Brewing “best in class” Key Performance Indicators

With Cloudwater brewery reporting they have losses of up to 39% just in the fermentation and dry hopping here's some figures for big breweries:

Key Performance Indicator	Best in Class
Output per employee per year (hl/man hr/ yr)	15,000 – 22,000
Brewing productivity (hl/ mar hr)	40-50
Packaging efficiency %	90-98
NR bottle productivity (hl/man hr)	20-25
Refillable bottle productivity (hl/ man hr)	10
Materials usage efficiency (brewing extract) %	97-99
Total extract loss across plant %	4 to 5
Liquid losses %	2 to 4
Packaging materials losses %	0.5-1.5
Return on capital %	15-25
Capacity utilisation %	Over 90
BOD in wastewater (mg/ hl)	1 to 1.5
Water usage/ unit production	2.5 to 4
Energy (steam) usage (MJ/ hl)	5 to 6.5
Electricity usage (kWh/ hl)	70-150
Greenfield cost/ unit of capacity ($/ hl)	40-70
Conformance to plan/ product specs %	100!
Customer complaints %	Zero!
Safety (lost time frequency)	Zero!

From The Brewer and Distiller International Vol 4, Issue 7, July 2008, p21

Curry beer

The latest freebie sent to me was intriguing: beer flavoured with cardamom. As beer flavoured with curry spices is a style I invented so I was keen to try this one.

Modha True Maharaja

They'd resisted the temptation to overdo it so the spice flavour was mild enough that it actually worked in the beer, adding a bit of something but not overpowering everything. "That was nice" I thought so I decided to see how it goes with curry when I tried the second bottle. It was a school boy error though. If only I'd paid attention to the food and beer pairing thing. The curry spices overwhelmed the subtle cardamom in the beer and made it taste rather bland. Still, I preferred it to Cobra.

What's wrong with SIBA?

I've long known that there are problems with SIBA, the Society of Independent Brewers (formerly the Small Independent Brewers Association). Like many organisations SIBA is run on a local level by volunteers, and has a central professional staff.

At one point I was the secretary for the South Eastern region and never had any problems dealing with the members. Dealing with the professional staff was at times more problematic though, I certainly thought they came across as rude at times, and I had a few complaints from members saying the same thing.

Not everything's bad with SIBA

When I was involved with SIBA I could also see there was also a political divide amongst the membership. Some were very committed to SIBA being the association for small brewers, whereas others wanted it to replace the Brewers' Society. As far as I can gather the latter won for the most part. "Small" is no longer part of SIBA's name, and the slogan "working for the smallest brewer" has been dropped. I can also remember a striking incident at a SIBA meeting a few years back. When a brewer asked could SIBA actively campaign to promote local real ale the reply from the an official was that Heineken (an associate member) wouldn't be happy with it!

The Direct Delivery Scheme (or Brewflex now) causes problems too, perhaps related to the previous ones. It certainly opened up large pub chains to SIBA members' beer, but the prices are poor and SIBA central take a cut too. That a lot of SIBA's money comes from selling beer to big companies must influence the decisions made at head office.

The recent 'negotiated' sharp reduction in the price the pub chain Enterprise will pay for beer has brought the problems many have with SIBA to a head. I've heard reports of dozens of members leaving from just one region, and it will be interesting to see how the discontent of the remaining members is expressed at the next conference. SIBA's problems could be coming home to roost.

The Best Four Malt Measurements

The Master Brewers Association of the Americas has been doing podcasts and the recent ones on malt specifications have been fab. Four podcasts where a bloke rambles on about malt certificates of analysis, what's not to enjoy?

Here's my notes on The Best Four Malt Measurements:

Malting is about:

The Creation of enzymes

The partial digestion of structures

The many ways in which malts are analysed can be grouped into four bundles:

Bundle 1. Measure of protein modification

Have insoluble proteins been broken down into forms useful for brewing: for yeast food, for foam and body (and also haze). Must be enough protein modification to get to the beta glucan in the cell wall, otherwise beta gulcanase can't work. Good protein modification is the low beta glucan enabler.

• Total protein and soluble protein less important than the ratio (SNR).
• FAN (Free Amino Nitrogen)
• pH reduces during modification, so well modified malts pH 5.8 to 5.9. Poorly modified greater than 6
• Alpha amylase can be measured here as it's not as affected by kilning.
  
  

SNR is the most important

Bundle 2. Measure of carbohydrate modification

Has there been enough breakdown of endosperm and cell wall structure so is there recoverable extract and consistent attenuation.

• Extract measurement
• Fine coarse difference (obsolete now, and very small)
• Viscosity (close to beta glucan in value, but differences too small)
• Beta glucan (proteins have to be broken down before beta glucans can so it's the last major modification event in germination). Often less than 120, less than 140 should be fine though. 

