CBP Fall Virtual Detailed Conference

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Watch live in Craft Beer Professionals or on YouTube.

All sessions 45 minutes. All times ET.

Monday, October 17 presented by ABS Commercial

11am – Welcome

Andrew Coplon (Craft Beer Professionals/Secret Hopper)

11:10am – Science By Any Memes Necessary

Emily Wang (Fermly)

A lighthearted discussion using a unit of cultural information spread by imitation (known as a meme) to discuss simple and complex brewing science concepts. “Mark Safe From” another dull presentation about pH meter maintenance because you will be Little Miss Know-It-All by the end of this seminar! That would be great. Covering the chemistry of off-flavors, dissolved oxygen, team accountability, and microbiological contaminants… you know, you are something of a scientist yourself!

Change my mind.

12pm – The ABC’s of IRI (and other Syndicated Data)

Julie Rhodes (Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions)

If you’re selling beer in the retail channel, you’ve probably noticed that our market is a little crowded lately. As
suppliers look to gain a competitive edge with retail partners, especially chain stores, understanding syndicated
sales data should be added to your skill set. Retail sales data, like that collected and reported by companies
such as IRI and Neilsen, can be extremely valuable for suppliers that are seeking to expand their retail
presence, but it’s also confusing and pretty overwhelming. Tune in to learn more about what syndicated retail
sales data actually is and why breweries need it, where to find it, and how to interpret it to improve your retail
beer sales.

12:30pm – How to Make Ownership Your Competitive Advantage

Larry Chase (Ray Johnson Group)

You’re an owner and your brewery business is always top of mind.

Ask yourself: What would my business be like if my employees had an ownership mindset? What if they thought about the business like me?

If they did, there’s a high likelihood the business would perform better and be more profitable. You’d have lower turnover and longer-term employees. They’d even be more involved.

So, do you have to give employees actual ownership of the brewery to get an ownership mindset? You or other investors are not ready to give up your ownership – can you still create an ownership culture? What will help employees truly think like owners?

To help you understand the basics of an ownership culture we’ll discuss the 14 Rules of Ownership and what they mean for you and your employees. Plus, you’ll learn the 3 transformational components to building an ownership culture: thinking like an owner through education, acting like an owner through enhanced involvement, and feeling like an owner through a stake in the outcome.

With an ownership culture your brewery business will experience increased trust, higher involvement, and consistent performance and profit. In essence it becomes a competitive advantage.

Come learn the answers to the above questions and learn if you want to add an element of ownership to your culture.

1pm – WTF, Data?! Numbers = Profits!

Pulkit K. Agrawal (The 5th Ingredient)

Almost every brewery is tracking their data – whether it’s in a spreadsheet, paper logs, or an electronic brewery management system. As breweries start scaling, there are two key areas that brewers and owners start looking at for their products — (1) making consistent quality beer and (2) improving costs over time.

However, for many operators and owners, it can be difficult to know exactly what to do to get started with this analysis, or to understand if these are the best practices for your brewery. Many times, the process data is tracked, but the data just ends up sitting in a binder, locked in a spreadsheet, or in a constantly growing database.

In this talk, we will explore 10 examples of taking the data and looking at how we can focus on brewing more efficiently and turn those data numbers into profit. We will go through different examples in the brewing process, fermentation, yeast, and even touch upon COGS and profitability. The overall goal is to take your brewery’s data to make educated decisions to #BrewMoreBeer and #BrewBetterBeer.

1:30pm – Leveraging Events to Grow Your Tap Room Business

Laura Lodge (Start a Brewery)

As brewery owners and tap room managers, you know you’re supposed to host events. You may even have a staff member dedicated to creating and booking events. But they never seem to live up to expectations – and your regulars and your staff hate them.

Join us for a deep dive into event rescue! We will pull them apart, take a closer look, check in with your regulars, and put them back together. We’ll address the reasons to have (or NOT to have) events, the critical community awareness piece, and how to differentiate your events by thinking a little bit further outside of the box. Last, we break down the costs. Yes, you need to break even.

Being thoughtful about the what, when, and why of your events can make all the difference. Great events garner support, excitement, and engagement…while they boost the bottom line.

2pm – Attracting (and Keeping) Top Talent: ESOPs vs Profit Sharing

Brandon Selinsky (Beer Law HQ)

Good employees can be difficult to keep around. Never has this been more true than in the Great Resignation. So how do you stay competitive as a workplace? We all know that, in the short-term, you can increase paychecks, bump up benefits, etc. But the smartest workers are looking long-term. They want to invest in their own futures and participate in the success of the business. The advantage, obviously, is that an employee with an ownership interest has an incentive to work harder and better. How do you know if employee ownership is an advantage for your brewery?

