Sessions & Speakers

9:00 AM The Long Game Mindset & Key Benchmarks for Success

Chris Farmand, Small Batch Standard
The Long Game is a mindset. It is a path to live out the founder's vision while gaining financial strength.

Small Batch Standard created The Long Game Playbook, a guide that provides a strategy in four areas of your business: Taproom, Distribution, Operations and Leadership.

Join us for an industry-focused discussion, where Chris will also be sharing Small Batch Standard's latest benchmarks the SBS Consulting Team are currently using to help businesses navigate the craft landscape.


10:00 AM Squeezing More Tropical Aromas Out of Your Beer with Thiolized yeast

Laura Burns, Omega Yeast
Biotransformation, or the release/conversion of aroma compounds during fermentation, is often viewed as a somewhat mysterious process. Several new genetically engineered Thiolized yeast strains with enhanced carbon-sulfur lyase activity are capable of releasing thiols from malt, hop and wine grape-derived precursors. These same thiol compounds produced in fermentation contribute to the characteristic aromas of many tropical fruits, certain aroma hop varieties and styles of wine. Because traditional brewing strains exhibit little to no carbon-sulfur lyase activity, Thiolized yeast strains are changing the way brewers think about recipe design and hop aroma. We will overview the different approaches to engineering yeast with yeast Irc7 and bacterial PatB enzymes and their application. We’ll also take a look into different malt sources for their precursor levels and contributions to thiols in finished beer. We’ll cover different strategies to help promote thiol biotransformation including mash hopping, use of advanced hop products and new wine grape-derived products. Overall, Thiolized Yeast can be used to amplify tropical aromas and help provide a sustainable approach to producing juicy hop-forward beers.

Takeaways:

1. Understanding of what thiols are and how Thiolized yeast can be used to enhance these in beer.|
2. How to construct a recipe to optimize thiol output in fermentation.

10:00 AM Till Death Do Us Pilsner - The Distribution Relationship

Mike Drumm, BeerAttorney.com
This session will go over the distributor/brewery relationship, if distribution is right for you, distribution agreements and how to know when to leave your distributor.

1:00 PM Preparing Grain for Brewing: Milling and Flaking

Bob Hansen, Breiss Malt and Ingredients
This session will describe the ways (other than malting) that grain is prepared for the brewer's Art. Flaking of raw grains along with proper use and handling will be shared as will proper milling for base and specialty malt.

1:00 PM  Alcohol Beverage Regulations Q&A

Tyler Quam, Kurt Goodreau, Rick Uhlig, WDOR
A Q & A session on Wisconsin alcohol beverage laws and regulations.

2:00 PM Unlocking Aroma with Beer Soluble Hop Compounds

Ashleigh Hayden, Yakima Chief Hops Utilizing lab analysis from GC-QTOF and GC-SCD while merging sensory analysis, Yakima Chief Hops has identified several beer soluble hop compounds. This research allows brewers to utilize hops for increased and targeted aromas in finished beers in the most cost-efficient way. • A description of the research conducted and its culmination into a graph of survivable (beer soluble) compounds by variety

• Guided sensory analysis of isolated compound reference standards
• Methods for using beer soluble hop compound research to design efficient recipes
• Finished beer sensory with high survivables content
• Attendees will receive a reference manual detailing the research and research poster showing beer soluble hop compounds by variety

2:00 PM Contract Brewing 101 for the Host and the Guest

Jeff Glazer and Collin Schaefer, Ogden Glazer + Schaefer
A 50-minute talk and discussion about contract brewing relationships. We'll talk about how the contracts work; the difference between contract and alternating proprietorships, and how licenses and permits work (including the dreaded Recipe Brewer Permit) in the contract context. We'll also talk about unique issues in contract brands that distribute into multiple states.

Let us know if you'd like additional sessions on trademarks and other multi-state distribution issues.

3:30 PM Lauter Simulations and Brewhouse Efficiency Predictions

Joe Walts, Karben4 Brewing
Describe method for simulating lauters and how it can be used to predict brewhouse efficiency for recipe formulation and on-the-fly brewing adjustments.

3:30 PM Quality in Beverage Packaging (with a focus on cans)

Sean Kingston, WilCraft Can
A session focused on quality in packaging, discussing what impacts quality, what should be tested, knowing your specification limits, and documentation.