CBC 2025 – It’s not an IndyCar race, it’s a marathon!

Indy-pendent brewers | The Craft Brewers Conference and BrewExpo America, the largest gathering in the US for the beverage alcohol industry, was held from April 27 to May 1 in Indianapolis this year, a city that one might fly over on a trip within the US – but definitely shouldn’t! Even though this year’s CBC was a less buoyant and euphoric affair than previous ones had been pre-Covid, the attendees, exhibitors, vendors, suppliers, presenters and, of course, World Beer Cup award winners nevertheless found reasons to be optimistic, while circumspect, about the future of the industry. This year’s CBC offered 60+ educational seminars in 12 areas, and 550+ exhibitors displayed innovative products and services at the BrewExpo America. The conference concluded with the awards ceremony for the World Beer Cup, the world’s most prestigious beer competition.

Indianapolis | Last week, the Brewers Association (BA), the not-for-profit trade association dedicated to small and independent American craft brewers, announced the winners of the 2025 World Beer Cup, one of the world’s most prestigious professional beer and cider competitions. The awards ceremony was held at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, in conjunction with the Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America.

16th International Trends in Brewing: Cutting-edge brewery research

Leuven | From 6–9 April 2025, what was now the 16th International Trends in Brewing symposium, jointly organised by the KU Leuven, TU Berlin, University of Nottingham, Oregon State University, Ghent University and Italian Brewing Research Center, was held at the KU Leuven under the motto of “innovations in products and processes”. Around 300 participants, some of them from very far afield, convened at the historic main university hall of the KU Leuven, which this year is celebrating its 600th anniversary, to attend various lectures, poster sessions and a technical exhibition.

Leuven | This year's 16th International Trends in Brewing, which took place at KU Leuven in Belgium at the beginning of April 2025, provided a worthy setting for the presentation of the 11th Ludwig Narziß Award for Brewing Science. Once again, a project from the field of hop research received this EUR 2500 award for practical relevance for the brewing industry in front of around 300 attendees in the venerable Promotion Hall in the main building of KU Leuven, which is celebrating its 600th anniversary this year.

Mainburg | On April 3 and 4, the members of MEBAK met in Mainburg at the invitation of Hopsteiner. As part of the supporting program, the participants were informed by Martin Waldinger about the internal breeding program for new hop varieties, especially with regard to the necessary characteristics for consistent quality despite the challenging current environmental conditions. This was followed by a tour of the new propagation of hops. Dr. Christina Schmidt also presented the extensive analytical facilities before Frank Peifer rounded off the tour at the pilot-brewing plant.

Seoul | The 7th edition of Korea Int’l Beer Expo (KIBEX) 2025, Korea’s leading trade shows connecting the global beer and alcoholic beverage industries, successfully wrapped up on April 12 at the Coex center in Seoul. The three-day event welcomed an unprecedented number of participants and further solidified its position for the international beverage sector.

United Kingdom | Winners in the SIBA Business Awards 2025 have been announced on 20 March, highlighting the UK’s very best brewing businesses, pubs and retailers of independent beer – in an awards known as the Oscars of the beer industry.

Budapest | The fifth annual Central European Brewers Conference (CEBC) took place in Budapest from 29–31 January 2025, bringing together over 130 brewers, industry professionals, and experts from around the world. The event served as a hub for learning, networking, and collaboration, offering brewers valuable insights and connections to help grow their businesses.

February 1st 2025 craft beer fans all over the world celebrate 13th International Gruitday. This day was created to celebrate gruit beer, a beer with herbs instead or in addition to hops, according to medieval traditions and recipes. This year for the first time an international jury awarded a gruit beer brewery of the year! It has been a long journey to reach this goal. An international journey of eight judges out of five countries had a close look at the gruit beer activities of the participating “gruiteries” (gruit beer breweries).

Germany | The 2024 BarthHaas Grants awarded by hop specialist BarthHaas go to Scott Lafontaine, Assistant Professor in Food Chemistry at the University of Arkansas, and the research team Mariana Carvalhal Pinto, Philip Wietstock and Brian Gibson, who work at the Technical University of Berlin. BarthHaas is supporting their scientific projects with a grant of 10,000 euros each.