In this introduction to employee stock ownership, we will address the following:

Why should I share profits or ownership with my employees at all?
What is an ESOP? Why is it worth my time?
Are there any disadvantages?
How do I create one and what do I do with it?
Are there better alternatives for my brewery?

2:30pm – Developing Your Own Sense of Beer Style

Jeremy Storton (Good Beer Matters) and Julia Herz (American Homebrewers Association)

Beer styles are a bit polarizing. They are sometimes viewed as rules brewers ought to follow or information reserved for the elite. In this presentation, Advanced Cicerone® and BJCP judge Jeremy Storton and Executive Director American Homebrewers Association Julia Herz will share that styles are meant to serve, not separate, and that everyone should develop their own sense of beer style.

3pm – After the Reckoning: A Safe Bars Experience

Safe Bars

It’s been almost two years since our eyes were opened to some of the toxic behaviors
common in brewing culture. While awareness was the first step in building a new
culture, we still have work to do to take care of one another and heal.
Fortunately, you (the people who work in the industry) are primely positioned to make
that happen!

Safe Bars will guide you in this interactive experience to illustrate why we still need to
invest in safer spaces to bring about much-needed change, and equip you with tools to
take action.

In this workshop we’ll build the ideal taproom culture. The reckoning has us all talking
about the changes we need to make to ensure that all people who celebrate with us feel
seen, respected, and protected. We will build that environment and experience how it
feels so you can recreate it in your establishment.

In this workshop you will:

• Pinpoint the factors that fuel the problem
• Get down to the nuance level to make ripples for big change
• Examine the existing culture from every angle, including
  • language used
  • the physical environment
  • The intangible feeling of “welcome”
    
• And work to build the elements of a healthy, inclusive, respectful culture.

3:30pm – Taproom by the Numbers: Why Data-Driven Breweries Succeed

Nancy Trigg (Arryved POS) and Kary Shumway (Craft Brewery Financial Training.com)

Running a profitable taproom isn’t all flowing tap lines and good times. There’s a method to the madness, and it’s DATA! Join Nancy Trigg (Arryved POS) and Kary Shumway (Craft Brewery Financial Training.com) as they discuss numbers in the taproom:

-Key Metrics that drive Taproom Profitability
-Forecasting production schedules & BBL Decisions
-Taproom Data driving beverage offering decisions
-Increasing profit in all areas of the business

Taproom sales were the most profitable channel for breweries in 2021. With advice from the experts who live and breathe data, your brewery’s sure to report the same this year. Hear real life examples and ultimately maximize your own taproom profitability!

4pm – Designing And Selecting Your Brewhouse Equipment

Eric Ghiloni (ABS Commercial)

Although every piece of equipment in your brewery is important, the brewhouse is the workhorse of your business! There is a lot to consider when designing and selecting the perfect brewhouse for your space. At ABS Commercial, we help you select YOUR brewhouse built to YOUR specs. In this presentation, you will hear from ABS Commercial’s team of sales consultants as they discuss everything you need to know about choosing the equipment to optimize your space and help your brewery run as efficiently as possible.

4:15pm – A Guide to NA Beer Production

Ben Jordan (ABV Technology)

During this overview, we plan to discuss some key items that all should be considered when deciding to create a non-alcoholic option for your taproom and/or production. Topics will include:

The Challenges of NA Beer
Methods for Making NA Beer
Market and Marketing Considerations
Regulation and Compliance
Spoilage and Shelf Stability
Recipe modifications to optimize process
Solutions from ABV Technology

4:30pm – How E-Commerce Can Take Your Brand to the Next Level

Jason Sherman (TapRm)

Alcohol e-commerce isn’t just a trend, it’s here to stay — but how can beer and hard seltzer brands fully utilize this sales channel and grow their businesses? Join Jason Sherman, CEO and Founder of TapRm, as he discusses the value of having your own customized e-commerce channel and the many ways it can help your beer brand scale. Not only can E-commerce provide a new source of revenue for your business, but can also provide valuable data and analytics about your customers, save your business time and money, and help you steer your brand in the right direction. E-commerce platforms can do the heavy lifting of fulfillment, courier deliveries, retailer relationships, and more helping brands focus on their own growth through marketing and social media strategies while driving traffic to their websites, help expand their footprint into new territories for DTC shipping, help prove and promote your product to distributors in the competitive field, and continue to engage and grow your community organically.

