data suggests.

Similar to other beer spoilage LAB, Pediococcus are are perfectly adapted to the brewing environment, there is some evidence that certain elements in the brewing process actually promote the growth of these bacteria. In some cases the bacteria have lost the ability to utilize a wide range of sugars and rely on the brewery almost as their sole environmental niche.

Several factors appear to be critical for the inhibition of Pediococcus is beer samples, of these pH and Hop Acids are amongst the most well known, low pH promotes the antibacterial affects of hop acids, however it has also been found that a tiny increase in pH (0.2) can reduce the efficacy of hops acids by as much as 50% and therefore closely monitoring pH can aid in the reduction of beer spoilage opportunities.

Carbon Dioxide levels are also critical in the reduction of Pediococcus infections, beer with low levels of CO2 have been found to particularly susceptible to spoilage, e.g. cask or Nitrogen gassed ales. However the usual rapid use of this type of product may mean that the product is used before an infection becomes obvious.

hop resistance

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ecause beer spoilage bacteria can be hard to culture and the fact that beer spoilage can often be caused by a mixed population bacteria, often only those bacteria that are easier to grow that are identified. In addition to this some bacteria that will grow on media may not actually be beer spoilers and the brewer must rely on the experience and judgment of the microbiologist to tell them if the bacteria grown will produce off flavours.

Because of this there maybe some over reporting of spoilage attributed to one or two types of bacteria and under reporting of others.

However the discovery of ‘hop spoilage’ genes carried almost exclusively by beer spoilage LAB has meant that even if the type of beer spoilage LAB is not known the brewer will at least know if the bacteria found is a spoiler or not. The advent of DNA technology now means that those species carrying the genetic markers of spoilage can be quickly and accurately identified even if they have not yet been described in the literature.

Those genes, termed horA and horC, give protection against the antibacterial affects of hop acids, and are therefore critical in the bacteria survival, however their role in spoilage may be wider than is generally accepted and these genes may also enable bacteria to survive in high alcohol environments.

Because of this, spoilage gene detection technology such as that being used by Pura Diagnostics means that beer spoilage bacteria can be quickly identified,

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P e d i ococc u s

results can often be ready in 48 hours which is several days ahead of even the best culture methods. Â There are a fair few theories to how hop resistance came about, and depending on what level you want to go to, it can either be quite logical or a little mind blowing. In essence the environmental pressure, of existence in the brewery forced the bacteria that could gain a foothold via their presence in raw materials used in beer to adapt and survive in the brewery.

Breweries are full of sugar, protein and carbohydrate, as well as vitamins and minerals.

They are also wet and warm, an ideal habitat for a bacterium. However in amongst this there is the anti-bacterial hop acids, alcohol and low pH to deal with. Therefore bacteria have in a relatively short evolutionary time period (a few 100 years) opted to develop resistance and maintain it in the form of hop resistant genes.

This process is energy intensive, however as there is a plentiful supply of sugar available this isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t an issue at the outset. Yet as soon as you take the LAB away from the selective pressure of the brewery the bacteria begin to loose the genes. So this is a case of the bacteria cutting its cloth.

Now to go a little deeper you have to accept that in the dim and distant past, cells and genes lived separate lives. Single celled organisms at the time (primordial soup period) were the highest life form,

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and possibly preyed on genes and other free-living entities, that are now incorporated into cells.

There was probably a period where the cell and the gene fought it out for dominance until eventually they entered an equilibrium, the hardy bacteria protected the delicate gene, gave it a place to stay, food and mobility as well as a low energy means of replication via entry into other bacteria, and the gene gave the bacteria novel proteins that enable it to quickly overcome environmental hurdles.

This hasn't just happened with genes, the organelles our cells use to produce energy, the mitochondria are a classic example, at some point these organelles lived as separate creatures. The mitochondria have their own DNA and are easily recognizable within the cell, they take the glucose we eat and making energy via respiration. They get a safe place to live, they replicate independently and we get the energy to preserve life (a fair deal).

Anyway I digress, the point is that the gene and bacteria were separate living things that saw the possibility of a successful partnership, this deal was so successful that now genes are no longer capable of living without bacteria, and visa versa. So important are these genes that when one type of bacteria meets another type they can often swap genes, which is one way that antibiotic resistance genes can be passed onto different bacterial species.

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Y e a s t

Speciality Strains Timothy Woolley reviews some of the latest research into the use of new and novel yeast strains and their possible use in the craft brewing industry.

