Please see the logistics emails for full parking and load-in information.

CSU OSHA Consultation Services, Brewery Safety Consulting, and Fisher Phillips

This presentation will identify the most common safety issues in breweries and explain all aspects of addressing these issues including compliance, safety that exceeds compliance, and dealing with OSHA enforcement. Bevin will use her compliance knowledge from auditing over 100 breweries. Tony will discuss safety practices that he has consistently and successfully implemented. Ben will contribute what to do when OSHA acts on these hazards and inspects or cites a brewery.

Jon Graber - Micro Matic - Packaging Division

What's going on in your kegs? Learn how to solve the mystery! In this presentation you will learn all about the D System, A.K.A. "American Sankey" keg valve—from guidance on safe repair and maintenance techniques, to tips on keg washer interface with D System valves, to overall quality assurance and customer satisfaction for your draft beer. Draft beer quality and customer satisfaction begins with your kegs. Every brewery that owns its kegs should have properly trained staff who know how to safely and effectively inspect and maintain them; kegs are a safe and robust container for beer—until they are not. Kegs require attention and service to keep providing top quality draft beer for your customers. Limited to the first 20 conference attendees, first come, first served.

Chas Runco - Runco & Proffitt, P.C.

This workshop will address frequently asked questions asked by Colorado Brewers Guild members. We will discuss everything from licensing and permits, to special events, and even hard seltzer! The group will also discuss regulatory changes set to take effect in early 2020. The floor will be open, so come prepared to ask the questions currently floating around your brewery.

CBG will host a “town hall” with its members to discuss issues on your mind and what else the CBG should be doing for membership. Come with questions, concerns, and comments. CBG Members only!

Bring beers to share (not required, though) and enjoy mingling with your fellow brewery members.

The finest suppliers in all of the land. From packaging to raw materials, they will be here to give you what you need to make the finest beers in the nation.

Bart Watson, Chief Economist – Brewers Association

Brewers Association Chief Economist Bart Watson will discuss some of the rapidly evolving trends in the craft brewing marketplace. Colorado has long been at the forefront of craft brewing, and while that has created opportunities, it also brings a more competitive marketplace. Learn about the demographic changes, consumer preferences, and market forces that are shaping the brewing industry today.

Andy Sparhawk - Brewers Association; Sydney Schalit - FootSteps Marketing

Press releases, social marketing, and time management - oh my! That workload can feel daunting, especially if you're wearing multiple hats at your brewery, like so many do. In this seminar, Andy and Sydney will highlight the benefits of a press release (on PR, on morale and on your marketing efforts year-round) and how to create social marketing fodder using your press release calendar and vice versa.

Ed Flores - On Tap Credit Union

So you have hit or passed the five year success mark, but are you financially set to continue to grow? Building a strong and financially sound business requires skill, knowledge, and a little bit of luck. Unfortunately, we often see many owners making financial mistakes as they grow that can eventually jeopardize their businesses. In many cases, if the owner had received good advice at the appropriate time, most restructures could have been avoided. We will shine some light on mistakes many small business owners make and how to recover from those mistakes if they have already been made.

Katie Strain - MSU Denver

Quality analysis in the brewery is becoming more critical in order to compete in today’s market. Many breweries have in-house laboratories but may not have the necessary method validation steps in place to ensure accurate and precise results. Even official methods from the ASBC, TTB, or AOAC should be validated in-house to check for accuracy and precision whenever possible. This presentation will cover basic methods and steps to assess these essential analytical parameters and will include examples of how each can affect data interpretation for commonly used tests and equipment in a small brewery laboratory. There are simple and inexpensive ways to ensure your laboratory is putting out consistent and accurate data, no matter who is doing the analysis.

Mike Drumm - beerattorney.com; Brandon M. Selinsky - Whitcomb, Selinsky, McAuliffe, PC

Lawyers and trademarks can be expensive. This presentation will provide practical trademark tips from two amazing beer trademark attorneys. Learn how to wield your trademarks to create value in your brewery and protect your beers. Also, bring your legal questions for the Q and A to take advantage of the ability to talk to a lawyer without receiving a bill!

Tom Hennessy - Colorado Boy Pizzeria & Brewery

Whether you have a small brewpub, packaging brewery, brewery in a bowling alley, separate tap room, movie theater/brewery—really anything—what actually operates your business consistently and profitably is the business system. In this seminar I will cover all aspects of it, and you can plug it into your brewery right away. You will notice a difference. There is a reason big companies survive and small independents crash and burn in five years. The big guys have a business system and the independents just run it day to day in full reaction mode.

