BDAS, LLC is an analytical laboratory with over twelve years of unbiased and dedicated support to the alcohol beverage industry. The facility tests all types of alcoholic beverages and beverage raw materials; water, hops, grains and processing aids utilizing physical, chemical, spectroscopic and chromatographic methods. BDAS, LLC also has full microbiological and sensory facilities and has become a highly sought after laboratory for such testing. The team researches the latest analytical methods, publishes details on new or modified methods, and discovers the fine-details on regulations, including the new FDA nutritional mandate rules that will apply to many brewers in the industry. The BDAS, LLC team is now looking forward to the next decade, and beyond, to help support the phenomenal growth of the alcohol beverage industry. Just how we came to be in this highly respected position and to be looking at the next decade of growth is briefly noted below.
In the year 2000, Gary Spedding, Ph.D., was working as Director of Laboratories at the Siebel Institute in Chicago. However, this venerable 125 years old brewing mainstay was on the verge of closing its doors. In the end, the Siebel Institute didn’t close altogether, however the lab services were eventually contracted out to a food laboratory a few miles outside of Chicago and Spedding, along with four other Siebel faculty, headed south to a biotechnology company in Kentucky. There he established a laboratory testing not only beer samples but also distilled spirits. Clients soon started sending samples into Kentucky instead of Chicago. Then, following an audit, the biotech company decided to discontinue the services being performed by the Chicago five.
Disappointed and determined not to let down the client base he had worked to establish, Spedding went out on his own and started Brewing and Distilling Analytical Services (BDAS, LLC) in 2003 in Lexington, Kentucky. Being in the heart of Bourbon Country, it was a fitting place to learn the secrets of distillation and distilled beverages. Keeping it local offered the opportunity to supply the testing needs of the growing distillery movement, as well as existing and new breweries and the many new boutique wineries in KY and surrounding States. Samples started arriving from every State and from as far afield as Japan and Australia and from Central and South America, Mexico and Canada.
BDAS, LLC has thus grown into the highly sought after third-party testing facility by serving the quality control needs of brewers, distillers and winemakers and providing a location of interest to East Coast and Midwest clients while also continuing to draw many samples from the West Coast.
By 2011 BDAS, LLC was expanding rapidly. It was in a new facility, the business employed one, then a second and finally, as of this writing, a third full time staff member. Retaining a lead microbiologist (Matt) and a lead chemist (Amber), a first-class team of degreed beverage scientists, has allowed Gary to earn triple certification with the TTB. BDAS, LLC is one of only a handful of laboratories (and even fewer on a commercial operation basis) to hold all three certifications: beer, wine and distilled spirits. The lab is also officially recognized by Brazil for preparing certificates of analysis for beer exports and is sought after to prepare certificates for beer, wine and spirits for client exports to many other countries around the world. With a great sense of humor and full attention to detail, BDAS, LLC continues to see rapid growth and has become the go to facility for a majority of brewers and distillers and for several wine makers who pride themselves on the quality of their products and understand that the team at BDAS, LLC not only know how to test beverages but also how to relate results back to process.
Consulting, teaching requests, and site visits also form key parts of what we do. BDAS, LLC works closely with the local University community offering intern opportunities and recently forged an alliance with one University to help us to mutually build programs that will serve the education and training of the next generation of brewers, distillers, and beverage chemists and microbiologists. A grounding principle forms the root question we ask at BDAS, LLC: “At BDAS, LLC the answer is yes, now what is the quality question that matters to you?” Directly or indirectly we can answer most questions and address most testing needs. We are here ready to serve you!
Seek answers to your questions anytime by calling us: 859-278-2533, clicking through to: www.alcbevtesting.com or Emailing: [email protected]. If local or passing through town we ask you to stop by to see our expanding facility on Red Mile Road, in Lexington and learn more about our capabilities, see the state of the art GC and spectroscopic facilities, our computerized ballot sensory room or to discuss our highly sought after nutritional and microbiological test programs.
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