Friability

Beta glucan is best indicator of carbohydrate modification

If both protein and carbohydrate modification are poor then poor extract, run off, haze, attenuation, and filtration. Over modification makes thinner beer with poor foam but over not as bad as under (like yeast pitching!).

Bundle 3. Measurement of enzyme potential

Protein breakdown should take place in the malting, and carbohydrate enzymes work in the mash tun but must survive kilning.

(Enzymes are more important for high adjunct lager)

As beta amylase is more sensitive to kilning DP (Diastatic Power) is the most important (though it will be in excess with all malt brews)

Bundle 4. Measures of colour and flavour

[doesn't go on about this, but presumably EBC (colour) and malt type – actually another podcast is to follow: no number describes flavour, it's kilning techniques. The numbers you have are EBC and moisture]

Friability: good analysis if you don't have a wet chemistry lab. A functional analysis of the whole malt system, instead of individual analysis of protein and carbohydrate modification. A comprehensive view of modification.

SNR and beta glucan are very variety dependent, so need to apply different values for different varieties.

European (German/UK) varieties have different values from US, as US historically had 6 row. So some need a higher SNR, there is no one correct SNR for all varieties. Brewers may think 38-40, or perhaps 42 is best, but some varieties may need 50. (People worry too much FAN means not enough foaming protein left).

Variety (or varietal blend) is important so the best SNR and beta glucan level can be assessed.

Good friability number with SNR defines good functionality of the malt.

Don't really need to know total protein unless you want to reduce it so you can control the amount of modification artefacts (i.e. too much soluble protein or FAN) e.g. no malt with barley over 11.5%. Or use a variety that converts less.

Need to look at extract, not because it indicates quality of the malt but so you can calculate yield.

Look at DP to check but really you should have enough, more necessary with a higher kilned base malt.

Kunze: In Germany (all malt two row brewing) 75 DP. This is ample!

USA DP two row 140

In Europe FAN is 140 on average

In USA is 220-240, so again unlikely to be a problem.

Adjunct brewers use standard pale base malt, craft brewers can us higher kilned base malts which might have 90 DP.

Don't worry about alpha amylase, unless you're an adjunct brewer. In Germany they don't even list alpha amylase on malt analysis as it's not a problem due to its abundance.

Least favourite analysis is growth counts. Important in management of process but means nothing in finished malt.

Passion proves no match for capitalism

Twitter has been all a flutter over the decision of Cloudwater, a well financed but loss making brewery, to stop selling its least profitable beers and focus on its most profitable beers. That it's cask beers getting the chop at the expense of keg and small pack has caused the kerfuffle.

The brewery was quite open about the financial reasoning behind their decision, though did throw in some minor cask beer denigrating for good measure. The large twitter response has in the main been people saying what they usually say, including those old favourites "We should pay more for beer" and "It's CAMRA's fault".

As I've a definite fondness for money in my own pocket rather than someone else's I've little time for the argument we should pay more. Those that feel they should be paying more can always send the brewery a donation, I'm sure they'll be happy to receive it.

As to blaming CAMRA, it seems just a little ludicrous to blame the Campaign for Real Ale for a brewery deciding to stop making real ale. The argument was tied in to the previous one, saying it's CAMRA fault that cask beer is too cheap.  I've seen little evidence of that myself, and cask beer has always been cheaper than industrial keg beer, let alone the pricey craft stuff. A situation I'm entirely happy with.

One point that was more interesting though was "What about the children?". If youths are drinking craft keg what will this do to the future of cask beer? Now I can see the concern here, but I'm sure youths drinking craft beer are more likely to drink cask ale at times than if they were drinking alcopops or keg lager. And as they get older they might well appreciate weaker and more balanced beers more anyway.


Though it is sad to see Cloudwater condemn their immortal souls to the fiery pit, let's face it, this side of libertarian communism you can't get away from the need to make money. In fact I've even recommended that people look into kegging myself. But I think we all know in our heart of hearts that cask beer is how god intended beer to be served. Or as Cloudwater put it when they announced they were going to stop making it: "Cask beer should take pride of place in every bar and pub".

Golden Pints 2016

After another year of only posting objective facts it's nice to once more an excuse to publish my own biased opinions.

