Presenter: Jaime Jurado, Susquehanna Brewing Co., Pittston, PA
An infrequently tested proposition from economics is that
competitive pressure will force breweries to be efficient. Key
ratios and sustainable development indicators (SDI) help
focus an approach to sustainability into real and quantifiable
action. An attempt to create an aggregate measure of various
aspects of sustainability suggests a profile of indices that
provide a technical perspective that is global, like world-class
manufacturing, but with transparent numerical quantification.
By excluding social factors, often a key part of sustainability
considerations (i.e., community involvement), the role of the
brewer in candidly calculating and presenting SDIs is made
easier and clear. Key ratios such as MJ/hL, g of CO2/L, or
hL of water/hL of finished beer help the brewery understand
basic primary resource drivers of the enterprise and, if metered
sufficiently, of the underlying unit operations within the
enterprise. A family of key ratios comprise a new aggregate
SDI, which is framed on simple math that demystifies the
novel metric, and in which specific sustainable developments at
breweries can be seen to influence the SDI. The desired result
is that competitive pressure in reducing SDI will motivate
breweries to commit to more-sustainable investments in their
production operations. Independent craft breweries have
supported this development work with travel grants for the
presenter to obtain order-of-magnitude scaling data.
Jaime Jurado served as MBAA President in 2005 following
service as the editorial board chair of the Technical Quarterly.
With an undergraduate chemical engineering degree, Jaime’s
brewing career commenced formally after he completed a
brewing apprenticeship in the Bavarian breweries of Patrizier-
Bräu AG in 1983. Jaime spent 1984 and 1985 working as a
project engineer in the London brewery of Truman, Hanbury
& Buxton and at the Smithwick brewery in Ireland. He was
hired as an assistant brewmaster at The Lion Brewery in
Wilkes-Barre (the company which would fund his M.S. degree
in electrical engineering). Jaime advanced to the role of master
brewer at the brewery and then moved on to a management
opportunity at Courage Brewing Ltd. After two years, he
reduced his employment to part-time to study and perform
research in the Department of Engineering Science at Oxford
University, where his research resulted in several publications.
He was recruited by Stroh for a new brewery in Rajasthan,
India, and other projects. He departed Stroh to become the
director of brewing operations at The Gambrinus Company
breweries, where he stayed for nearly 15 years. He completed
an 18 month “working sabbatical” to design, procure,
and commission a new small regional brewery using novel
technologies aligned with sustainable explorations across the
enterprise. He also provided engineering support for the Dingle
Distillery in Ireland. Jaime currently is doing engineering
consulting work and planning for a new adventure
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