Based on case studies and data from TapRm and other e-commerce platforms applicable to emerging new breweries and established larger brands, we’ll discuss how a brewery can use e-commerce to build and expand consumer loyalty, re-engage their most dedicated fan base, gain leverage for geographic expansion with distribution, and sign on and expand with brick and mortar retail accounts.

We’ll examine best practices and learnings from successful online beer and hard seltzer brands (as well as wine and spirits brands) that have been utilizing e-commerce extensively, ultimately providing recommendations and strategic tools that will allow the beer industry to catch up online.

We’ll also present on how breweries can (and should) utilize third party online marketplaces (i.e. Drizly and Minibar) and online retailers (i.e. GoPuff), and ways to stand out on their apps where “digital shelf space” is a premium.

Lastly, we’ll discuss how robust e-commerce operations can support fundraising from venture capital and with potential major supplier exits.

5pm – Pro Tip: A Conversation of Tipping in Breweries

Panelists: Carmone Macfarlane (Phoenix Brewing), Greg Heller-LaBelle (The Colony Meadery), John Szymankiewicz (Beer Law Center), Justin Roberts (Kickfin), Sam Gebhardt (Berthoud Brewing)

Moderator: Andrew Coplon (Craft Beer Professionals/Secret Hopper)

Over the past several years, many breweries have reconsidered their service models – searching for the delicate balance that best maximizes the experience for both guests and staff. In doing so, this has also generated more conversations about best practices regarding tipping.  In this panel, we will discuss different tipping models, their benefits, their challenges, and how conversations on tipping can result in greater success for your taproom.

 

Tuesday, October 18 presented by Pneumatic Scale Angelus

11am – Welcome

Andrew Coplon (Craft Beer Professionals/Secret Hopper)

11:10am – Choosing Brewery Equipment: Lightning Round!

Kevin Weaver (Brewmation)

When selecting your brewing equipment, there are a number decisions to make that might not be obvious. Great beer can be brewed on any virtually any system, but selecting the right equipment for your brewery is dependent on your processes, your beer, and your budget. In this webinar, we’ll cover a range of topics to consider when shopping for your brewery equipment.

First, we’ll look at the different options for chilling in the brewery. When should one use a single-stage (water only) heat exchanger and when does a dual-stage (water and glycol) HEX make sense? When should you let your glycol chiller do heavy lifting, and when should a cold liquor tank be considered?

Next, we’ll look at pumps used throughout the brewery. The most common is the centrifugal pump, where you’ll need to determine the appropriate size and whether an internal or external seal head is right for the application. Other options include peristaltic, diaphragm pumps, and other positive displacement pumps. Each has its place, and we’ll help you think through the options.

The last topic we’ll cover is valves, which isn’t always an open-and-closed case. Brewhouse valves can include butterfly valves, ball valves, or globe valves (both manual and automated) and in the cellar you’ll find both solenoid and mechanically actuated valves. In all cases, choosing the valve for the application should be thoughtfully considered.

Tune in for a lightning round of topics to get a jump start on choosing the right equipment for your system!

11:30am – Surviving & Thriving: A Phased Approach to Growing Your Brewery

Don Marcil and Mike Paladino (Stout Tanks & Kettles)

Join Don Marcil & Mike Paladino of Stout Tanks and Kettles as they discuss the initial steps of opening of your brewery and examine the best approaches when business is thriving and it is time to expand.

Don and Mike have over 25 years of combined professional brewing experience. Their real-world experiences, industry connections, and passion for craft beer have helped hundreds of brewers realize their dream of opening a new brewery. Citing personal experience, current market trends, and real-life examples, Don and Mike will discuss successful business plan practices, compare funding sources, explore types of expansion, and answer your questions. What is the dynamic of your brewery? How will you be selling the beer? Which levels of success do you desire and when you reach them what is the next step? Can future planning be broken down into small bite-sized pieces? Let’s explore your options and see what is possible.

12pm – How to Attract Sponsors for Brewery Events or Programs

Meghan Connolly Haupt (MCH Strategy)

Sponsorships can be an important revenue stream supporting diverse entities from national sports leagues to local brewery events. In this session, participants will learn essential elements for attracting sponsors and getting maximum revenue. We will cover how to identify good sponsors, how to create mutually beneficial relationships, how to sell sponsorships and more. Participants will leave with a general understanding of sponsorships and gain insight into best practices. (This topic was requested in the CBP Facebook Group.)

