District Rocky Mountain MBAA summer meeting held at Great Divide Brewing Co.

The summer meeting for the Rocky Mountain District Master Brewers Association of the Americas was held at the Great Divide Brewing Company in Denver, Colorado on August 30th. Tours of the brewery were provided by brewery co-founder Brian Dunn. "The tour was a highlight of the evening," says Axel Johnson of the Rocky Mountain District. "We toast Brian and his team for hosting the meeting and providing a relaxed and interesting evening."

The quarterly meeting was opened by Brian Callahan of the New Belgium Brewery, who presented the old and new business issues for the Chapter. Doug Odell of Odell's Brewing Company presented the district's financial information with a reminder that the chapter needs to consider how the funds could be used to further promote the brewing science knowledge within the district.

The technical review was presented by Chris McMorrow of AnheuserBusch. The presentation focused on the quality assurance aspects of the brewing operation with specific attention paid to the quality systems utilized. "The benefits of a systems approach can be realized through consistent application of line quality control married with an effective quality assurance program," McMorrow noted.

Practical information was shared around experiences with the SCABA Analyzer and how quality systems are integrated within the operation. McMorrow said "The key to the quality program is to put the inspection process in the hands of the people operating the equipment, being proactive vs. reactive, leading process improvement teams focused on quality and providing quality systems for process management."

The next MBAA Rocky Mountain District meeting will be November 9th, 2000 at the Coors Brewing Company which will be held as a joint meeting with the local ASBC group. The evening will begin with tours at 6 pm and the technical presentation at 7 pm with the dinner following immediately afterwards.