INCBC – Speakers & Bios

Adding Structure to your Marketing and Building Meaningful Workflows

Session Description: When we think about marketing and communication, so often we think about the best strategies for you to reach your potential customers. We will shift the focus to how your team can maximize internal interactions. From the brewer to the beertender, having everyone on the same page is vital to long-term success. In this session, you will learn the value of sharing information, gathering everyones input to build stronger marketing, and gain the strategies to create the more valuable and efficient workflows that will produce better results. With the successful addition of structure & workflow even the smallest companies can strive to build 360º marketing plans like the biggest companies.

Warren has been working in the sales and marketing world for 8+ years. He started his career in alcohol doing marketing for a few restaurants and bars in Louisiana during college (where he started the parent marketing company to Beer Marketeers). He then kept his small marketing company around while doing alcohol sales for a couple different distributors and working in the tech marketing industry to keep beefing up his marketing chops. After meeting his now business partner, they created a beer fest, which led them to other projects together and made them think they could build a marketing company around helping businesses in the beverage industry with their combined industry experiences – which they did and continue to grow.

Non-Alcoholic Options for Craft Brewers

Summary: With the changing consumer landscape and the growing shift away from alcoholic beverages, craft brewers are finding a need to explore options outside of beer. This session will provide information on the most common outlets for craft brewers to utilize their current production equipment to produce non-alcoholic options. The production of non-alcoholic beer, seltzer-based beverages, and THC-infused beverages will all be covered in this presentation.

Kevin Smolar has been a part of Sun King Brewery since 2012. He worked his way through the tasting room, cellar, and then spent over 8 years managing the laboratory before taking on his current role as Director of Brewery Operations. Prior to Sun King, he had earned his B.A. in Biochemistry from Indiana University, M.S. in Biology from Purdue University, and M.S. in Forensic and Investigative Sciences also from Purdue University. While at Sun King, he has successfully completed his Certificate of Quality Control from the Siebel Institute of Technology and a Certificate of Sensory Panel Training and Management from Aroxa. He is an active member of the MBAA, ASBC, a BJCP Certified Judge, and a Certified TTB Chemist. Kevin is proud to have 10 roommates (wife, 4 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats, and a parrot) and often gets in trouble for referring to his wife as his roommate.

Sensory - Details TBA

Ron Smith is a Master BJCP Judge (Beer Judge Certification Program), a Certified Cicerone®, a Beer & Brewing Educator, a Craft Brewery Consultant, and a European Beer Tour Guide. Ron has been homebrewing, judging beer, and supporting the craft beer movement for over 30 years, and has been teaching about beer for nearly 20 years. He teaches about all aspects of beer, brewing, ingredients, processes, styles, off-flavors, judging, beer and food pairing, and many more topics, and he consults with craft brewers on stylistic, quality, and technical issues.

Ron got involved in the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) in the early 2000’s and started conducting study groups and technical sessions to train others how to evaluate and judge beer. He ascended through the BJCP ranks and is currently a Master level judge (only approximately 125 of the over 8,000 judges are ranked at the Master or Grand Master level). Ron is a sought-after judge for professional brewing competitions and has judged in prestigious international competitions in the US as well as Mexico and Belgium.

Ron was also one of the first 100 Certified Cicerones® in the world. He has attended numerous educational seminars presented by many of the leaders of the craft beer industry, and has traveled throughout Germany, Belgium and the Czech Republic, learning first-hand about the beers, brewing processes, history and culture in those countries. Ron also leads Beer Tour Groups on incredible journeys through Germany and Belgium.

Ron also holds an MBA, with honors, from IU’s Kelley School of Business, and BA and AAS degrees from Purdue University, and he consults numerous businesses in the area of marketing and operations.

"Forging Financials from Beskar:
Protecting our breweries from financial distress"
(this is a reference to Star Wars)

How did we get here?
Evolving financial trends within craft beer 2020 to 2023
Funding crutches
A story of a brewery (who shall remain nameless) who spent three years to arrive at where they are in 2023 to illustrate the gradual process of financial unraveling

Main lessons learned from multiple turnarounds I've had to get involved with in 2022-2023

10-15 hands on workshop

Audra is the owner of Brewed For Her Ledger, LLC, Prior to owning her own company, she served as Dogfish Head Craft Brewery’s Controller 2009-2010 and Mother Earth Brewing’s Chief Financial Officer 2011-2014. She has been working exclusively in craft beer for 11+ years and joined the Brewers Association’s Finance Committee in January 2020.

