Craft Beer Research and Service Grants

Due to budget reductions, the Brewers Association’s Craft Beer Research and Service Grants program has been put on hiatus for 2024. This page will be kept updated with anticipated changes and future plans for the program.  Inquiries related to this program can be directed to technical@brewersassociation.org.

Since 2015, over 90 projects have been funded by the BA, amounting to a total investment of more than $2 million. In 2020, 13 grants were funded, totaling almost $400,000.

Funding priorities include hop and barley research, draught beer quality studies, and sustainability related projects, however all projects will be considered for funding. In recent years BA funding supported research and service grants for public barley and hop variety development, hop disease and hop aroma, as well as supporting affiliated national and state-level grower organizations. Projects which appeal to more than one area in particular are welcome. For example, development of hop or barley grower best practice guidance, based on resource use analysis to improve sustainable growth.

Sustainability priorities include (but are not limited to):

• Understand best practices and payback in hop and barley production which enhance soil sequestration of greenhouse gases (GHGs)
• Innovate packaging materials, including reduction of plastic, materials collection or recycling, and/or reusable containers that reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs)
• Benchmark malt house water and energy utility intensity rates
• Develop new materials and compare the quality outcomes of hops packaged and stored in recyclable alternatives to Mylar foils over time
• Study climate resiliency of North American hop and barley production, especially as crops broaden and diversify into minor growing regions, and breeding efforts that address climate adaptation
• Research environmentally safe alternatives to current clean in place chemicals commonly used in the brewing industry
• Identify area(s) of efficiency improvements for small scale carbon dioxide recovery and direct air capture

Supply Chain priorities include (but are not limited to):

Barley and Malt

• Breed two-row winter and spring and/or facultative barley varieties for all-malt brewing
• Develop barley varieties to address abiotic stressors related to climate extremes within temperature and precipitation
• Address beer quality and brewing challenges related to abiotic stresses in malted barley such as preharvest sprout, head scab, and leaf diseases

Hop(s)

• Deepen understanding of the biotransformation of bound thiol to free thiol in hops
• Develop indexes for yeast strain potential to cause biotransformation of hop oil components such as thiols and hop oil unsaturated fatty acids into methyl esters, by variety
• Investigate the varietal differences in biotransformation of hop oil unsaturated fatty acids into methyl esters
• Investigate the evolution of smoke compounds in hops due to wildfire events and/or develop solutions to mitigate or remove smoke off-flavor in beer produced using smoke-tainted hops

Draught Beer Quality priorities include (but are not limited to):

• Validate or disprove current draught line cleaning recommendations found in the Draught Beer Quality Manual
• Develop a robust method to validate the effectiveness of new draught line cleaning chemicals, technologies, and/or protocols against the current Draught Beer Quality Manual recommendations in the field
• Identify the components in varying craft beer styles that contribute to the development of biofilm in draught beer lines
• Investigate the food safety implications of no-alcohol and low-alcohol beer served on draught
• Study the impact of alternative beverages such as kombucha, cider, seltzer, and no-alcohol and low-alcohol beer on draught system tubing and hardware
• Investigate the effectiveness of static draught line cleaning versus recirculated cleaning, and the role of flow velocity in stripping sessile microbial contamination

Applied Research Opportunities (New):

• Investigate the use of and best practices for pasteurization on a diverse range of beer styles and alternative beverages which will ensure product stability and safety
• Determine the concentration and combination of compounds found in beer that result in aluminum can liner failure and/or detrimental effects to beer quality
• Investigate the prevalence of biogenic amines in sour/wild beer, potential expression of biogenic amines by common classes of bacteria in draught systems, and/or testing for biogenic amines on “clean” beer, spontaneously fermented beer, lab culture fermented beer, and draught beer
• Investigate the use of thermal fluid heaters in yeast production and brewing, and feasibility for use to replace boilers and natural gas

The BA welcomes your proposals for research or in answer to any BA-initiated request for proposals (RFPs). For additional information read Research and Service Grants Proposal Guidelines.

Please note BA policy does not allow Institutional Overhead, Indirect Costs (“IDC”), or Facilities and Administration (“F&A”) charges on grant funding provided by the BA. Read the BA Research and Service Grant Funding Policies.