Karen Fortmann - White Labs

All alcoholic beverages, including beer, wine, and liquor, share a common attribute: They are all the products of yeast fermentation. Fermentation contributes over 500 flavor active compounds to alcoholic beverages, some of which include: ethanol, carbon dioxide, esters, phenolic compounds, and aldehydes/ketones. All of these compounds can be attributed to the metabolic processes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or common brewer’s yeast. When brewers begin to understand the basic underpinnings of fermentation, they begin to make better beer!

Dan Spears - BMI

This seminar will pull the curtain back on music licensing and help you understand the legalities of using music in your brewery. We will provide an in-depth look at the copyright law and when a brewpub or taproom needs a public performance license. In addition, the session will focus on how licensing fees are determined and where the money goes. Don't miss this opportunity to gain a greater understanding of music licensing and how it impacts your business.

Chas Runco - Runco & Proffitt, P.C.
Jessica Hunter - Moye White
Dave Cole - Epic Brewing Company
Joe Davis - New Belgium
Dave Thibodeau - Ska Brewing

With the continued consolidation in the middle tier of the alcohol beverage industry, protection of brand rights becomes increasingly more important. This panel will discuss issues that frequently arise in negotiating distribution agreements, the applicability of franchise laws, and steps breweries can take to guard themselves.

Sponsored by Colorado State University

Colorado State University:

Jeffrey R. Callaway; Nathan Palardy, Graduate Student; Marco Costanigro, Associate Professor; Joshua Berning, Associate Professor; Joe Cannon, Professor

As of January 1st, 2019, the passage of Senate Bill 243 allows breweries in Colorado to sell full-strength beer to grocery and convenience stores. The purpose of our study is to assess how breweries altered their retail distribution strategy in response to this change. To this end, we conducted a survey of breweries in Colorado. Using the survey responses, we determine the characteristics of breweries that tend to adopt the same distribution strategy. Then, we evaluate how these different groups of breweries alter their distribution strategy in response to the policy shift. We will highlight the shared characteristics of breweries that tend to adopt the same strategy. The results of our study can be informative to other breweries interested in changing their retail distribution.

Ryan Evans - Bruz Beers/Belgian Brew Fest; Kaitlyn Gipple - Holidaily Brewing Company

In 2017 alone, there were over 100 beer-centric events held in just Colorado. It’s no surprise that the festival market is expanding just as quickly as the brewing market itself, which has grown over 900 new breweries in just the US during 2017.

With so many events happening, how does a small festival stand out? How can the little guys compete for the best breweries when there are a half dozen competing events on the same weekend?

Todd Fredrickson - Fisher & Phillips LLP

Todd will provide practical solutions for implementing tip pools and handling other wage and hour issues, like overtime, that keep brewers and brewpub owners up at night. He’ll also address recent developments in Colorado employment law, including one law you may not be aware of that went into effect on September 1, 2019.

Kelley Freeman and Evan Beyers - Beyers Analytical Brewing Sciences, LLC; Danny and Emily Wang - Fermly

Most brewers want to implement some kind of quality control program but think it's too expensive, or they don't know enough to get started. This talk will go over where brewers should be sampling their products for testing, what the data gathered means, and how to implement a low cost QA/QC program. Different methods and instruments, giving even the newest breweries the ability to set up a lab. This talk will also cover chemical and microbial measurements.

Jason Gladfelter - OvalOptions for Conflict Management

A brewery is a fun place to work, yet it's also a business. Teamwork is important and difficult to obtain and sustain. Turnover is costly in multiple ways. A solid foundation in dispute management can help your team stay strong, cohesive, and productive.

Meghan Shank - Hope for the Day

The Things We Don’t Say workshop is a program designed to teach individuals how to understand self-care and be supportive to proactive mental health care for others. We press the discussion about stigma, its impact on individuals and communities, and teach practical skills for early recognition of mental health challenges that often go unaddressed due to the silence of stigma, building to a crisis stage. Through Peer-to-peer Proactive Prevention, we can disrupt the highest risk factors before the crisis stage.

A reward for all of your hard work and another opportunity to source great products from great partners and suppliers.

Sponsored by GoTab

First beer is on Red Truck, then GoTab will be offering $3 beers all night! Come see how breweries are using GoTab to increase taproom sales. Did we mention, FREE BEER?