Brewery Consultants - Brewing Consultants

Improve Beer Quality

"We use a systematic approach for better beer quality and consistency"

Our approach involves analysis of symptoms, diagnosis of root cause and recommendations for the best solutions. We have helped breweries solve all kinds of problems for over 25 years. The steps of our approach are:

Sample Analysis

•	Third party chemical and microbiological testing
•	Sample Analysis includes:
	- Analytical (AE, ALC., OE, RE, colour, BU, pH) - Shelf stability - Micro (aerobic, anaerobic, Y&M) - Air/CO2

Taste Profiling

•	A descriptive sensory analysis by experienced beer industry tasters
•	Taste Profiling includes:
	- A panel of certified beer tasters - 2 flagship brands - blind tasting - confidential report

Plant Site Visits

•	Armed with the analytical, micro and taste information the First Key Quality Specialist will conduct a site visit reviewing the technical data and observing first-hand the process, procedures and equipment in the brewery.
•	Plant Site Visits include:
	- 2 days for on-site visit and report for breweries up to 3000 hl/yr - 4 days for on site visit and report for breweries between 3000-10,000 hl/yr - 5 days for on-site visit and report for breweries over 10,000 hl/yr

Report and Recommendations

•	Analytical, microbiological testing and taste profiling results plus observations and recommendations are presented in a confidential written report.
•	Report includes:
	- Scorecard of taste / lab / process results vs. best practice - Recommendations for improvement developed jointly by the Brewery and First Key's Quality Specialist - ranked by priority

Implementation

•	Brewery implements the recommendations in the report
•	Brewers to confirm satisfaction (eg, 2-3 test brews)

Second Report

•	Analytical, microbiological testing and taste profiling are repeated and compared to results from the first report to validate improvements.
•	Improvement Assessment includes:
	- Second lab analysis - Second sensory evaluation (taste panel) - Report / Scorecard to compare results against the results of the first report to validate improvements

First Key - Brewing and Packaging - Quality Control

Services

Improve Beer Quality

Maintain Beer Quality

Brewpubs and Craft Breweries

Interim Staffing Services

Expansion Master Plan

Testimonial

"We engaged First Key to develop a comprehensive Quality Management System (QMS) for managing and controlling our product quality. First Key did an excellent job setting up the system, and they now conduct periodic audit reviews and submit conformance reports that include recommendations for adjustments and corrective actions if required. Having an independent audit of the QMS performance at our three breweries, benchmarked to international standards, is a fundamental part of PIT's commitment to quality".

Henk Van Gelderen
Chief Operating Officer, PIT International

“We at Beau’s have been greatly impressed by the OCB M&M program we participated in, which was run through First Key Consulting. We have been given tools and knowledge to improve our product quality, increase our efficiencies and reduce operating costs. We would definitely participate again. Kudos to an excellent initiative!"
Sincerely,

Matthew O’Hara, Brewmaster; Tim Beauchesne, Co-owner; Steve Beauchesne, Co-owner
Beau’s All Natural Brewing Co.

Case Study

Quality Improvement Program for Association of 30 BreweriesA quality improvement program including sensory evaluation (taste panel), lab analysis and an on-site process / operational review. A scorecard of taste / lab / process results vs. best practice is produced with recommendations for improvement developed jointly by each Brewery and First Key. After the implementation of the recommendations there is a second sensory evaluation and lab analysis to benchmark the improvements against the first scorecard results.