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.

Three successful members of the brewing community were recognized with awards for their dedication and service to the industry at the opening session of the Brewers Association’s annual Craft Brewers Conference.

At BrauUnion Austria`s invitation the 75th general meeting of Mitteleuropäische Brautechnische Analysekommision (MEBAK) took place in Linz on 16 April 2010.

The Siebel’s Institute Advanced Homebrewing Course will be held in Chacago from 26 to 30 July 2010. The instructional team of Ray Daniels, Chris Graham, Randy Mosher and Chris White will once again lead homebrewers through five days of classroom teaching and hands-on activities that will take students from basic homebrewing to understanding the full range of practices employed by award-winning brewers. Students will learn the secrets of recipe formulation, raw materials selection, basic lab work and much, much more.

The European Brewery Convention, as the scientific and technical arm of The Brewers of Europe, is pleased to announce the next EBC symposium. The symposium will be held at the Deutsches Hopfenmuseum in Wolnzach which is at the epicentre of the largest German hop growing region, the Hallertau in Bavaria. Wolnzach is approximately 50 km from Munich’s international airport. A shuttle service will be provided and a great accompanying programme, including a visit to a hop picking shed, will be in store for delegates.

Measures for raising yield of bitter substances in beer brewing (Part 1)

This series of contributions will show why yield of bitter substances during beer brewing is currently only about 30 percent and what can be done to change the situation. In three parts, the various mechanisms and process steps that take place and are necessary for transferring bitter substances from hops to finished beer are discussed item by item and limits and possibilities arising for increasing bitter substance yield are described. It is possible to optimise each individual process step, together with hop addition in its entirety or to examine bitter substance yield. For this purpose, basic unit operations are included. The fourth part describes new equipment that, in some instances, can more than double bitter substance yield in beer brewing so that use of hops can be considerably reduced.

Spear has been recognized with the 2009 Environmental Leadership Award from the Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute (www.tlmi.com) at the annual meeting in Arizona, USA. The Environmental Leadership Award annually recognizes the TLMI member company that has consistently demonstrated a commitment to progressive environmental practices across a range of areas including solid waste reduction, recycling, waste and energy recovery, clean process technology and the implementation of an education program. TLMI established the Environmental Leadership Award in 2003 as a leading environmental benchmark for its over 300 member companies to strive towards.

With effect from 1 October 2009 Messe München GmbH is taking over the rights to the PETpoint brand from heidelberg business media GmbH (hbmedia), Heidelberg.

Each year the ASBC Annual Meeting welcomes brewing professionals working in the analytical sciences and quality fields, while the MBAA Convention draws processing technology and packaging professionals involved in brewing. In 2010, the ASBC Annual Meeting will be held June 15–18, the MBAA Convention will be held June 18–20, and a joint exposition, held June 17–19, will link the two events. Brewing Summit 2010 will present expanded offerings for those interested in brewing science and technology, packaging, processing, product development, and quality control and assurance. Brewing Summit 2010 is a fusion of both groups’ meetings, including one day of joint programming aimed at the shared interests of both associations..

Hamburg, here we come!

On the occasion of this year’s EBC Congress in Hamburg, students Martin Lechler and Michael P. Müller were able to shout out the greeting: Hamburg, here we come! Their participation was made possible through a very much appreciated grant from Fachverlag Hans Carl GmbH, Nuremberg and Malzfabrik Mich. Weyermann, Bamberg. The following report gives an account of their impressions.