Having your brewery's beer featured at the opening of the Olympic Games is certainly an honour. But getting it to the start line on time and in impeccable quality - at the opening ceremony in Paris - is at the same time a colossal challenge. Ten thousand litres, a month's normal production, and as a brewer you get just one shot to get it right. A truly Olympic achievement!
That is exactly what happened to Brasserie Octopus, a microbrewery near Paris, where the 2024 Olympic Games have been taking place since last Friday. Just over three weeks ago, the phone rang at Brasserie Octopus. On the line: an event manager from the Olympic opening ceremony. The ask: could the brewery deliver 600 kegs of their own beer for this exclusive party for athletes and dignitaries? One of the greatest sporting and celebratory events the world has ever seen.
The microbrewery, normally used to catering for regional beer festivals alongside local hospitality and retail customers, accepted the challenge. Meeting the demand from existing stock was out of the question. So that meant brewing a completely new batch - 600 kegs - within the tightest possible timeframe. Failure? Not an option.
Every athlete who wants to perform at the Olympic Games knows exactly what they need to do. If a brewer wants to perform at an Olympic level, nothing less applies. So what do you do when a major public event near your brewery comes knocking? When you're asked to brew a jubilee beer because the city where you're based is celebrating 600 years. Or to deliver a special beer for a prestigious nearby nautical event that draws nearly 320,000 visitors in three days. You only get one chance to get it right.
Are you a brewer who still relies on guesswork during your process? Or do you prefer to keep a close finger on the pulse while brewing? If you do test during brewing - do you get your results fast enough? And are you measuring the right things? Brewers have of course been measuring all manner of things during production since time immemorial. But how accurate those measurements actually are is often another question entirely. And the results can take longer than you'd like. Especially when you, as a brewer, want to exceed your own expectations.
Discover what Beer-o-Meter can do for your brewery!
Faster, higher, stronger - there is a way to take measurements of all the parameters that matter for impeccable beer quality, right during the brewing process. Lab-level measurements whose results you can access in (near) real time. Totally fermentable sugars (TFS), for example. Yes, you can already measure that. But getting the result takes anywhere from one to three days. Especially when you need fast results - in the form of 10,000 litres of top-quality beer - you'd want it to be faster.
With Beer-O-Meter you get accurate measurement results within fifteen minutes. Not just for TFS, but also for pH, EBU, IBU, ABV, and Plato. What's more, you use Beer-O-Meter yourself, right in your own brewery. You don't need any specialist background knowledge to take precise measurements. With just a few drops of wort or beer you get a result at the click of a button. Using ready-to-use test pods, you as a brewer can carry out lab-quality measurements yourself. The results land automatically in the Beer-O-Meter app on your phone, and they are compatible with all common brewing software.
Beer-O-Meter puts top-notch quality-analysis measurements within reach of every ambitious microbrewery. Not only for those exceptional moments when you get the chance to deliver a batch of your own beer for a special event - but also because impeccable quality is a priority for every brewery that wants to achieve lasting success. As a craft brewer, your ambition is ultimately to keep getting a little better at your craft. In that respect, you're no different from an Olympic athlete: faster, higher, stronger.