12:30pm – The Fundamental Brewery Marketing Strategy 

Chris Overlay (Hoptimized Digital)

• You’re not sure if your advertising dollars are being effective
• Your events and/or promotions just aren’t working that well
• Your business growth is stagnant or going in reverse
• You’re trying to sell to anyone and everyone
• You’re having trouble standing out from your competition

• You’ll naturally attract the right customers for your brewery
• Your advertisements will resonate with your audience and actually have a profitable impact
• Your customers will be excited to attend your events and take part in your promotions
• You’ll communicate your brewery’s value clearly, making your competition irrelevant
• You’ll have a sustainable and scalable marketing strategy that will grow your business

 During this session, I’ll walk you through our Fundamental Brewery Marketing Strategy.

• How to Create Your Target Audience
• The Brewery Customer Journey
• Marketing Tactics for each Phase of the Customer Journey
• How to Measuring Performance and KPIs

1pm – Carrots: Incentives for Productivity

Aaron Gore (Bevana)

An overview of the principals behind how humans are incentivized in the pursuit of goals, and how best to use those insights in the business landscape. Attendees will learn the basics of building compensation and bonus structures that create the incentives you want, while avoiding the perverse and misguided incentives that you don’t. Moreover, they will learn how to apply these same techniques in the broader landscape, helping everyone reach the sense of accomplishment, satisfaction, and financial achievement they desire

1:30pm – Guest Experience: How to Thrive in an Instant, On-Demand World

This conversation features:

• Brent Hernandez, Owner of Redlight Redlight Craft Beer Bar in Orlando, FL
• Rick Malthaner, VP of Alliances for GoTab. Technical by trade and with decades of experience in the point-of-sale and payments industry, Rick has built his career working with hospitality operators.
• Doug Cleary, Account Executive for GoTab. Doug is an hospitality-driven professional with 15+ years of sales & events experience, and specialization for craft brewing. He is an avid home-brewer, and beer explorer, having visited over 100 breweries.

There’s a huge difference between good service and a good guest experience. It’s challenging enough to ensure your guests are greeted in a timely manner, their orders taken quickly, drinks never run dry, and their bill received and closed on time. These service steps are absolutely critical, but do very little to combat a negative first impression. Standards for service are increasing at a rapid pace as patience of our guests wanes, so is it time to pivot our focus away from basic tasks and focus more heavily on our presence with guests? In this session we will cover: QR Code Ordering – Pros & Cons for the Brewery
Credit Card PCI Compliance (Chip vs Swipe)
“Keeping the Human Touch” using technology for a better guest experience
Kitchen & Pop-Up Order Efficiency through KDS
SMS Texting in Guest Ordering
Comprehensive Guest-Facing Beer Menus
Using Order Variants to Reduce Beer Excise Tax

2:15pm – QC, Scheduling, & Flexibility: Software Strategies for Success

Randy Smith (VicinityBrew)

In the beginning of a brewery’s life span, the ownership and employees juggle several tasks and responsibilities across departments. Using the proper tool to store your data will take you a long way in your growth. But what you started using in the beginning may be missing the mark now.

When moving forward and expanding your business, standardizing and centralizing data is essential. Leveraging tools within your brewery software helped you get to where you are today but what is the next step? Is your brewery management system growing with you?

As your brewery grows, roles and business processes become increasingly specialized and so should your supporting software solutions.

When organizations take a “best-of-breed technology” approach in association with its brewing process, a brewery can choose a feature-rich solution that serves all aspects of the business.

In this presentation, you will learn more about features every growing brewery needs:

–Are tracking and data analysis more important today?

-Lot Tracking

-Integrated QC tests

-Integrated raw materials tests

-In-process QC tests

-Evaluate formulas and analyze recipes by QC test results

-Track yeast genealogy

–Is your brewery struggling to create and communicate the brew & fermentation schedule?

-Schedule by tank

-MRP (Material Requirements Planning)

-Visual calendar

-Brewery-specific production setup

-Forecasting

–Is your software flexible enough to grow with you?

-When should you consider moving to a more structured software system?

