With its 125 year history, The Brewing Industry International Awards is one of the oldest beer tastings throughout the world. It focuses exclusively on the consumers’ opinion.

After successfully fighting a hostile takeover bid from Lion Nathan in 2005, Mr Cooper said the company’s 129 shareholders are unlikely to be won over by international brewers. “Other brewers can’t justify spending too much on a company like ours, and with due diligence the amount they can reasonably offer isn’t enough to sway the vast majority of our shareholders,” he argued. “Any international players will know what happened in 2005 and that will hopefully deter them from trying to take us on again – it does take up a lot of management time and costs a lot of money to fight them off.”

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.

The largest and most important Asian trade fair for the brewing and beverage industry, China Brew and Beverage (CBB) 2010, took place from 7 to 10 September 2010 in Beijing. About 600 exhibitors from over 20 countries presented the newest developments and innovations from the beverage and liquid food sector to the trade visitors over an exhibition area of 50,000 m². In terms of exhibition area as well as number of exhibitors, this represents a growth of 20 percent compared to the last CBB.

The International Brewing Conference 2010, a joint project of VLB Berlin, the China Alcoholic Drinks Industry Association and the China National Institute of Food and Fermentation Industries (CNIFFI) hold from 8 to 10 September 2010 in Beijing, P.R. China, was a great success. The conference featured 24 speakers and about 170 attendees mainly from China but also from Mongolia, Taiwan, Nepal, Vietnam, USA and Europe.

Christian von der Heide, EBC president and Technical Director Global Beer Diageo plc, said: “The EBC Congress attracts about 700 industry delegates who travel from all over the world to listen to and view scientific & technical papers and posters, covering recent developments and breakthroughs in the brewing, malting and related industries – and also to have the opportunity to meet industry suppliers and knowledge brokers. The previous congress which was held in May 2009 in Hamburg turned out to be tremendous success from every perspective. Having seen the facilities at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) in Glasgow leaves little doubt in my mind that an equally superb congress will follow in Scotland in 2011”

Manchester as an industrial and commercial centre has always needed a strong brewing sector and to this day the city remains a centre of brewing. Heineken UK have one of their major facilities just one kilometre from the city centre. The independent family brewing sector is particularly strong, plus there’s a host of local craft breweries located across the region. The city and the greater North West region is also home to one of the largest distilleries in the UK and a number of key suppliers to the brewing sector. It is therefore the perfect host for IBC 2010.

Filtech, the world’s largest special interest event devoted entirely to filtration and separation technologies, will be held 22-24 March 2011 in Wiesbaden, Germany, only 25 minutes from Frankfurt International Airport. The focus is on designing, improving, purchasing, selling or researching filtration and separation technologies, equipments and services.

Eric brings with him a wealth of experience, having worked as a production manager in Papua New Guinea, as well as various countries in West Africa and the middle East. As a technological controller, he was overseeing the quality of both Heineken and Amstel brands in Thailand. Currently, his responsibilities lie with the Sensory & Analytical Services section of Heineken Supply Chain, based at the company’s headquarters in Zoeterwoude, The Netherlands.

IBC 2010, which is a combined Convention and Exhibition event, will take place at ‘Manchester Central’ from 18 to 20 October 2010. This venue is a clever coming together of the new (a state of the art convention auditorium) and the industrial past (a perfectly preserved Victorian railway station) which will house the exhibition.