Some thoughts on quality control.

Brenner, M.W.

Abstract
This paper in the series of reprints entitled "Brewing! Have things changed so much?" was originally presented at the annual convention of the Master Brewers' Association of America (now Master Brewers' Association of the Americas) (MBAA) in 1953 (the editorial introduction implies a date 10 years earlier, but that is an error), and describes the use of quality control procedures little different from those so widely discussed in the 1990s. A case history is presented in which a recurring problem with the rapid oxidative deterioration of bottled beer was corrected by systematic and intensive sampling and dissolved oxygen analysis, followed by an investigation into the causes of excessive oxygen pickup and the institution of strict quality control procedures (for instance, a sample from each bottling line supply tank was analysed and the beer was only bottled if its oxygen content was below a certain limit). Recommended sampling rates for different batch size ranges (including the reduced sampling rates which are acceptable if continuous sampling at the full rate for an extended period has not found a significant number of samples out of specification) are presented in tabular form.
Keywords : beer quality control