Ontario District
One-Day Technical Conference
January 27th, 2006
REPORT

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Over 200 members and guests gathered for the annual One-Day Technical Conference at the Wyndham Bristol Place in Toronto on January 27th. The conference commenced on the Thursday afternoon with a workshop and seminar on hops put on by the Education Committee. Feedback from those who attended was extremely positive – a job well done! Following the seminar and workshop was the traditional bier stube where members and delegates were able to socialize, meet old friends and make new acquaintances.

The Friday technical session included many interesting discussions from several areas in the industry including HACCP accreditation, recent research on premature yeast flocculation and PROFI a replacement alternative to DE. Due to popular demand we carried over the energy theme from last year and had a talk on controlling CO2 and Water usage. From the packaging side we had presentations on turnkey systems and asset risk assessment to increase line efficiency. The key note speaker was Darwin Kells, a barley farmer and consultant from Saskatoon who provided a very interesting and informative talk on the malt barley industry from the farmer’s perspective and how it has changed over the past few years.

Other highlights included a luncheon address from our MBAA President and a handing over of the gavel ceremony, as our past MBAC President Keith Armstrong officially handed over the title to Kirk Massey.

Technical Presentations:

1. “HACCP Accreditation at Inbev North America – Corporate & Brewery Persepctives”
   Dr. Terry Dowhanick, Labatt/Inbev
   In March, 2000, the decision was made by senior corporate management at (then) Labatt-Interbrew North America not only to embrace HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) as the food safety program of choice, but to have each of it's nine breweries in North America formally HACCP accredited before the end of 2004. This presentation will focus on the challenges faced and strategies employed from both corporate and brewery perspectives in achieving this goal.
2. “Premature Yeast Flocculation – Advances & Challenges”
   Dr. Alex Speers, Food Science & Technology Program, Dalhousie University
   Premature yeast flocculation (PYF) is characterized by aberrant fermentation profiles believed caused by Malt constituents. This presentation will consist of an overview of the literature and results from a study ongoing in the author’s laboratory.
3. “Understanding Risk to Improve Asset Reliability and Increase Line Efficiency”
   Mr. Neil Waugh, Ivara Corporation
   What assets are critical to your operation? - The packaging line? - The bottling line? It's not always what you think. Most people are familiar with the term Criticality, but Criticality has too many meanings. Instead, prioritize assets according to risk - based on consequence and probability of failure. Learn how to calculate risk at the asset or system level and how to use these values to improve reliability, and ultimately, to increase capacity and line efficiency.
4. “The REAL Turnkey Approach from Brewhouse to Warehouse, Determining Your Needs”
   Mr. Heiko Feuring, Krones Systems
   An approach to turnkey projects is discussed and outlines how the customer needs are determined in consideration of all environmental and future requirements, from raw material handling to processing followed by packaging and warehousing / distribution. Animated films about 3D planning and implementing a turnkey facility will also be demonstrated.
5. “CO2 and Water Usage – Controlling Use In Breweries”
   Mr. Paul Swindall, Molson Canada and Barry Elliot, Labatt/Inbev
   A follow-up to last year's presentation on energy efficiency, this presentation focuses on the industry's efforts to reduce water consumption and efforts to become self-sufficient in carbon dioxide. Key topics will include where the utility is consumed in the brewery, benchmark information, as well as initiatives to reduce consumption and increase re-use of these valuable utilities.
6. “PROFI – An Alternative to Kieselguhr for Filtration”
   Mr. Hans Denniger, GEA-Westfalia
   Kieselguhr represents a significant material handling, environmental, and disposal issue in the modern brewery. PROFI offers a proven and cost effective solution for elimination of Kieselguhr for beer filtration. Included in the presentation will be results from over two years of experience at a production scale brewery.
7. Keynote:
   “The Malt Barley Lottery, And The Winner Is…”
   Mr. Darwin Kells, Lambton Agra Strategies
   An inside look at the barley industry as it is today, the question of whether it is sustainable in the future and what the impact will be. Insight was also provided on how we can improve the quality of barley by working directly with selected malt barley farmers. Dramatic rising costs of production along with the sharp decline of the value ($) of the barley crop was also discussed.