-Excel to QB to Microsoft Dynamics

2:30pm – Key Performance Indicator Insights: Knowing Your Numbers

Josh Lance (Lance CPA)

Financial health is one of the most important parts of your business, but do you know how to get to the right metrics? In this session, we’re bringing insights from working with over 100 craft breweries and providing you with insights on understanding your brewery’s finances, including:

* Accounting best practices for craft breweries
* How to leverage financial data to help your business grow
* Options for outsourcing accounting and the right set up for your business

3pm – Rising to Leadership: Optimize Your Service on Boards and Committees

Meg Ellis (Texas Craft Brewers Guild)

There are as many ways to be a leader as there are styles of beer out there. But not every opportunity is going to be the right fit for you. How do you find the “Goldilocks” role where you can make a difference? And what do you do once you’ve found it? Meg will review key considerations for vetting and considering volunteer leadership opportunities, whether it’s with your favorite nonprofit cause, a state or local Craft Brewers Guild, or something else entirely. If you have a unique perspective to contribute, a goal to accomplish, or just want to connect with others who care about the causes near to your heart, there’s an organization out there that needs your leadership.

3:30pm – Managing Your Team with a Scorecard System

Julie Rhodes (Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions)

Brewing a cold IPA is one thing, but knowing how to manage your team is a whole different skill set all together. And even if you fake it until you make it, you might hit a tipping point where you need more strategic management systems in place to manage a larger team, hold them accountable for their various duties, streamline training processes, maintain expectations, and reward excellent performance in an unbiased manner. Learning how to use a strategic scorecard system to manage your team can help you navigate these uncharted waters.

4pm – What Do You Mean There’s No Alcohol? Sales and Marketing Strategies for NA Beer

Scott Kolbe (Market Your Craft)

Non-alcoholic beer is here to stay. Are you leaning in, or running away?

It’s estimated that the non-alcoholic beer segment will reach $5.87B in the United States in 20221. Craft beer is hovering around $27B out of a $100B US beer market2. So, 1 out of every 4 beer drinkers is choosing craft, and 1 out of every 20 is reaching for a non-alcoholic. Walk through your average liquor or grocery store and you’ll see this ratio play out at shelf. But what about your tasting room? Out of 20 taps, is at least one non-alcoholic?

Many breweries equate soda or water with a non-alcoholic option for guests. Some may have tried bringing in six packs of a popular brand of non-alcoholic beer, kombucha or hop water. Others may have even experimented with recipes, only to be scared off by the PERCEPTION of non-alcoholic beer, the COMPARISON with full-strength beer or the INVESTMENT necessary to commit. More aggressive breweries are figuring it out, adding flavorful, on-trend, non-alcoholic options to their lineup and leapfrogging their way past their peer group in the process. We’ll learn from their early mistakes and wins to craft a sales and marketing strategy for your brand:

• Sell the non-alcoholic category AND brand
• Create occasions for non-alcoholic beer
• Know your audience
• Decide whether to Brand your offering
• Sample, sample, sample

Once you’ve identified what makes marketing and selling your non-alcoholic beer different, it’s time to apply the same storytelling principles that have helped regional brands expand and national brands reinvent to maintain or grow market share. Together we’ll review the fundamentals of an effective non-alcoholic promotional strategy with examples across social, digital, public relations, ecommerce and email. 

4:30pm – 5 Ways to Boost Your Video Marketing Game

Bryant Vander Weerd (Full Pour Media)

It’s 2022 and if you’re not incorporating video content into your marketing strategy, you’re falling behind. Video content is by far the most shared and most engaged with content on the internet and an overwhelming majority of your customers want to see more videos from you. The market is becoming more and more saturated with beer and brewery content that all starts to look the same. It’s no longer sufficient to have “good beer good atmosphere” as your main selling points. People buy from you because they relate to you. Video content is the quickest and most effective way to reach them.

It’s a common misconception that video content has to be time consuming, expensive, and complicated. Social media, cell phones, and live streaming are changing all of that. Now there are a handful of cost-effective tools at your disposal that can help kickstart your video marketing strategy and set you up for success.

Your customers want to see more video content from you. We’ll help you give them what they want.

In this presentation we will explain why video is so important, why it should be the keystone of your marketing strategy, and some different ways to effectively use video to reach a wider audience and attract more people to your brewery.

5pm – From Grain to Package

Panelists: Alex Smith (ABS Commercial/Raleigh Brewing), Dan MacKinnon (MacKinnon Brothers Brewing), Elden Rowland (Pneumatic Scale Angelus), Mike Davis (Pneumatic Scale Angelus)

Moderator: Andrew Coplon (Craft Beer Professionals/Secret Hopper)

Join this panel discussion with Pneumatic Scale Angelus, ABS Commercial, and MacKinnon Brothers Brewing for a conversation on “From Grain to Package.” PSA’s Mike Davis and Elden Rowland join Alex Smith, Lead Brewery Consultant with ABS/Raleigh Brewing and Dan MacKinnon, Co-Owner and Brew Master of MacKinnon Brothers Brewing to talk about the journey from a passion for brewing beer to building a successful brewing business to packaging the final product to get it to the consumers who enjoy the fruits of that labor.

