DEFINING QUALITY IN A BREWERY

The expected outcome of a quality program, in any type of manufacturing environment, is to produce high quality products in a consistent manner. For a brewery, that translates to making quality beer all the time. This job falls to all workers in the brewery, but the quality system — the management of the resources to make consistent beer all the time — usually resides with one person. In a very small brewery it may be the owner, or the head brewer, that has to wear this hat. Larger facilities usually have a position dedicated to quality. Regardless of who is wearing the quality hat, these folks frequently hear, "What a fun job! You get to taste beer all day!" Working in a brewery can be fun; however, leading the continual quest for quality is a demanding job. Tackling an overall quality plan can feel a bit overwhelming, overstructured, rigid, and sometimes undervalued ... until something goes wrong. That is when all the planning and testing in place pays off.

A quality manager in a food plant, where microbiological food safety issues are closely tied to the quality of the product, requires clear delineation of what is good and poor quality. They may pose the question, "Will releasing this product hurt our customer or make them ill (e.g., due to microbiological pathogens)?" An ice cream facility, for example, could release a batch of ice cream contaminated with pathogens that could sicken customers.

In a brewery, on the other hand, the quality of the product is primarily defined by standards of what constitutes "good" flavor, color, foam, shelf life, customer expectations, etc. There the question may be, "Will distributing this batch of beer hurt our customer's response to our beer?" We cannot hurt our customers by making poor quality beer (in terms of microbiology since pathogens cannot survive in beer). However, brewers can hurt their business reputation and the reputation of all craft beer. With a lower level of risk of consumer harm, the role of quality management demands in the brewing industry differ from food products and the system may easily become muddled between decision makers in brewing operations and the quality lab staff. For reasons unique to beer brewing's history, management gaps remain in regard to defining quality, determining how to achieve it, and who is responsible in the brewery for maintaining product quality. When these questions are left unanswered, the brewery may indeed suffer catastrophic quality issues.

This chapter explores the history of both manufacturing quality and brewing quality. These two disciplines are very much related, but there hasn't been a full analysis of the interplay over the last 50 years of modern industrial history. Both subjects require a large set of knowledge and skills. The discipline of manufacturing quality requires an understanding of statistics, risk analysis, communications, and change management. The discipline of brewing quality requires understanding of the brewing process, microbiology, chemistry, sensory analysis, and understanding variation, statistics, and measurement. Quality managers in breweries must master both manufacturing and brewing quality disciplines to be effective. The person who wears the quality manager's hat must bridge any gap in knowledge with solid training, hands-on experience, and a lot of reading.

If the strength of the quality manager is in brewing knowledge, which many times is the case in small and growing breweries, there is a tendency to get lost in the data-rich environment and neglect to ask the big questions that well-trained quality managers would first ask, such as, "What are the key quality criteria for our brand?" And, "Who has what responsibilities toward maintaining our product quality?" These are truly quality management questions, and this is a good starting place for developing a plan. As breweries grow in volume, change and add products, and maybe even change leadership, it becomes increasingly important to take a broad look at what you define as quality in your beer, how you do it, and who has what responsibilities. Quality science, like brewing science, has continuously evolved; and breweries must adjust their quality management style to grow with the brewery.

There are several reasons achieving consistency and excellence in product quality can be a challenge unique to the brewing industry. First, define specifications for the ideal batch of beer. This alone is not hard to achieve, but the specification must be bolstered by a management system of policies, procedures, and human resource practices that allow employees to correct a process. With so many data points to measure in a brewery, this becomes a bit ghastly. Most importantly, there must be a functional role or advocate leading the creation of the culture of quality in the brewery, and it must be emphasized from the top down to be successful.

"What are the key quality criteria for our brand?" And, "Who has what responsibilities toward maintaining our product quality?" These are truly quality management questions, and this is a good starting place for developing a plan.

The advocate may be the brewmaster, the CEO, the quality manager, or all of the above. In a highly technical field such as brewing science, it is sometimes easier to delegate the leadership to one person in the brewery. The quality advocate has a specific and crucial role to play — to ensure everyone shares the responsibility of producing quality results. If a brew ery establishes a quality-focused culture throughout the company, it will always produce a superior product, despite lacking any of the other requirements. This is one of the fundamental tenets of developing an effective quality program; without strong leadership to create an effective focus on quality, established quality systems are for naught.

In a small brewery it can be easy to push off the structure of a quality system, especially during start-up mode. There are plenty of duties and issues to resolve, and the last thing on everyone's mind is to codify specifications and requirements for releasing products. However,...