COJG Success
THE CULTIVATION OF KNOWLEDGE (AND YEAST):
Science is taking the Perth Brewery to the next level and a Canada Ontario Job Grant helped them do it
Perth Brewery has surged into the science behind advanced brewing practice plus has trained their team on how to do it – and they did it with a Canada-Ontario Job Grant.
“Really simple and straightforward,” replied Cathy, co-owner of Perth Brewery, when asked about the application process for the Canada-Ontario Job Grant (the Grant). Community Employment Services (CES) made her aware of the Grant in 2015. This was training Perth Brewery had wanted to do for a while. Cathy had looked into bringing in a technical brewer consultant before but, “It felt cost prohibitive. So as soon as we realized we could get some funding for it, we jumped on it and thought this is a perfect opportunity to get some real training.”
Cathy gave CES an informative tour around the popular brewery located on Highway 7 in Perth. While standing in the Perth Brewery’s new laboratory, she explained how the Grant allowed Perth Brewery to augment their efficiency of yeast harvest process resulting in significant long-term cost-savings. 
This was accomplished by bringing in the technical brewer consultant to cross-train the brewmaster and staff to how to re-pitch the yeast. “Pitching refers to taking the fresh yeast that is still alive and very active and then putting it into new beer and having it ferment” explained cellar brewer Dalton, who was trained by the technical brewer consultant. Cathy explained the cost savings, “Every time we’re able to re-pitch that yeast, we don’t have to add $300 of yeast to the next batch. So you can imagine when we’re brewing 5, 6 or 7 times a week at $300 a pop every time we don’t have to re-pitch yeast, we save.” Dalton added, “It’s a lot healthier, it’s cost effective and usually produces a better tasting beer.”
Their technical training course brought several operational improvements, such as cutting their beer filtration time in half and revised storage solutions. Dalton summed up the multi-day on-site training as a “really positive experience…it really helped our efficiency, as well as my overall knowledge.”
Cathy remarked that the COJG application didn’t take long to fill out and she spent a half-day to complete the research into training six of her employees. Once the paperwork had been submitted through CES for the Grant, the wait time was very short to find out if their application was approved. For less than a day of administration effort to put into improvements in efficiency, she feels it has more than paid off, “We’d love to do another project very similar.”
The Canada Ontario Job Grant covers 2/3 of training costs or $10,000 per staff, which includes training for business owners. For more information, please contact Community Employment Services (CES) Algonquin College Perth at 613-267-1381 or contact Colleen Clark (ext. 2) or Saundra Morrow-Dunlop (ext. 4) for a quick COJG advisement.