Scientific meeting in the heart of the hop growing area

The BSG meeting (the 8th technical meeting) was held immediately after the very successful EBC hop symposium in Wolnzach in Bavaria, from 14-16 September. Delegates showed themselves satisfied with a new, slightly shortened format and extended networking intervals. Good papers were presented by members, as well as guests. The following topic areas were covered: Yeast & Fermentation, Brewing Microbiology, Brewing Technology and Barley Physiology. Due to the hop symposium, no papers were presented on that subject. A very digestible number of 12 papers were presented over the period of one and a half days. For the first time, guests had been invited from previously non-EBC EU states such as Poland and Luxembourg, for example.

Several decisions were agreed upon at the business meeting, representing the group’s steering body. The sub-committees which were formed years ago due to members wanting to concentrate on specific areas of research have been disbanded in their entirety. It was recognised that, should the need arise in future, a re-activation of a functional group could take place. However, as a rule of thumb, there shouldn’t be any sub-groups if there was nothing to report on. Secondly, it was decided to review the terms of reference of this group, since the existing guidelines dated back to 2006, even before the merger with The Brewers of Europe. An important element here was the incorporation of EBC’s new vision and goals and synchronicity with the expectations of The Brewers of Europe.

Promoting the EBC network means matching scientific excellence with a programme of a social nature to further scientific debate in a relaxed setting. This was commendably achieved in one of the Hallertau’s good restaurants.