2019 Summit Seminar Schedule

Does your brewery staff and leadership reflect the diversity of your community? If not, you're not alone. You're also leaving a world of opportunity for organizational success unexplored. In this interactive talk, Dr. J. will share some of the latest research on the advantages that organizations that lead in workplace diversity experience. Though there are no one-size-fits-all tactics that are appropriate for all breweries, this talk will cover a range of practical recruitment and retention strategies that will help attendees working to diversify their workplace.

At Summit ‘18, Modern Times tackled how to plan your finances in the early days of a brewery's life. This included start-up capital, addressing cost of goods, how to price your product and some early lessons learned with traditional bank lenders. During this year’s seminar, we'll turn our attention to Modern Times' experience after the first three years of start-up and growth, and the variety of opportunities out there for cash flowing a brewery that is facing a crossroads on how to finance and manage growth from a microbrewery to a regional brewery.

Are you so small that you cannot justify hiring a dedicated Marketing Manager? Do you ever worry about how to promote your next beer release while on the brew deck watching for a boil over?  This seminar is for small breweries with high ambitions for their business within this competitive market.

The real work starts after you partner with a distributor. In an industry where distributors don’t take as many chances on unproven brands, the desires of the customer changes daily and out-of-market retail is more competitive than ever, suppliers have a chance to discuss how to set and maintain distribution goals. Learn directly from distributors how your brewery can work to grow “attention share,” stay fun, remain competitive and build the right internal infrastructure to be successful in today’s marketplace.

Despite being an old style of beer, sour and wild beer have been changing rapidly among American breweries who are innovating this style. Join us for a panel discussion with some of the best producers in California to discover current best practices and the future of what can be accomplished with these beers.

Yeast strains of Norwegian farmhouse origin (known as "kveik" in a Norwegian dialect) have been getting increased attention in the brewing world due to their unusual characteristics. Fermentation temperatures up to 100°F result in extremely fast turnaround and help save energy by lowering cooling demand during fermentation. Alcohol tolerances exceeding 15% allow brewers to produce styles such as imperial stouts and barleywines with ease. The ester profiles of kveik also complement modern fruity hops in the production of American-style IPAs. This seminar will address the origins of Norwegian kveik and their application in modern brewing styles.

Have you ever experienced a true blind tasting? In this interactive, entertaining, and very educational seminar, Dr. Hoby Wedler will walk you through some history of beer, beer aromas from hand-crafted aroma samples and a variety of beer tastings while you are under blindfold! We will begin with a discussion of how beer is a true art form, some fun beer history, and lively discussion about beer. We will then move into a discussion of some of the aromas we typically find in beer and enhance our aromatic vocabularies by smelling a few samples which will be passed around. Finally, we will lead a detailed aroma and flavor analysis of a variety of beer styles all under blindfold! Come check out what truly blind tasting is all about.

Pairing craft beers with everything from the rarest delicacies to your favorite junk foods is an adventure worth exploring. Join “Dr. Bill” as he takes you to a place you never thought you would go, pairing great hand- crafted beers with items you can find at your local convenience store.

Opening or expanding your taproom? Trying to attract and retain guest? What trends in food and alcohol service, consumer behavior, and employee training have made other breweries, bars and restaurants successful? How can you create those experiences at your facility? As a designer, developer and operator of two of Northern California’s most successful bars and taprooms, Marvin Maldonado will dig into the principles of storytelling, architectural design, service style and guest interaction that will increase the hospitality experience for your guests.

While operating a taproom allows for direct interaction with your customers, taproom staff can face unique challenges when customers have too much to drink, become flirtatious or aggressive, fail to play nicely with others, or just seem outright suspicious. This solutions-focused session will highlight policies and practices you should implement to ensure your taproom staff is well-equipped to deal with challenges that can arise when serving the drinking public without running afoul of the law.

Take a seat with Garrett Oliver as he talks about the American transition between real food and drink (19th century) to food and drink simulacra (20th century) and back to “reality” in the 21st century. Craft beer, far from being unique, is part of the same social movements that drove us from handmade sourdough bread to Wonder Bread and back again. This is the arc of the American food culture and it was shaped by societal and technological forces. This talk will give you an understanding of those forces and open a window on the past and the future of brewing.

Join Firestone Walker’s co-founder, David Walker, for a candid discussion on the last 30 year of the CCBA and the next 30 years of change, innovation and growth for his brewery and the greater beer industry.

Sit down with Kim Jordan to talk through what she has learned about craftsmanship, community, and change while growing a progressive business from the basement to beyond.

Looking to better understand fermentation control points and how it could affect strain selection? From flavor production to behavioral attributes such as flocculation, attenuation and alcohol tolerance learn to navigate between 100’s of commercially available strains to create the perfect beer. Through a guided tasting we’ll discuss how to choose the best yeast strain from house strains to making specialty beers and considerations for managing multiple strains in the brewery.

The world of cookie-cutter menus featuring big, national brands is changing. In a new era of on-premise sales, national chains are looking to feature local, smaller craft brands, often creating distinct menus at each location to accommodate local offerings. In this seminar, learn how to fine-tune your toolkit to give your brand the best chance to stand out in the new era of on-premise, through effective lineup balance, retailer education, and brand positioning.

This discussion will provide an overview of California's cannabis state regulatory system and provide an update on the latest developments impacting the California cannabis industry. The next steps in this process for regulations, licensing and enforcement will be highlighted, including implementation issues from the regulator’s point of view.

A cultural climate audit provides baseline data and qualitative observations that form the foundation of diversity and inclusion planning, implementation, and assessment activities. Workshop participants will learn a step-by-step process for conducting and analyzing the results of a multi-method cultural climate audit.

Learn from four leaders in the industry the fundamentals of inclusivity, values of leadership and the importance of encouraging diversity in the beer industry. From three different backgrounds with three different journeys, these women will share insight on culture building and positioning for everyone from the aspiring leader to the executive looking to build a more inclusive community at their brewery. This panel is a collaboration between CCBA and Pink Boots Society.

Fermentation is not done until maturation is done, and there might be some hop creep waiting in the wings to surprise you. Join John Palmer to learn how yeast works and how you can manage them to manage your beer.

Brewery staff are continually challenged to stay knowledgeable on a zillion regulatory requirements - and Safety is one of the most important regulatory categories. Chances are you don’t know all of the safety requirements necessary to operate your business, or you’ve heard certain things and wonder what you’re supposed to do. Here’s your chance to get answers to those burning safety questions. Safety Dan will provide his discussion of things you probably should know, but probably don’t. Your job is to bring questions and try to “Stump the Safety Guy.”

The beer media landscape is growing and diversifying as rapidly as the industry itself. From daily newspapers to hyperlocal blogs to Instagram accounts to brewspapers, there is no shortage of places offering beer news and information. Join this seminar for a candid conversation with the writers actively covering the changing craft-beer communities about their process, the challenges they face and how you can help them tell your story.