 

Wednesday, October 19 presented by CO2Meter

11am – Welcome

Andrew Coplon (Craft Beer Professionals/Secret Hopper)

11:10am – The Art and Science of Media Relations

Chad Melis (Turn It Up Media)

Led by experienced brewery brand builder Chad Melis, who spent over a decade elevating the Oskar Blues Brewery brand and now runs the marketing collective Turn It Up Media, this presentation will provide a roadmap for breweries to execute an effective media relations strategy.

Over the course of 45 minutes, marketers and brewery owners will learn about the fundamentals of media relations and explore the proactive media relations process. Chad will share the most important takeaways that have helped him secure placements for breweries in local press, industry leading publications, and national news outlets like Forbes, Men’s Journal, and the Wall Street Journal. Mentions in these trusted publications drive brand awareness, build credibility, and will help position your brewery alongside narratives that support your business goals.

Chad’s presentation will be the jumpstart your brewery needs to strengthen your media relations processes. He will outline everything you need to know, from the structure for building meaningful relationships with reporters to how to leverage earned placements to create ongoing value, and share personal and proven tactics to gain share of mind with your target audiences through media relations. And with Chad’s experience in beer, these tactics are designed for breweries with teams of all sizes. Whether you have a background in media relations and marketing, or you’re coming in with no experience and an open mind, you’ll find this knowledge useful and insightful and leave with a refreshed approach to PR.

11:30am – Increasing Brewery Efficiency & Beer Quality with Production Data

Brynn Keenan (Grist Analytics)

Production data is one of the most under-utilized assets in craft brewing. With a relatively minor amount of work, this data can be used to increase throughput, efficiency, raw material extraction, and beer quality. Learn how to utilize your production data through statistical process control, and turn it into something valuable.

12pm – Beer and Balance: Strategies for Social, Mental, and Physical Wellbeing in the Craft Beer Industry

Dana Kaluzny (Endswell Beer) and Tom Halaska (Ritual Beverage)

You and your employees’ social, mental and physical wellbeing matter.

The craft beer industry is in a time of reckoning with an all-time record of people leaving their jobs, and employers struggling to fill vacant roles. 1 in 5 employees left a job at some point in their career because of its toxic organizational culture. By one estimate, employee turnover triggered by a toxic culture cost U.S. employers nearly $50 billion per year pre-pandemic.
What makes a brewery’s culture toxic is often the elevated levels of stress, burnout, mental health issues and pain experienced at work or as a result of their work. While these types of experiences are often common, they are not talked about by and among peers in craft beer. The consequences of the endured pain and silence lead to disengagement in many forms.

Two leaders in craft beer share their honest stories of quitting — leaving toxic behaviours, routines, and craft brewery cultures and finding their way to a balanced way of life working inside and living outside of craft beer. Where their identities are more than what they drink or the brewery they work for.

References: Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation – see article at https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/toxic-culture-is-driving-the-great-resignation/ and Why Every Leader Needs to Worry About Toxic Culture – see article at https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/why-every-leader-needs-to-worry-about-toxic-culture/.

12:30pm – Less Waste, More Profit: The Secrets to Building A Sustainable Business

Jamie Schild (A-Bay Engineers)

Waste in at a facility can have various meaning . We will dive into the various forms of waste and provide you with strategies on how to reduce them.

Tangible frameworks for you to takeaway from this presentation that will include how to prioritize and implement ideas from your team, how to engage your team to collaboratively drive down waste, and how to celebrate the small wins to build moral and engagement.

1pm – Life-Saving Alarms for CO2 Leaks: What You Need to Know

Josh Pringle (CO2Meter)

Brewers pose unique challenges when it comes to carbon dioxide in the workplace. While CO2 is a necessary product in the brewery process, exposure to high concentrations can be life-threatening.

While normal CO2 concentrations tend to be around 400-800ppm, the case of CO2 off-gassing or a CO2 leak can quickly reach 50,000ppm (5% CO2 by volume). This is above the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) evacuation threshold of 30,000ppm or 3% CO2 by volume.

