Ontario District - MBAC
Technical Meeting, May 1, 2003
Springfield Golf & Country Club

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There was an excellent turnout for the May 1 meeting, held as usual at the Springfield Golf and Country Club. During the afternoon, the group was addressed by both Doug Smallfield, District President and Joel Manning District Technical Chair. This year, the agenda included 3 presentations (normally 2) so the afternoon was particularly interesting.

Cougar Automation

Craig Smith P.Eng, representing Cougar Automation Technologies, gave a paper on Standards as a Platform for Growth.

Craig maintains that Standards act as a recipe to ensure a satisfactory final result and are necessary to deal with a) Ethernet incompatibility b) PLC / HMI Communication Issues, c) Internet PLC Communications and d) Programming / Configuration concerns.

The 4 key critical areas are Hardware / Software, Communications, Programming and HMI. Craig described the approach that Cougar takes and pointed out that it is essential that important decisions are made early in the project, that new equipment is compatible with existing and that maintenance personnel are included in the team.

Con Agra

Armand Parisien of Con Agra gave an interesting overview of the current barley situation with a paper titled Practical Malt Analysis. The severe drought in Western Canada coupled with late planting and late harvest has resulted in a crop of reduced quantity and quality. Exports have been terminated, the maltsters are accepting any variety and barley is being bought from Manitoba for the first time in 6 years. Whereas a 16 to 29 hour steep was the norm, this crop only needs 8 hrs and the normal germination time of 4 days is extended to as much as 6 days. Armand went on to describe some of the analyses that he is seeing and advised brewers on what to expect.

LCBO

The third speaker Ms Randi Landry from the LCBO gave an enlightening talk on the very successful strategy that LCBO have developed for beer marketing. Randi showed charts on historical trends, market trends and described the way that the LCBO is working to provide the customer with the 'ultimate international beer experience'. LCBO beer sales have risen from $2.3 billion in 1998 / 99 to $3 billion in 2002 / 03. The fact that sales of imports have risen 19% over the past 5 years contributed to a lively question period during which Chris Robertson of the LCBO fielded some of the questions!!!.

Financial Results

Mike McInnis, District Treasurer took the floor to review the books for 2002. The results show that Mike evidently has our financial affairs well under control.

Sponsors

The group adjourned for an excellent dinner, courtesy of the sponsors, Sleeman Brewing &Malting Co, Amsterdam Brewing Co, Creemore Springs Brewery and Gilbertson & Page who were sincerely thanked by Doug Smallfield. Their sponsorship is essential for the success of the District meetings and is greatly appreciated by the whole membership.