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accharomyces yeast strains are the most widespread in use, selected strains have been improved over many generations to optimise favourable chemical and sensory qualities as well as to maintain reproducibility which has led to numerous â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;go toâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; strains being available for any number of different beers.

Typically non-Saccharomyces strains are seen as spoilage organisms however a few have been noted for their usefulness in some beer styles often as part of mixed specialist strains.

These strains are commonly used as co-fermenters with a Saccharomyces yeast. This is due, in part at least, to non-Saccharomyces strains producing insufficient levels of ethanol, as well as their propensity to produce off-flavours when not tightly controlled.

Wine makers have for some time been trialling the use of novel yeast cultures in combination with more standard strains to improve flavour profiles, product quality and longevity. Tristezza et al (2012) utilised

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Hanseniaspor auvarum along with Saccharomyces cerevisiae to produce a wine with a more pronounced spicy flavour profile, while Ciani et al (2016) focussed on the use of non-conventional yeast species to lower the ethanol content of selected wines.

In this article we will review some of the latest research into the use of new and novel yeast strains and there possible use in the craft brewing industry.

Brettanomyces spp.

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n the early 1970s, almost all known species of Brettanomyces had been isolated from spontaneous brewing processes. Today Brettanomyces is the most widely used nonconventional yeast strain in the craft brewing market, although predominately used in Lambic ales, Brettanomyces strains are being utilised in an ever growing number of beer styles.

It is now known that these yeasts are responsible for producing a set of unique flavour compounds which together result in the typical commercial

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Left: Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a species of yeast. It has been instrumental to winemaking, baking, and brewing since ancient times.

Brettanomyces character i.e. complex fruity and floral notes. The use of commercial strains have helped limit the propensity of Brettanomyces to produce some of its more unpleasant off-flavours.

lachancea thermotolerans

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recently isolated and propagated strain, L. thermotolerans, is being investigated at North Carolina State University for its application as a single-strain brewing yeast. This strain has proven to be a viable single strain brewing yeast in laboratory and pilot-scale fermentations; it has fermented the principal wort sugars (i.e., maltose and maltotriose) and produced as its main by-products CO2 and ethanol. In a trials fermentations using a lambic-style wort, L. thermotolerans was able to produce 6.8% ABV and reduce the pH to 3.60.

torulaspora delrueckii

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. delbrueckii is a species with a long fermentation history and is used widely in commercial wine production due to its ability to produce complex fruity flavours while coping with ABV’s up to 11%. However T. delbrueckii is also recognised as one of a series of yeasts responsible for the fermentation of Baverian Wheat beers.

Typically T. delbrueckii requires an oxygen rich environment but will tolerate high osmotic conditions and very low temperatures. Ethanol tolerance depends heavily on the strain, however levels up to 11% are not unknown in wine and recent evidence has shown that many strains cope well with 5% in beer. Importantly T. delbrueckii is also tolerant of high IBU beers, this is again strain dependant but these characteristics place T. delbrueckii well within the scope of routine use.

This yeast’s most promising attributes are its ability to produce flavours/aromas such as sweet floral, honey, fruity, rose petals and brandy.

Canonica (2016) recently published work showing that the use of T. delbrueckii in a co-culture increased levels of phenyl ethyl acetate, ethyl hexanoate and

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ethyl octanoate to produce a beer with a complex fruity, floral and aniseed character.

Wickerhamomyces anomalus

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. anomalus (Pichia anomala) is capable of growing in a wide range of environmental conditions including limited oxygen, low temperatures and

low pH. However W. anomalus produces only low levels of ethanol, making it a possible candidate a sole fermenter in low alcohol beers, or as a co-fermenter in standard fermentations.

W. anomalus producers several interesting flavour compounds that produce complex fruity beers and the use of this strain has been proposed in sequential or co-inoculated beers.

genetically modified yeast

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rewers have access to a huge range of potential brewing yeasts either from private, commercial and national collections, however there are huge similarities in many, and without genetic testing some strains could in fact the from the same source. However there are other possibilities becoming available via research and development organisations albeit slowly; the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Straight away a few will baulk at even at the mention of GMO’s, so let me quickly say that there are 2 very basic types of GMO, one is ‘natural’, i.e. although it is produced in a lab it could also occur in nature, in this case all the lab does is create the right optimised conditions and then nature takes over.

Once the yeast have ‘mated’ the lab merely tests the resulting yeasts and selects the ones it prefers. In this case nature selects what attributes are passed on to any daughter cells.