A graduate from the prestigious Kenan-Flagler OneMBA program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Audra possesses over a decade and a half of experience in senior leadership roles in craft brewing, manufacturing, services, non-profits and startups. She earned her undergraduate degree in accounting and business management (double major) from Loras College (Dubuque, IA) in 1997. Her passions include home brewing, mobile marketing, crafting stories from numbers, and paying it forward.

When you won’t find her on the beach surfing or in the mountains hiking, you’ll find her blazing the trails racing, camping out of her FJ, backpacking, and exploring our beautiful mountains.

Join us for a session where the Guild's contract alcohol legal guru, Scott Bedwell, will join forces with state attorney Ashley Merritt to share pertinent information about keeping your business operating in line with Indiana's laws. The pair will share information about how recent legislation has affected things that you can now do at your brewery and as always, this is an opportunity to bring all your burning questions to ask the ATC in a setting created for openness and thoughtful discussion.

Scott Bedwell is an alcohol and tobacco industry consultant for Bose McKinney & Evans LLP. He has extensive experience in working with industry members, including manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and dealers, on compliance and licensing related issues.

Title: Effective Email Marketing for Breweries of All Sizes

Learning Objectives:
•Effectively selecting the best email marketing platform for your individual brewery’s needs.
•Building valuable, on-brand content.
•Recruiting and retaining an audience.
•Interpreting analytics and making informed changes.

Rough Outline:


1. Is email marketing dead? No!


2. Choosing an email platform.

3. Content creation.
4. Organically recruiting an audience.

5. Understanding and interpreting analytics

6. “Pre-flight” checklist

I gained knowledge on this subject through my college degree in communications, taking classes through the University of Vermont’s Business of Craft Beer program, and serving as Stormcloud Brewing Company’s marketing manager.



I gave a similar seminar on this subject at this year’s Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville. I’ve also had the opportunity to speak at the Craft Brewers Conference in 2021 and HomebrewCon in 2022. In addition to being Stormcloud’s marketing manager, I also serve as Co-chair of the Brewers Association DEI Committee, and Vice Chair of the American Homebrewers Association Governing Committee. Though a Michigander, I lived in the Hoosier state for several years and am a big fan of Indiana craft beer.

Working From Inside Out: Pipeline Development and Recruitment Strategies

“We would love to hire more diversity, but candidates from underrepresented groups just don’t apply for our jobs.” Sound familiar? Building a diverse workforce can seem like an insurmountable challenge when your pipeline for employment openings lacks a broad range of candidates. In this seminar, Dr. J will cover a variety of practical pipeline development strategies that will help your business successfully increase the breadth, depth, and diversity of its pool of qualified job applicants and leverage the benefits of doing so.

A former professor of Communication Studies, Dr. J Jackson-Beckham dedicated her academic career to the study of American beer. Today, she helps craft beverage organizations develop inclusive, equitable, and just practices that drive success, build communities, and empower individuals.

Basic Recipe Design Considerations when using Thiolized Yeast

Thiolized yeast strains with enhanced carbon-sulfur lyase (CSL) activity release thiols from malt and hops in fermentation leading to tropical aromas of passion fruit and guava. There are multiple types of Thiolized yeast that differ in the type of CSL enzyme they express. We will discuss the basic differences in Thiolized yeast that have been engineered to express the yeast Irc7 and bacterial PatB enzymes and their application. The intensity of thiols in the beer can be modulated by which CSL enzyme is expressed, but also by the amount of precursor in the raw materials and most importantly the malt. We’ll share data for thiol precursor levels in different malt sources and the contribution of malt to thiols in finished beer. Thiols produced from malt in fermentation do not replace “hop character” and instead have an intense tropical aroma similar to that found in passion fruit, guava and wine. Dry hopping provides many additional hop aroma compounds and is often necessary to balance the thiol aromas from malt. Surprisingly, increasing dry-hop dose rates leads to an overall hop intensity that lowers the perceived thiol intensity. Brewers will take away key knowledge of the types of CSL enzymes, precursors in raw materials and sensory interactions that will lead to a sustainable and well-designed thiol-forward beer.

