Issue 13 - June 2021

EBC Analysis Group

The EBC Analysis Group met on the 24^th of June to review progress achieved in the first half of 2021, despite the pandemics and lockdowns still being active in many Member States. It was agreed the ASBC, MEBAK and EBC members will look for common pathways on the topic of packaging and how they can engage with third parties to make progress. Feedback on current collaborative trials (on gushing and gluten detection methods) was provided as statistical treatment of results were either starting or nearing completion. The collaborative trial on L,a, b colour detection is entering the final stage: interested participants will be contacted before the end of the summer for shipping the samples and starting the analysis. The reflection within the Sub-Committee Sensory continues under the leadership of the new chairperson Julia Bär. Additional experts are sought (see below). Work is also continuing within the Sub-Committee Hops where new collaborative trials (on Alpha- and Iso-alpha-acids in wort and on xanthohumol in dry-hopped beers) are currently being elaborated and are undergoing a pre-trial phase. The EBC Analysis Group will next meet in September 2021.

Interview with Christopher and Nancy McGreger, authors of the “Beer Brewing Guide –
EBC Quality Handbook for Smaller Breweries”

Chris and Nancy, can you tell our readers what this book brings to small brewers compared to existing publications?

Chris: If you glance at the table of contents, you will see that the book covers the entire brewing process from beginning to the end, including storage and dispensing, with tips at every step of the way, especially for brewers without a classic brewing education. Likewise, for those starting out as home brewers, as we did many years ago, who would like to enter the brewing industry, it offers valuable insights into professional brewing on a smaller scale. The book provides tips on how to maintain quality and consistency, that is, how to brew good, drinkable beer over and over again.

Nancy: There are useful tips in this book for every brewer, from those just starting out to established regional brewers, who would like to improve quality across the board. The book is even accessible to beginners wishing to become professional brewers.

Chris: Each section in every chapter is a summary of what a brewer needs to know. Quality control is often a matter of best practices and, in a smaller brewery, does not have to involve massive testing and an expansive laboratory. In the section on beer and basic food safety, for example, we explain that if a brewer carefully follows best practices, and brews good beer, the beer itself will possess inherent protective properties, which will greatly contribute to its quality and flavour stability.

Nancy: The book is not simply about the process, it also describes how to evaluate the quality of raw materials, since quality control encompasses all aspects of brewing, including equipment and ingredients.

“A book every brewer, from the nascent beginner to the experienced brewmaster, can learn from.”

Indeed, you mentioned the book covers the brewing process, but it seems to go above and beyond the simple aspects of brewing?

Chris: Indeed, the book is not limited to the process itself. We also provide practical advice for monitoring and ensuring quality in the raw materials arriving at the brewery, as Nancy mentioned, as well as in the beer even after it has left the brewery.

Nancy: Many brewers, including those working in smaller facilities, are now paying close attention to how their beers are treated after they leave the brewery, by ensuring the beer is properly stored until it is served to their customers. This includes monitoring the cleanliness of dispensing systems in pubs, bars and restaurants, in order to provide the best service under optimal conditions and to respect the quality of the beer. Sometimes, rather than relying on others to do so, breweries have even begun offering dispensing line cleaning services themselves to loyal establishments to make sure their beer is served under the best conditions. This book is intended to help brewers improve quality throughout the entire value chain, from the raw materials to the point the beer reaches the customer’s glass.

“This book can hopefully connect the worlds of ‘ingredients brewers’ and ‘process brewers’ for the benefit of the entire brewing community.”

Chris: No. Ingredients are, of course, discussed. However, this book has been developed to help brewers increase the quality and consistency of their art. It provides a good framework for innovative brewers to apply their creativity in such a way that they can master and replicate the process and reliably produce a quality product. We purposefully omitted any discussion of recipes. We leave this to the creativity of the individual brewers themselves.

Nancy: Our book was designed to help brewers improve and to advance their understanding of the process rather than focussing on recipes and the nuances of beer styles.

Chris: From our knowledge of the brewing literature, recipes are discussed in the vast majority of books aimed at homebrewers and those working in smaller breweries. However, we feel there is not enough attention on the brewing process itself and how this is critical to creating drinkable, reproducible, stable beers. This is the reason we wrote this book. To elaborate a little on this point: there seems to be two schools of thought among brewers. There are the process brewers who, as the description suggests, understand how the process influences their beer. Generally, these brewers have a classic brewing education or knowledge of the natural sciences and engineering. On the other hand, there are the ingredients brewers who generally begin as home brewers and who love to play and experiment with ingredients. For example, the brewing industry is indebted to them for their exploration of the world of hop oils and for aging beer in spirits and wine barrels. They have each influenced the other. With this book, we have endeavoured to bring the two worlds together by helping ingredients brewers to master the process, in order to better replicate, with the best quality, their delicious creations. And we hope the book can also expose process brewers to techniques which have been re-discovered or newly developed by ingredients brewers, such as barrel-ageing, dry-hopping and fermentation with novel or mixed microorganisms.

Nancy: On the topic of recipes, ingredients brewers may be unaware of how mastering the process is key. A brewer may know an exact recipe of a particular beer, but if he is unfamiliar with the details of the specific process, he will not be able to reproduce the beer. With this book, we hope to help brewers develop an understanding of some of the details and key steps that are important in grasping the process. This will not only assist them in designing their beers but in regularly replicating them as well.

“Understanding the fundamentals of the brewing process at every step is key to producing high quality, stable and reproducible beer. That’s what this book is about.”

What other book do you think should come next to complement the Beer Brewing Guide?

Chris: A book on the background of the various beer styles and brewing techniques that have developed across the world. I teach a class on this subject at the Weihenstephan University of Applied Sciences. It is devoted to exploring modern beer within a historical context. Work on the book is already underway. Topics include history, production, sensory aspects and food safety as they coalesce in beer, a beverage drunk for thousands of years for good reason.

Food safety seems to arise quite often in your answers, and it is a critical point of your book too, with a focus on cleanliness and hygiene. How deeply does your current book address this aspect of brewing?

Nancy: The book provides basic quality control advice on matters of food safety, cleanliness and hygiene that brewers should keep in mind and apply consistently. By implementing best practices and being a circumspect and careful brewer, food safety and quality control almost take care of themselves. We have also gone a bit further by giving instructions on how to set up some chemical, physical and microbiological laboratory techniques which involve minimal equipment but are very important to monitor for improving quality and flavour stability throughout the process. In case brewers want to delve further into this subject matter, they can reference the Analytica-EBC methods. Regarding sensory, a section of the book is dedicated to this topic and to drinkability, while the final appendix in the book provides a list of flavours and off-flavours, their probably causes as well as some troubleshooting solutions.

Four new International Methods to be published on the 1st of July

On the 1st of July, four new International Methods, developed jointly by the European Brewery Convention and the American Society of Brewing Chemists, will be published on BrewUp. Two methods have been developed with inputs from the Sub-Committee Microbiology: EBC Method 3.5.3 Live Yeast Detection with FastOrangeÒ Yeast Medium and EBC Method 4.2.7.1 Dekkera (formerly Brettanomyces) Detection with FastOrangeÒ Brett Medium (IM) and two other methods have been developed with inputs from the Sub-Committee Beer & Wort: EBC Method 8.10.3 Free Amino Nitrogen in Wort by Automated Discrete Analysis (IM) and EBC Method 8.11.3 β-Glucan in Wort by Automated Discrete Analysis (IM). All four methods will be available on BrewUp as of the 1st of July, 14.00 C.E.T.”