The other type is when selected genes are added or removed, sometimes from non-related species e.g. jellyfish genes into yeast. This is, as you can imagine not going to occur naturally.

Both approaches offer some fantastic opportunities;

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Left: Saccharomyces cerevisiae as seen under DIC microscopy

using the gene manipulation technique you could add an aroma gene from a selected hop variety along with the gene for hop acids and let the yeast carry the load and cut costs, or you could add in genes that produce certain anti-oxidants so the finished beer could be one of your 5 a day, the list of potential benefits is almost endless, as is the potential downfalls. For instance some researches have looked at adding the genes that make morphine into yeast cells.

Although genetic modification of yeast might be unappealing to some, we have to remember that 'natural' genetically modified yeast strains have been used in brewing since the 1500's when German brewers discovered that storing beer in caves (lagering), improved the beer taste.

In this case the brewers had unwittingly hybridised their traditional brewers yeast strain with a different strain, Saccharomyces eubayanus, which occurred naturally in the cold environment of the caves, this new strain is what we now call S. pastorianus, you may know it as Saccharomyces carlsbergensis.

‘Probably the most used lager strain in the world’.

In 2015, researchers at the University of Leuven, Belgium basically did the same thing again trying to create a whole new set of lager yeasts. A number of the new hybrid yeasts inherited beneficial properties from both parent strains and some of the resultant strains actually outperformed current yeasts during fermentation trials.

Professor Verstrepen who headed up the research said that of the 31 new strains that were tested only ten performed reasonably well in terms of speed of fermentation and flavour. When these 10 were tested in full-scale fermentations only two strains actually produced beer that was more flavoursome than

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traditional lager yeasts.

Although these yeast strains are not yet available commercially, the research having been financed by an industrial partner, the actual process for creating such strains isnt beyond any University with the appropriate skill set. You do need a little more than a barrel of beer and a cold cave though.

The first research on the genetic modification of brewing yeasts took place decades ago, during the resulting period innumerable GM yeasts must have been created, however as yet I don't know of any commercial brewer that's used a GM yeast and produced a beer available to buy.

This is because of the obvious ethical issues, more than a few legal hurdles and a lot of commercial reasons not to try, what brewery producing real ale/ craft beer or any other wholesome naturally brewed product would want to be associated with using a GM yeast?

However back in the early 90’s one beer was made with a genetically modified yeast. The beer was brewed at the Brewing Research Foundation International as a test case in the use of GM yeasts, it was and I believe is, the only beer made with GM yeast to gain approval to be sold commercially… Nutfield Lyte Lager.

biohackers

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s technology becomes cheaper and the power of the internet help spread ideas and knowledge quicker than ever before, the methods behind adding new genes into brewers yeast to produce different flavours, scents, nutrients and possibly bioluminescent properties (easier to find your pint in a darkened room and also V cool) is becoming more and more accessible, if you know where to look, or you know some pretty clever and resourceful people.

In 2015 a BioHacker group in London were looking at designing novel strains of brewers yeast as part of a competition overseen by the international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation. They looked at 5 different options that included flavour and nutritional enhancements to brewers yeast, one was the addition of the miraculin gene from the Miracle Berry plant Synsepalum dulcificum. Miraculin makes sour foods taste sweeter. While another strain was to have the lycopene gene added (found in tomatoes), this should produce a red beer with the added benefit of containing a well known anti-cancer compound, another was to have one of the flavour genes responsible for fruitiness over expressed, while another was having genes added that would produce all the essential amino acids in the perfect ratio required by humans…

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e v en t s

e v ent s

The BC Craft Brewers Guild Winter Beer Festival takes place at the Whistler Conference Centre on 18th November

2016 1 October - 31 October British Columbia Craft Beer Month Various locations throughout BC www.drinkinc.ca

21 - 27 November Hopscotch Festival Various Venues www.hopscotchfestival.com/vancouver

29 October Ottawa Valley Craft Beer Festival Best Western Pembroke Inn and Conference Centre www.ovcbf.ca

2 December Christmas Craft Beer Show Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre sofmc.com/event/christmas-craft-beer-show

18 November BC Craft Brewers Guild Winter Beer Festival Whistler Conference Centre whistlercornucopia.com

27- 28 January 2017 2017 Burlington Winter BeerFest Holiday Inn, Burlington, Ontario www.burlingtonbeerfest.com

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