Over the past 8 years I have created literally thousands of prototypes for R&D and market testing and supported the production of thousands more. These are the tips I would give to any pilot brewery, R&D beverage site, or anyone who is contracting for a beverage trial, especially if you are trying to innovate while keeping costs down. A well-run trial doesn’t just save time — it reduces rework, lays the groundwork for better trials down the line, and shows that you value your team.
Streamline Your Innovation Pipeline with Smarter R&D Trials
1. Research
Check to see if the trial has been done before, either internally, or through external data or observations online. Internal trials can give you a launch pad, connect you with someone who has done similar work, or eliminate the need for a trial if the right data already exists.
Note: External sources can provide meaningful observations, however, I would be cautious about using any data that my team or I hadn’t personally collected or verified. Use it as a starting point, not a shortcut.
2. Plan, Plan, plan
The more work you can do ahead of time, the better positioned you are for useful results. I’m not saying they will be the results you wanted or even expected but spending more time on your trial up front can ensure that you have the instrumentation, data collection, sampling schedule, personnel, ingredients, and support you need lined up.
Something is going to go wrong, but a bit of extra planning minimizes potential for that and can speed up follow-up trials.
Important parts of your planning include:
Define your variables
Is this a yeast trial? A sales sample trial? A filtration trial? Know what you are testing before you start. That doesn’t always mean ‘limit’ the variables. If you are running a hop product trial, your variables might include dosage rate, location of addition and time of addition. If things are going well— in-process results are in line with expectations, losses have been lower than anticipated- don’t be afraid to layer in some variables that won’t interfere with your main objective. Add a ‘stretch goal’. For instance, if the hop product trial is being packaged in can for shelf stability and sensory, add cans with different liners or from different suppliers. That extra bit of data now could give you options in the future. Especially if can shortages are a concern.
Control non-test conditions
Beverage production has enough variables that we can’t account for already… There’s no need to add unnecessary ones. Set target specs for parameters you can control, and acceptable ranges for those that are harder to manage. Whenever possible, split your base (or test medium) rather than brew or blend multiple times. It minimizes variation and reduces production time.
Determine key metrics and measures
Know what your test is going to impact. Outline what should change and how you’ll measure it. Make sure you have key sampling times noted and will have access to any instrumentation or personnel necessary.
Let’s go back to the hop product trial. If you are expecting a bump in BU, you’ll want to get BU data before and after the add- and maybe at a few places leading up to and including packaging. That gets you exactly the data that you set out to collect. But most of the time, that’s not enough. You need to know what shouldn’t change, as well. Watch for haze development, staining lines and tanks, or unintended mouthfeel changes. Include sensory testing, at some level, in all but the most straightforward trials.
Establish Criteria for success or failure
Ambiguity opens the door for misinterpretation. That’s risky if your trial connects to a larger project or informs future steps. Be clear about what defines success, whether that’s hitting a specific spec, getting review team approval, or meeting a go/no-go threshold.
This becomes especially important when the trial has quantifiable targets or when other teams are waiting on your results.
3. Communicate the Plan
It’s pointless to do the planning if you aren’t going to share it. You don’t need to have long, drawn-out meetings to make sure everyone is on the same page. Have someone detail oriented and clear in their communication, write and send the plan.
Small teams or pairs can have discussions or brainstorming sessions and pass along any pertinent information. Make sure all parties involved have a copy of the plan and, when possible, an opportunity to ask questions and give feedback. Which leads me to-
4. Get feedback early and often
This is advice I give to everyone about everything. Seriously, I included it in the script of the last wedding I officiated.
Write an update schedule into the trial (if you don’t already have a system in place). Be clear about which data needs to be included in an update and standardize the format to make updates easy to understand and relevant changes stick out.
Unlike the plan, not everyone needs to see these updates. Identify key points of contact and stick to them. Too much information can be just as useless as too little, especially if it prompts people to stop paying attention. Make sure the right people are seeing the right data at the right time.
5. Set Triggers for Immediate Communication
“The pH went up by 0.2.”
“We are going to be 3 days behind schedule for packaging.”
These are great examples communications based on predefined triggers. Setting these in advance helps keep your team aligned and reinforces the importance of key data. Triggers also give folks an opportunity to adjust the trial (or any related trials) before things go the wrong direction. Assigning a point of contact that is empowered to make quick decisions when these triggers occur will save time, avoid confusion and can make the tough call when need be. If you are that point of contact-
6. Be ready to pull the plug
Be willing to accept when a project has failed— that’s why the success/failure criteria were defined. It’s hard to shut a trial down when you could keep collecting data, and it’s even harder to invalidate data that was collected. It feels like a waste of time. But you get to decide how much time gets wasted, don’t make it more than it needs to be. Failed trials aren’t useless, they’re raw material for the next successful one.
7. Don’t take it personally
One of the earliest, and most important, lessons that I learned in R&D was not to have favorites, and not to be emotionally invested in the outcome of a trial.
99% of what we make is going down the drain for one reason or another. You can’t let your mental well-being or confidence go with it. If you need to, remind yourself that just because this product didn’t work today doesn’t mean it won’t matter tomorrow— and maybe someone will do the research.
Beverage innovation is moving at an unimaginable pace right now. Quicker to market seems to be the name of the game. One of the best ways to achieve that is to make your trials more efficient. Streamline your trialing process and you streamline your entire innovation pipeline. It does take some preparation, but the dividends are worth it. Early on in my R&D career, I realized that we couldn’t keep producing the way we were. My team and I spent six months overhauling every process we had, while still meeting customer demand. At the end of it we were producing four prototypes in the time it had taken us to do one, and without any investment in equipment or personnel. The point is: refining and optimizing your process doesn’t just make your trials better, it makes everything that follows stronger. You’re doing R&D anyway. Make it count.
If you have any questions about what I’ve shared — or thoughts to add — I’d love to hear them. I’m always looking to learn from others and support teams working through these same challenges.
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