In 1933 he won a cadetship, one of five such paid positions, to operate a model winery at Roseworthy, under Alan R. Hickinbotham (1898–1959) and John L. Williams' (died 1962).
[3] In 1936 Beckwith undertook some research at the laboratory of A. Killen Macbeth, Angas Professor of Chemistry at the University of Adelaide, looking into the effects of acidity on wines.
In spite of the Great Depression,[5] Macbeth had been able to purchase from England a Cambridge electronic pH meter, a recent and very expensive innovation which allowed speedy and accurate measurements of this parameter.
Aside from the fortune saved for Penfolds by Beckwith's innovations and methods, particularly preventive discipline, consistency and standardization; he also raised the quality of wine by application of science.
He was arguably the first to employ paper chromatography to monitor the progress of malolactic fermentation, and was an advocate of stainless steel to replace other metals in the pumps and pipes used for processing and conveying of wine.
[7] He introduced cooling tubes to slow down the fermentation process, Without his work, Max Schubert's Grange Hermitage would never have reached the heights it achieved.