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Quality Control and Food Safety in the Brewery - CALGARY Course

Quality Control and Food Safety in the Brewery - CALGARY Course

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

09:00-16:00

Escarpment Labs and QPlus Focus will be joining forces to conduct a two-day, hands-on course focused on Quality Control (QC) in the brewery and implementing food safety programs such as HACCP. The course will be taking place from October 29-30th, 2019, at Last Best Brewing & Distilling, Calgary, Alberta. The course will run from October 29th-30th.
This is a great opportunity for brewers coming to town for the MBAA National Conference and for brewers in the fast-growing Alberta scene to brush up their lab skills.Our workshops prioritize hands-on time and personalized discussion. For this reason, we keep the class size small.
The breakdown for the course is as follows:
Day 1: Practical Quality Control in the Brewery (Escarpment Labs)
This portion of the course will include morning presentations covering the basics of performing beer QC and setting up a QC lab. The discussions will focus on adopting aseptic techniques and creating aseptic environments, plating beer samples for QC analysis on various agar media, how to use a microscope and haemocytometer for cell counts, and sample preparation. After the morning presentation, and a quick break for lunch, the class will divide into small groups for one-on-one, hands-on instruction. In these small groups, each individual will have a chance to practice plating, set up cell counts using a hemocytometer and microscope, prepare samples using aseptic techniques, and learn to identify various types of contaminations. Additionally, each member will receive a workbook with practice questions focused on the contents of the course to reinforce the main learning objectives. Advice as to what equipment to purchase in order to set up and run a basic brewery lab will also be shared.
The course will be run by the QC Staff of Escarpment Labs. This team includes individuals with various backgrounds including microbiology, environmental science, and biotechnology, with many of them having attended the Brewmaster Diploma Program at Niagara College. Joining the QC Team will also be Richard Preiss, one of the founders of Escarpment Labs.
From this part of the course, you will learn how to:

Aseptically take samples from tanks and brinks
Perform cell counts and dilutions in a calculatable manner using haemocytometers and microscopes
Plate yeast and beer samples on various media used commonly in the brewing industry
Calculate pitch rates using information collected from cell counts and viability checks

Take-home items include:

Guide for purchasing laboratory supplies
Workbook and presentation slides
Guide to identifying common brewery contaminants

Day 2: How to Develop and Monitor Traceability and Food Safety Compliance Programs
Qplus Focus in collaboration with Escarpment Labs will be providing an introduction to a basic quality control program for craft breweries. This course will involve an overview of well-known food industry programs such as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP)'s and General Manufacturing Practices. The emphasis will be on the components of a HACCP pre-requisite plan, identifying Critical Control Points (CCP)'s and how to monitor them. After a quick overview of this plan, a more practical approach will be toward establishing the following contributors of a well-established quality program: analytical and microbiological sampling program, traceability and shelf stability.
Additionally, each member will receive a workbook with examples of industry HACCP pre-requisite plans, recommended analytical and sensory sampling programs and case studies of following traceability in a brewery. We will spend time together to start developing your own quality control and assurance plan from scratch following the production process in your own brewery. A few examples of these plans could be shared at the end of this session.
This part of the course will be presented by the founder of Qplus Focus, Simina P. Siddiqui. Her background in food industry brings more than fifteen years of experience working in analytical testing and industry laboratories. Starting with setting up a process laboratory in one of the largest brewery in Europe, she was able to assist production at every step of the way. By bringing in her experience as a Quality Assurance Manager, she is able to create customized quality control programs tailored to new or established craft breweries.
From this part of the course, you will learn how to:

establish an analytical sampling program
set- up a microbiological sampling plan
follow traceability

Take-home items include:

Guide to a pre-requisite HACCP plan
Workbook and presentation slides
Guide to your own quality control program

How can I contact the organizer with any questions?
If you have any additional questions about the event, please contact Alex at alex@escarpmentlabs.com or Simina at info@qplusfocus.com.