A successful craft brewery struggling to keep up with demand for its product is not an uncommon story in an industry that’s seen amazing growth over the last decade. Smog City is doing things a little differently. “This year, we’re investing in quality-assurance equipment and people before we grow our capacity,” Jonathan Porter said. The beer is monitored at every step in the process with instruments that analyze dissolved gasses, sugar density and acidity, and Porter recently added an automated cell-counter that’s more common in medical labs or breweries 10 times the size of Smog City. “It allows us to monitor the health of our yeast and how the yeast is reacting through a fermentation,” he said. "Once we figure out how to use it." Porter said he is planning to bring on a part-time employee to run the lab, and his goal is to create brewing processes based on data and analysis.