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Name: Dana Sedin
Job Title: Chemistry Lab Manager
Company: New Belgium Brewing Company
Dana Sedin – Chemistry Lab Manager, New Belgium Brewing Company
Peak's Precision gas generators have enabled New Belgium Brewing Company to operate under safer practices with maximum efficiency and cost reductions using on-site gas generation.
Peak Scientific Helps New Belgium Brewing Company in Crafting Fine Beer with Precision
New Belgium Brewing Company has become one of the largest craft breweries in the United States. Their flagship brew is an amber ale called Fat Tire, originally dreamt up by their co-founder during a self-led bicycle tour through Belgium’s breweries. The Fat Tire name along with the New Belgium name thereafter pays homage to this journey where it all began.
Dana Sedin is the chemistry lab manager at New Belgium Brewing Company, located in Fort Collins, Colorado. At New Belgium, they employ both (GC-ECD) Gas Chromatography with Electron Capture Detector) and GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry) for analysis required for quality assurance and new production development. Dana shares with us how Peak’s gas generators have provided hydrogen and nitrogen carrier gas for their analyses, and saved them from the additional costs, as well as unnecessary safety hazards and inconveniences associated with gas cylinders.
Typically, what is the focus of your GC analysis—what sort of applications?
"At New Belgium, we use GC for QA and product development applications. Specifically, monitoring VDK levels (to determine when fermentation is complete), as well as hop aroma compounds, fermentation volatiles, and sulfur compounds."
What Peak Scientific generators do you have in your laboratory and what instruments do they supply?
"We have a PH 200 (hydrogen), Precision Compressed Air, Precision Nitrogen Trace 250cc, and Genius 3055 (nitrogen) generators in or lab. Peak generators supply gas for our Agilent 7890 B with GC sampler 80, Perkin Elmer Autosystem xl with Turbomatrix 40 HS autosampler, Agilent GC-MS with Olfactory Port, Agilent GG with Leco TOF and our Agilent MP-AES."
What prompted you to choose a Peak generator and how long have you used them?
"We’ve been using Peak gas generators in our lab for the past four years. With our lab located on the second floor, it was proving difficult to move cylinders into and out of our location. If we would have gone with a bulk gas supply, we would have been stuck installing long gas lines through the factory and into our lab—which makes troubleshooting a real challenge.
Along with alleviating these concerns, Peak gas generators also free us from being tasked with monitoring the usage of our gas cylinders as well as coordinating pickups and deliveries of said cylinders. With our gas supply now being generated on demand, unnecessary distractions like these are no longer our concern."
What did your previous gas supply solution look like?
"Before our Peak generators, we were using only hydrogen and nitrogen cylinders for our gas supply. This presented numerous safety hazards to our lab with our staff carrying heavy cylinders and having highly pressurized cylinders in the lab."
What has been the key benefit of deploying our generators in your own experience?
"There are no longer gas cylinders in our lab, which helps us keep the cost and complexity of our operation to a minimum. Peak’s generators have brought increased safety, on-demand gas and cost reductions to our lab."
How would you describe your experience of dealing with Peak Scientific in terms of purchase and support?
"Our experience has been excellent! From sale to service, Peak has been proactive and helpful throughout our entire process, providing us with a solution that has minimized cost and safety risk."
Would you recommend Peak Scientific generators to other GC laboratories—and if so, what would be your main reason for the recommendation?
"Absolutely—Peak generators have proven their great quality, and when needed, Peak’s service team has provided fast, accurate responses to all of our inquiries."
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Peak's Precision gas generators have enabled New Belgium Brewing Company to operate under safer practices, with maximum efficiency and increased cost reductions. Using on-site gas generation, Dana Sedin and his staff are no longer tasked with moving heavy gas cylinders up and down stairs to their second floor laboratory--alleviating a huge safety risk. Along with these safety concerns being removed, New Belgium is no longer stuck with the inconveniences and overhead costs associated with monitoring a compressed gas supply and handling pickups/deliveries to refill their supply.