Good People Brewing Co. recently established a laboratory at Innovation Depot in Birmingham.
The lab, housed within the Birmingham business incubation complex, is the latest and most comprehensive advance in the brewery’s quality control and assurance program, company officials said.
“The quality control program is the single most important factor in the sale of our beer,” said Michael Sellers, a brewery co-founder. “We work hard to provide our customers, as well as the retail and wholesale partners that serve them, an excellent product that tastes consistent whether it comes out of a can from the grocery store or the tap at your local pub.”
The quality control program is thoroughly integrated with every facet of the brewery’s operations, according to brewery co-founder Jason Malone.
“Each cycle of production–brewing, fermenting, cellaring, packaging and storage–must be rigorously monitored. In our view, a brewery must take a proactive approach, which means taking a close look at execution in each cycle and ensuring the final product reaches the high standard we have established,” Malone said.
In addition to this regular testing, the laboratory is also being used to research different brewing techniques intended to maximize efficiency, consistency and freshness.
Ben Self, the chemical engineer who manages the quality control program, balances a sensory analysis group where trained tasters evaluate beer samples with the quantitative methods afforded by the instruments in the lab.
“While we were putting together the new facility, we knew that more formal staff training was essential to validate the results of the devices,” said Self, who runs the only proprietary lab at an Alabama brewery. “In the lab, we can measure bitterness and ABV and identify unwanted chemical compounds, but what’s most important to all of us is how the beer looks, smells and tastes.”
ABV is alcohol by volume, a standard measure of how much alcohol is contained in an alcoholic beverage.
