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Best Practices

Brewing beer is a combination of both art and science, but there are many best practices to help keep your brewery running smoothly, make better quality beer, and maintain a healthy business. Learn best practices for brewing and serving different beer styles, building and maintaining a brewery that is safe and efficient, and keeping records that will protect your brewery and help you grow your business.

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Industry Updates

5 Quality Elements To Implement Right Now

What’s remarkable about these overlooked quality functions is that they are often both incredibly effective and incredibly inexpensive.Read More

Neil Witte is a 20 year veteran of the craft beer business. He began his career in the Kansas City brewpub industry, moving to Boulevard Brewing Co. in 1997 as a brewer. In 2001, he took over field quality responsibilities for the brewery, acting as a quality control liaison between the brewery and its distributor and retailer network. He continued that role with the Duvel USA family of beers, including Boulevard and Brewery Ommegang, through the end of 2016. In 2017 he founded Craft Quality Solutions, which draws on his extensive field quality experience, providing field quality services to breweries, distributors and retailers. He is certified through the Beer Judge Certification Program and is currently one of 13 Master Cicerones. He is co-author of the Brewers Association Draught Beer Quality Manual, Draught Beer Quality for Retailers and a contributing author to the MBAA Beer Steward Handbook.

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Industry Updates

Date Lot Coding

The Brewers Association technical committee recommends that it is in the best interest of craft brewers, distributors, importers, and consumers that all beer from small and independent craft brewers be identifiable by some form of a date or lot code …Read More

Industry Updates

Handling and Filling Beer Growlers

Beer growler use by consumers and retailers is a popular way to bring the retail draught beer experience home or to transport rare or small production beers. The important decision to fill and use growlers must be made with an eye …Read More

Industry Updates

5 Brewers Association Resources to Help You Brew Quality Beer

If there is one common principal that everyone shares in the beer industry, it is the importance of ensuring the quality of every beer that reaches consumers. We often think of sparkling beakers and pristine white lab coats when the …Read More

Outreach Coordinator

Graham Rausch is membership outreach coordinator at the Brewers Association. He serves as a direct contact for breweries and brewpubs who are new to the BA. Graham started out with the Member Services team in 2014, developing a well-rounded knowledge of BA resources during that time. This experience serves him well in helping new members navigate the numerous benefits available to them. Graham hails from Milwaukee, where his longtime friend and roommate first introduced him to the boundless world of craft beer.

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Insights & Analysis

Digging Deeper Into Beer Styles

The IRI Group has recently reworked their beer styles data and the results provide new insights into the changing nature of craft brewing over time. Their data can now be broken into approximately 100 styles, of which 89 could be …Read More

Economist

Bart Watson, Chief Economist for the Brewers Association, is a stats geek, beer lover, and Certified Cicerone®. He holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where in addition to his dissertation, he completed a comprehensive survey of Bay Area brewpubs one pint at a time. You can follow him on Twitter @BrewersStats.

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Insights & Analysis

2017 Predictions: Craft Beer Style Trends

I’ve been asked by a couple of BA members about my predictions for style trends in 2017. Let me start by saying that figuring out what other people will like in the future is pretty darn hard. Rather than looking …Read More

Economist

Bart Watson, Chief Economist for the Brewers Association, is a stats geek, beer lover, and Certified Cicerone®. He holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where in addition to his dissertation, he completed a comprehensive survey of Bay Area brewpubs one pint at a time. You can follow him on Twitter @BrewersStats.

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Industry Updates

Draught Beer Line Cleaning Study

The Brewers Association (BA) is pleased to announce that NSF International Applied Research Center (ARC), in cooperation with the Center for Biofilm Engineering (CBE) at Montana State University, is the recipient of a $120,000 grant to conduct an unprecedented draught …Read More

Insights & Analysis

Beer Styles: How Preferences Vary by State

Everyone knows that India Pale Ale (IPA) is a dominant force nationally for small and independent craft brewers, but how much variation is there in style preferences across the states? Does the West Coast really love IPAs that much more …Read More

Economist

Bart Watson, Chief Economist for the Brewers Association, is a stats geek, beer lover, and Certified Cicerone®. He holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where in addition to his dissertation, he completed a comprehensive survey of Bay Area brewpubs one pint at a time. You can follow him on Twitter @BrewersStats.

See Bart's Articles
Displaying results 1-10 of 31