As an expert on Carbon Dioxide and Safety, CO2Meter provides the 5 best safety tips to protect against CO2 leaks for yourself, your employees, or your brewery.

1:15pm – The Art of Collaboration: How to Successfully Partner with a Non-Profit

Chris Geib (Brewing Funds the Cure – National Pediatric Cancer Foundation)

The Brewing Industry has always been entrenched in the community, supporting causes by what they do best – bringing people together and making great beer! But is it always beneficial for the brewery and industry partners?

This is the question I asked when designing the plan for Brewing Funds the Cure, and the answer to that question is how we implemented the program as well. We, as the non-profit have the duty to create a simple, easy to execute program to alleviate the time a partner has to invest. In the same breath, design it in such a way that will benefit the partners.

For the partner (brewery/industry partner) I like to suggest a simple framework of how to choose the right partner so it will be successful and beneficial.

Step 1 – After Identifying non-profit, do some research to make sure the money they raise is being used for their mission. (Charity Navigator, Guide Star, among others)
Step 2 – Does the non profit have a plan? (General concepts, marketing, etc)
Step 3 – Communication and relationship building (talk with the partners, create long term partnerships)
Step 4 – Have fun!

1:30pm – Little Changes: Actionable Strategies to Elevate the Customer Experience

Dan Hornbrook (MarketMyBrewery/BrewLogix)

We will dive into the importance of elevating the consumer experience from a product and location standpoint. What are things that consumers are seeking that some breweries might be missing out on that could be super easy to connect with.

Does this beer have a great food pairing suggestion? Can you raise your ticket rings with food pairing? Do you offer different glassware with different styles of beer? Why and how are you conveying the importance of that to your customer? Does your location advertise as expected? A person seeking a moderate relaxing craft brewery ending up at a bustling industrial brewery could create a “bad experience” for a consumer. A brewery with a heavy metal night may not be as attractive to a family looking for dinner plans.

2pm – Diversify Where Your Pour With Pop-Up Bars

Chris Musil (Coldbreak) and Justin Lynch (Arryved POS)

Pop-up bars are a growing trend for modern breweries, and taking your taproom to-go is easy with today’s savvy jockey box and tech stack selection. But what’s the value of a taproom on wheels? Join Coldbreak and Arryved POS as they discuss how mobilizing your taproom is good for business:

– Diversify your market by taking business beyond your taproom’s four walls
– Utilize a pop-up bar on premise to reduce lines and wait times
– Learn cost-effective ways to experiment with new concepts and ultimately increase revenue
– Get a list of the portable equipment and technology necessary to ensure perfect pours and exceptional service

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from industry experts about the latest way to boost your bottom line both within and beyond your taproom!

2:30pm – Making the Most of Your Malt

Riley Aadland (RMS Brewing Solutions)

Endless input cost increases and supply shortages have forced breweries to the difficult decision of:
A. Accepting reduced margins in an already thin margin game
B. Raising prices and risking fallout from customer base
C. Taking a look at internal processes to improve efficiency
This presentation focuses on giving a deeper dive into an often times misunderstood and undervalued part of the brewing process – the grist. Preparing the grist for mash in is the first step in the brew day and is a vital part in ensuring that the system is as efficient as possible from the very beginning. We will talk about the tools needed to do a grist analysis, how to go about doing the grist analysis to get accurate results, interpreting those results, and what to do with the data once you have it.
There are many design considerations to keep in mind when selecting and setting up new equipment to ensure the quality and consistency of grist to avoid costly mistakes leading to poor efficiency and malt utilization. If that ship has sailed and the system is already setup, there are still many adjustments to existing equipment and improvements opportunities for existing equipment.
Making the most of your malt doesn’t have to be overcomplicated and can go a long way to ensuring your brewery stays efficient and profitable!

3pm – What’s in a Label? A Review of Regulatory Guidelines and Registration Processes for Breweries

Alex Koral (Sovos ShipCompliant)

Every brewer knows the importance of a good label. How you market and display your products can make all the difference for a customer looking through a store’s coolers.

But aside from their use as a marketing tool, labels come with a panoply of regulations and rules that govern what must, and what cannot, appear on them. In addition, there are any number of registration requirements, both federal and state-by-state, that must be met before products can be sold. Failing to abide by these rules and registrations requirements can force a brewer to delay product releases, require you to take product off market, or could even lead to fines.

To avoid disruption or even potential disaster, all brewers, whether you are distributing widely or just beginning to sell, need to be aware of these rules and requirements.

