College’s Centre for Craft Brewing Innovation will use funds to purchase new equipment

Oshawa, Ont. – Durham College’s (DC) Office of Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ORSIE) is pleased to announce it is receiving $133,000 in applied research funding via an Applied Research Tools and Instruments grant. Awarded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the grant is administered through the council’s College and Community Innovation Program and will be used to purchase a beer analysis system for the college’s Centre for Craft Brewing Innovation (CCBI).

Working alongside the CCBI’s existing Brew Lab and Brew Line, this basic version of a pressurized beer analyzing system, plus a dissolved oxygen module, will help researchers and consultants determine the core parameters of a beer, including alcohol content, original extract, real extract, degree of fermentation and dissolved oxygen from a single sample.

“Ontario’s craft brewing industry is experiencing major growth,” said Chris Gillis, manager, Applied Research Business Development, ORSIE. “However, it’s becoming increasingly clear that in order for this growth to continue, small and medium breweries, which make up 80 per cent of existing craft beer producers, need to deliver the quality and consistency demanded by consumers. We feel the solution is a scientific, technically sound approach to brewing in order to achieve better control over the end-to-end processes, which the new brewing analysis system will allow us to do.”

Building on the CCBI’s already established expertise, the beer analysis system will be used for applied research projects with craft brewers so they can better understand how their brewing processes function. This will allow them to develop and implement improved control strategies, which in turn, results in a consistent, higher-quality brew.

The equipment, which is being supplied by Anton Paar, a well-known manufacturer of high-quality high-accuracy lab instruments that find many applications in the food and beverage industry, is able to automatically carry out the analysis of various key parameters in parallel on a single sample. It can also correct sample filling errors, cross correct results to improve accuracy and self-calibrate against distilled water, making the analysis system an industry standard.

“We are looking forward to engaging our students in the applied research that will be undertaken using the new equipment,” said Dr. Elaine Popp, vice-president, Academic, Durham College. “Being able to work with the best instrumentation and systems hands-on really enhances the overall learning experience.”

The purchase of the new equipment, sees the CCBI join the ranks of the LCBO, as well as many larger breweries, all of whom have adopted the same system for their labs due to its superior reliability, ease of use and speed of analysis.

For more information about the CCBI visit www.durhamcollege.ca/ccbi.

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About Durham College

At Durham College (DC), the student experience comes first. With campuses in Oshawa and Whitby and a learning site in Pickering, the college offers more than 13,600 full-time post-secondary and apprenticeship students access to more than 140 full-time and eight apprenticeship programs in a number of different disciplines, enabling them to develop the skills required to meet the demands of today’s job market. The college has also launched its first four-year degree program, the Honours Bachelor of Health Care Technology Management, in September 2018.

The Oshawa campus features the state-of-the art Student Services building and the Centre for Collaborative Education, a legacy project tied to DC’s 50th anniversary in 2017. The newly-opened facility brings together local, Indigenous and global communities, providing a new home for several of the college’s most innovative and ground-breaking programs.

The Whitby campus features the award-winning W. Galen Weston Centre for Food, which includes Bistro ’67, a full-service, teaching-inspired restaurant, and Pantry, a retail store featuring food prepared by students in the college’s culinary programs.

For more information, visit www.durhamcollege.ca or call 905.721.2000.

Media contact:

Meghan Ney
Communications and Marketing
905.721.2000 ext. 2197
meghan.ney@durhamcollege.ca

About Anton Paar

Anton Paar develops, produces and distributes highly accurate laboratory instruments and process measuring systems, and provides custom-tailored automation and robotic solutions. It is the world leader in the measurement of density, concentration and CO2 and in the field of rheometry. Anton Paar GmbH is owned by the charitable Santner Foundation.

For more information visit https://www.anton-paar.com/ca-en/

Media contact:

James Orsini
Assistant Marketing Coordinator
514.788.4862 ext. 212
marketing.ca@anton-paar.com