Latest News and Upcoming Events

Apr 2010 - Fermentation Control

Catch this at the Craft Brewers Conference on April 10th.

Alastair Pringle reveals the secrets of one of the least understood, but arguably the most important, parts of the brewing process.

·        Learn how to spot the most important factors controlling fermentation-related flavors.

·         Discover how these factors can be simply controlled.

·         Increase your ability to trouble-shoot fermentation problems.

Chicago entertains -

Alastair Pringle considered the critical contol points for flavor formation both desired and less so.  He put the all the biochemistry over in a succinct manner and concluded there were just eleven critical control points to get right and just six process measures to keep tracking.  He made fermentation seem so straight forward!  A first class presentation which everyone could learn from, even old duffers like Jackson and Putman sitting in the front row!

From  Brewer and Distiller International June 2010, vol 6

Jan 2010 - Fuel Ethanol and all that

Read the latest information on ethanol production from corn, industry concerns, and the status of the next generation biofuels in this article authored by Alastair Pringle.  You can find it in the January issue of Brewer and Distiller International (v6 p18).  If you cannot access this publication, email us and we will send you a copy.

Jan 2010 - Denison University OH 

Alastair Pringle asks  "How Are You Creative?" at the Entrepreneurial Endeavors Workshop at Dension University, Granville OH.  He will be answering these questions:

  • How important is innovation today?
  • What are some of the barriers to innovation?
  • How can creativity and innovation be enhanced through:  
    • Personal creativity
    • Understanding thinking patterns
    • Use of a process and tool box

This presentation will be held on January 12th at the Burton D. Morgan Center.  

Oct 2009 - Saint Louis IFT Meeting

Alastair Pringle will be presenting 'Enabling Your Company's Technical Future' at the STL-IFT meeting in October.  The meeting will be held at the Coronado Building at 3733 Lindell Boulevard, Saint Louis on Tuesday October 27th.

Sept 09 - Biofuels training at the National Corn to Ethanol Research Center.

Alastair Pringle is participating in a 4 week training class on Biofuels at the National Corn to Ethanol Research Center (NCERC) on Southern Illinois University's Edwardsville (SIUE) campus.  This training was made possible through the St. Patrick Center of St. Louis and the Go Network, which were awarded a grant from the U.S. Conference of Mayors and The Wal-Mart Foundation called Project GO! Green.  

This hands-on experience in both the plant and lab will enable us to better help our clients in the biofuels industry improve their starch conversion and fermentation operations. 

Training Class Organizers Training Class Organizers

July 2009 - Review of 'Enabling the Technical Future' by the BDI  

38 papers came from universities and research establishments, suppliers supplied nine, and there were eight billed as from brewers: A-B, Polar, Fosters, Budvar, Heineken, Asahi, Kirin, and Miller-Coors. Theoretical more than practical perhaps?  Alastair Pringle (recently with Anheuser-Busch) tackled that very subject suggesting that researchers are all too happy to pop down their rabbit holes to examine minutiae and perhaps lose sight of the bigger picture.  Research should enable the technical future for the industry rather than be an end in its own right.  A solution focus was essential and robust, practical answers should be the outcome.  Will lab researchers be business-savvy knowledge brokers capable of directing problem solving efforts, he asked. He also described A-B's knowledge base where what the composite company has accumulated over years is available world-wide to personnel in an easily searchable format. This needs a will to contribute to it and an expert in the field to run it.  Sounds like and imppressive tool; it will be interesting to see whether it survives the InBev approach of doing business.

Brewer & Distiller International v5, July 2009

 

May 2009 - Alastair Pringle gave a talk entitled "Enabing the Technical Future of Today's Brewery".

This talk was given at the European Brewery Convention, which is the technological and scientific arm of the Brewers of Europe. It was presented as part of a Media, Management, and Industry issues session given in Hamburg, Germany. 

 

This talk dealt with the need to change the structure of the brewery laboratory to meet the challenges of the brewing industry.  The following key points were made:

  • Success will be judged on how fast it can generate simple, cost effective solutions
  • Treating brewing processes as black boxes can produce solutions faster
  • Lab personnel need to become business-savvy knowledge-brokers, who can direct efforts, communicate solutions, and educate the whole company.