We've twice shared the story of Invisible Sentinel, a Philadelphia life sciences firm that develops low-cost and user-friendly diagnostic tools for the food and beverage industries.
The company's most recent breakout success was the result of a partnership with Sonoma County's Jackson Family Wines — a novel and fast-acting product known as Veriflow BRETT was developed as a way to detect a yeast strain that commonly affects both the taste and aroma of wine.
According to Invisible Sentinel co-founder Ben Pascal, that technology has since been adopted by large sectors of the wine industry.
“We've been so successful in the food safety [sector],” says Pascal. “And so we started asking ourselves, 'What other groups have the same types of problems with these organisms that can affect quality?' And naturally, we came to beer.”
More specifically, they came to beloved Downingtown brewers Victory Brewing Company. The heads of the two companies met during a dinner party, and when Pascal and his business partner Nick Siciliano began talking to Victory's Bill Covaleski about the success of their Veriflow BRETT technology, “I think it got his wheels turning,” recalls Pascal.
Following a few months' worth of meetings with Victory's brewers and quality control team, a decision was reached to partner on the development of a new rapid molecular diagnostic tool, Veriflow brewPAL, that will quickly detect two types of bacteria that can spoil the taste of beer, leading to spillage at brewing companies that can't afford to lose inventory.
“There isn't any [similar] technology that exists today that's easy to use, and that's accurate and cost-effective,” explains Pascal. “And with a partner like Victory behind us, I think this product is really going to be a paradigm shift, and a big game-changer in the industry.”
Dan Eldridge is news editor of Flying Kite Media.