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Master Brewers Program

Focus Session - Yield Improvement: Practical and Advanced Techniques to Do More with Less

Wednesday, August 13, 2025
3:00pm - 4:15pm PDT
Location: Springs Ballroom D-E

    Organizer(s)

  • JM

    Jeff Muston

    Engineering Project Manager
    Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
    Mills River, NC, USA

    • Speaker(s)

  • AD

    Alex Dwoinen

    Brewing Manager
    New Belgium Brewing
    Asheville, NC, USA

  • MF

    Mark Fischer

    Brewery Operations Director
    Firestone Walker Brewing Company
    Paso Robles, California, United States

  • TM

    Thomas Moore

    Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
    Mills River, NC, USA

  • NO

    Nick Okada

    Brewery Engineer
    Rhinegeist Brewery
    Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

    • Moderator(s)

  • JM

    Jeff Muston

    Engineering Project Manager
    Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
    Mills River, NC, USA

Making the most of our raw materials is critical to success, as materials and labor costs rise and the market for beer faces headwinds. Yield improvements increase the environmental and economic sustainability of our breweries.

Moderated panel will cover yield improvement techniques, including hot side centrifugation; fermentation management; and beer recovery from spent yeast. The advanced systems to be discussed are being increasingly implemented in craft beer and are newly scalable into smaller applications. Fundamentals of cellar management will also be addressed since technical advances only work with sound fundamentals. Panel will give real-world observations on implementing these systems/techniques. Objective is to help audience members independently evaluate commercial pitches from OEMs and to provide a sounding board for those considering these systems and to stress that all of those opportunities depend upon sound fundamentals

Learning Objectives:

  • Panelist 1 will describe his/her centrifugation practices for brewhouse wort recovery. Panelist 2 will describe implementation of a decanter centrifuge for beer recovery from spent yeast. Panelist 3 will describe alternative dry-hopping techniques to minimize beer loss. Panelist 4 (or moderator) will discuss cone blow optimization and fermenter mixing for optimal centrifuge loading.
  • Panelists discuss practical experience with these techniques and give peer review for audience, including pros/cons and lessons learned.
  • Audience will have opportunity for Q&A with panelists.