1. Best UK Cask Beer:
   Thurstons Horsell Hop. Green hop beers are fab. And I helped pick the hops.
2. Best UK Keg Beer:
   I had one of these this year. Oh yes, though it was probably from a key keg so not really keg beer. In fact more cask in a kosher condom, as our mother church have given key kegs their approval. I didn't actually have the beer in the UK mind, but it was made in Britain: Gadd's Bretted IPA. Glorious it was.
3. Best UK Bottled Beer:
   Sticking with the Brett. here, Old Diary Tsar Top. Sadly it's not made anymore, but on the plus side I still have stocks of it.
4. Best UK Canned Beer:
   I seldom buy canned beer but I've been lucky enough to have some posted to me. I can't remember being blown away by any of them but I enjoyed Northern Monk Smokin' Bees Imperial Whisky Honey Smoked Porter so that.
5. Best Overseas Draught:
   The foreign draught beers that stick out this year are lagers, which just shows how open minded and cosmopolitan I am. I was delighted to finally find some decent lager in Germany, so thanks for the Franconia recommendation from (I think) Rob, but the winner was in Prague: Únětice 12°.
6. Best Overseas Bottled Beer:
   Orval again, still got a a bit of an obsession with this one and its bretty goodness. Drank a fair few bottles, and currently on my third go at making it myself. Which I really must blog about as I'm getting there.
7. Best Overseas Canned Beer:
   I did have a few tinnies on my travels but I can't recall for certain what any of them were. Forst lager was probably one so that.
8. Best collaboration brew:
   Can't think of one. And to be honest I still don't get the point.
9. Best Overall Beer:
   Thurstons Horsell Hop
10. Best Branding:
    Thurstons again. More excellent work from Too Much Black Coffee. I mean, just look at the Woking beer festival staff t-shirt:
    
    
    
11. Best UK Brewery: Thurstons
12. Best Overseas Brewery: Únětice
13. Best New Brewery Opening 2016:
    I like to let breweries bed in a bit before judging them so no award here.
14. Pub/Bar of the Year:
    The Crown, Horsell.
15. Best New Pub/Bar Opening 2016:
    Can't recall going to anywhere new this year.
16. Beer Festival of the Year:
    I was knacked at the GBBF this year so it wasn't a vintage one for me. Instead I'm going with Carnivale Brettanomyces. I did a talk there, and I've since written two articles about it for the IBD magazine. But most importantly I drank a lot of great beer with great people.
17. Supermarket of the Year:
    Booths again
18. Independent Retailer of the Year:
    Cobbett's Real Ale. I've been to any specialst beer shops often this year, but I must have been to Cobbett's more than any other, and I like their teeny tiny micropub.
19. Online Retailer of the Year:
    Not bought any beer online this year.
20. Best Beer Book or Magazine:
    I've been reading a lot of brewing text books of late, which has rather dampened my enthusiasm for reading other books on beer. Even my beer nerdery has its limits. I look forward to seeing Brewer and Distiller International each month though, so that wins.
21. Best Beer Blog or Website:
    Boak and Bailey have been as good as ever, but still insist on taking holidays at the same time so their regular flow is sometimes interupted. Ron Pattinson never stops though, after all obsessive is all 73 of his middle names. As well as his detail excavation of brewing records his accounts of wandering around getting pissed are also highly entertaining, so a well deserved win for Shut Up About Barclay Perkins.
22. Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer:
    Pilot Brewery have come up with some corkers, and they're from Leith, much like myself, and went to Heriot-Watt, much like myself. Writing this I realised I don't actually follow them on twitter though, and have only seen retweeted stuff, so I can't choose them. The twatty beer doodles have been good, but did skirt dangerously close to heresy at one time, so not them either. You can't take any chances with your immortal soul. No, the clear winner for me this year is @brouwervanklomp (yes, I know).
23. Best Brewery Website/Social media:
    OK, Pilot can have this one, I really do need to follow them on twitter.
24. Bonus category
    Brewer of the year:
    I made a nomination for the BGBW award this year, but my man didn't win. So he's winning this one: Glenn Whatman of Old Dairy Brewery. He's won both SIBA and CAMRA national awards, so is already this year's winner so by any objective reckoning.

Box Steam Full Steam Ahead

Unexpectedly Box Steam Brewery sent me a bottle of their Full Steam Ahead. I'm always happy to be sent free beer, but this one was brewed to celebrate their tenth anniversary, and came in a big bottle at 10% ABV so I wasn't sure what to do with it. "Drink it" I hear you say, but when? Something like that is clearly best saved for a special occasion.

Christmas seemed like an ideal opportunity, but as it happens we didn't get round to it then. I'd got into the spirit of excess though, so polished it off on Boxing Day. Oak Aged it said, and I suspect it picked up some bugs during ageing, there was a touch of tartness to it. But in a good way, as it helped to balance a big beer that might otherwise have been cloying. It did remind me of those other aged beers, Liefman's Goudenband and Greene King's Suffolk Strong, and despite its strength I polished it off quick enough. Here's hoping that Box Steam have other significant anniversary's coming up soon.