Dr. Allison Lange is the R&D Molecular Biologist at Omega Yeast in Chicago. She graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Genetics, Cell, and Developmental Biology and was awarded her PhD in Biochemistry from Emory University. Allison then brewed professionally for ~9 years in the Washington DC area. She began as a Brewer and Beer Scientist at Port City Brewing Company, then moved to be the Director of Brewing Operations, Lead Brewer, Lead QC, and Lead Cellarperson at 3 Stars Brewery. Most recently, she was Head Brewer of Old Ox Brewery.

Alternative Beverages 101 - What are they and how are they impacting our local industry? We'll look at 3 different industry professionals and their products and find out if the alternative buzz is right for your business.

Steve Murray is Co-Founder & Co-Owner of Burn 'Em Brewing in Michigan City Indiana.
Steve started in the service industry, working every aspect of catering from valet to tending bar. He also comes from a construction family, working on jobs with his dad. While attending Indiana University- South Bend Steve continued bar tending while studying Fine Arts focusing on sculpture. He transitioned from bartending to brewing at Greenbush Brewing Co. in Sawyer, MI, where the Burn 'Em Brewing spark ignited in 2013.

Kristin Patrick is Co-Founder of Loren's Alcohol-Free Beverages. She and her sister, Andee Simpson, have two retail stores in Carmel. Currently, they are working on expanding the distribution side of their business. Their mission is to disrupt the narrative that alcohol is essential to celebrate, relax, or network in Central Indiana.

Adam Kline is a partner in the Agribusiness Group, the Estate and Wealth Transfer Group and the Real Estate Group of Bose McKinney & Evans LLP. Adam’s experience in agribusiness began on his family’s farm and continues today. The business, recognized as the 2011 Top Producer in North America, includes an Indiana farm that produces corn, soybean and wheat grain products, a Mississippi farm producing corn, soybeans, rice, and cotton, and South American investment interests. He focuses his legal practice on representing clients across the agricultural spectrum—including agribusinesses, farm operations, agricultural investment funds and financial institutions lending to the ag industry. Adam also works with clients to establish estate planning strategies for individuals and corporate succession plans for closely held businesses.

Adam received his bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from Purdue University and his J.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Law. He is a graduate of the Indiana Agricultural Leadership Program (Class 16). During college, he served as a summer intern for Senator Richard Lugar in Washington, D.C. Adam is proficient in Portuguese and is LexisNexis Professional Research Certified.

Identity: Brand Power for Success

What sort of business is a brewery? What is its most important product? It's not beer... it's a brand. In this session, attendees will learn the power of branding, and why the first glass or bottle they sell to any customer isn't done on the strength of their product, but on the strength of their brand. And it has a significant effect on every sale that follows as well. We'll discuss branding strategy, philosophy, how to cultivate it, how to leverage it, and why they should care.

Aaron is an Indiana native currently living in Fort Mill, South Carolina and has more than a decade in the industry, including 6 years as a consultant specifically focused on sales and marketing. He has been responsible for 4 full rebrands for companies, as well as numerous refreshes, and work with a portfolio of beverage brands across geographies, categories, and scales every day.

Craft Brewers and the Indiana Legislature

The 2024 Indiana Legislative Session is quickly approaching and the political environment surrounding alcohol policy is as complex as ever.

Join the Brewers of Indiana Guild's Executive Director as she discusses what is on the horizon for the craft brewing industry in Indiana regarding upcoming policy discussions.

Julia has been working with nonprofit associations for over a decade with experience in the management of boards, volunteers, events, budgets, communications & marketing, and membership. She's passionate about managing the business side of organizations so that volunteers and other team members can really shine in their areas of expertise.

Julia has been working with nonprofit associations for over a decade with experience in the management of boards, volunteers, events, budgets, communications & marketing, and membership. She's passionate about managing the business side of organizations so that volunteers and other team members can really shine in their areas of expertise.