This session will cover the key compliance concerns for designing and registering beer labels. We will discuss:

> Federal and state labeling laws and how they apply to beer products
> When and where a brewer needs to have a Certificate of Label Approval (COLA)
> How to manage state brand/label registration processes

Franchise and other distributor relationship laws, and how they relate to label registrations

3:30pm – Online Advertising & Your Brewery: Dos and Don’ts

Devon Hoffman (Site-Seeker)

When it comes to promoting your brewery, digital marketing is the strongest tool you have available to you. And when it comes to Digital Marketing, Advertising is the most powerful way to get in front of as many people as quickly as possible! But, with Advertising, youll be faced with an onslaught of questions. What source works best? Should you spend with Google or Facebook? How far should you reach? Do video, image, or text ads work best? Without the right planning and insight on how to maximize your spend, you could be wasting your money. We’ll walk through how to determine where makes the most sense to Advertise and how to build your ad program to give you the best chance at digital success!

4pm – Aging With Grace: Innovating While You Grow Older

Warren Bondi (Beer Marketeers)

In this presentation we’ll talk about tips, tricks and innovative ways to continue to grow as your company ages. Don’t get lost in the shuffle because you’re “the old” brewery in town. Keep yourself organized as you grow so that you can recognize what needs to adjust as you grow.

4:30pm – Using Fermentation Profiles to Improve Your Recipes

Pål Ingebrigtsen (Plaato)

Brewing is the perfect mix of science, creativity and craftsmanship. For many brewers, creating and improving on recipes, while maintaining a high quality product is a big part of their daily work. When brewers start to collect ongoing fermentation data across multiple batches over time, they can compare how small tweaks in the recipe or outside conditions can change the overall outcome of the fermentation.

Comparing batches can be especially valuable when brewing the same recipe over time. In this presentation we want to dive into a few insights you can gain from comparing different fermentation profiles.

Pitching yeast: Use fermentation profiles to see how well your yeast is performing and how different strains of yeast and their ideal pitching temperature impact the overall outcome of the fermentation.

Temperature: Every day variations in temperature happen in a brewery. Having the right temperature during the fermentation is a key component to make great beer, and being able to have full control from the very first minute will give unique possibilities to tweak the fermentation.

Timing is crucial: Taking the right decision at the right time is easier said than done, as every fermentation is unique by nature. With fermentation profiles you can learn how timing of for example dry hopping and diacetyl rest impact the overall outcome of the fermentation.

5pm – Storytime with Marcus Baskerville (Weathered Souls Brewing Company)

Marcus Baskerville is arguably one of the hardest working people in craft beer. From being a co-founder at Weathered Souls Brewing Company to helping lead the Black is Beautiful initiative to opening up a new taproom/incubator in Charlotte, North Carolina, Marcus is dedicated to positive change and the longterm success of our industry. In this conversation, we will speak with Marcus about his most impactful experiences over the past several years and dive into stories that he does not often get to share. Join us for this not to miss session with Marcus as we close out our 2022 Fall Virtual Conference.

Born and raised in Rancho Cordova CA. Started brewing from a sibling rivalry competition with his older brother, Everett. Upon taking a promotion in San Antonio TX, Marcus took more interest in home brewing. After gaining more confidence due to trial and error, he noticed that he was gaining more confidence and also admiration from the local beer scene. He started donating beer to local places around town for tap takeovers and was quickly offered an assistant brewing position from a local brewery. Marcus worked 40 hours at his full time position and 35 hours a week at the brewery to learn the ins and outs and dos and donts of working in a brewery. After a year of working, Marcus met his business partner Mike Holt, who both then decided it be an amazing idea to open a brewery. In the 5 years WSB has been open, Marcus has received multiple accolades such as San Antonio’s Brewery multiple years, 2019 best 33 stouts in the world, Wine Enthusiast 40 under 40 Top Taste makers in 2020, Craft Beer & Brewing 2020’s break out brewer of the year, 2020 Imbibe 75 and the list goes on. In 2020 he created the internationally acclaimed initiative Black is Beautiful which has gained over 1300 brewery participants, raised over $4 million and has been featured in numerous media outlets including CNN, The New York Times, Forbes and many others, including Gear Patrol top 100 products of 2020 and Most recently greatest beers in the world. Marcus is also a father and husband and in his spare time, enjoys time with his family and cooking in the kitchen. Marcus has been a key note speaker for Homebrew Con 2021 and Yakima Chief Hop and Brew school 2022