During the III Edition of InnBrew: The Brewers Convention (26th and 27th May 2023 in Hall7 of Fira de Barcelona – Montjuïc), 17 technical training and innovation papers were presented in the space occupied by the Brew&Hub Talks stage, as well as 3 round tables for debate and reflection with luxury participants and topics that are highly topical and necessary for the development of the brewing activity.
Thus, the topics addressed included legality applied to breweries, energy sustainability, process performance and product innovation, and, in addition, specific talks for training designed and aimed at the hotel and catering trade that is not specialised in craft beer, which is proud to offer a good product and quality as a distinguishing feature on its gastronomic menu and recognises the need to expand its beer portfolio.
In this case, three presentations were organised for the first hour of Friday, three the presentation of the director of InnBrew, Judit Cartex: Guillermo Forns, President of the Spanish Association of Beer Sommeliers, broke the ice with a presentation as explicit as it was clear, entitled ‘Introduction and sale of beer in the on-trade, the first steps’, followed by the second talk ‘Beer as an ingredient in the kitchen and introduction to pairing’ with the popular BeerSommelier of Racó d’en Cesc, Edgar Rodríguez, adding more factors to convince people to opt for this product. The event was closed by the expert Carol Vihop, who offered a practical tasting to introduce us to the main styles of beer.
Innovation in ageing techniques was explained by Pablo Martín, the BeerMaster of Molina for Brewers with ‘Infusion Spiral® the most sustainable and profitable alternative to barrels’, before moving on to the two presentations on new legislation affecting the sector: on the one hand, there was a talk on ‘Operations in the European environment: Customs and Excise duties’ with David Martínez from Arola Legal, and also Alicia Alagueró, the Public Affairs and Institutional Relations Manager of Ecovidrio illustrated with ‘Important tips on the new environmental legislation on packaging applied to the brewing sector’. Our friend Alfonso Pérez, CEO of Scribeer, surprised us with his presentation on the reuse of bagasse with an entertaining and impressive conference: ‘Reuse of bagasse: new and surprising life’ exemplified with a chair made with this material.
Three highly interesting presentations kicked off Friday afternoon: ‘Management of the nutritional strategy to obtain unique aromatic profiles in beers’, with Ivó Castells from AEB Ibérica; ‘Profitability, efficiency and innovation in yeast and fermentation’, with David Carriba from Fermentis and his technical talk ‘Hygienisation and treatment against biofilms in craft beer’, with Andrea Martín from Kersia-Sopura. The afternoon ended with two talks on the fashionable classics, Lager Beers: ‘Lager Beers Made Easy: How to easily brew your lagers’, with Oan Montasell from Lallemand Brewing and the practical talk with tasting included ‘Budvar, the resurgence of lagers, tasting and perfect serve’, with Radim Zvánovec, Global Brand Ambassador & Martin Havlín, Business Development Manager (WE, LATAM). Success was assured but expectations were far exceeded.
Saturday morning is where AETCM and ESCYM brought the knowledge: four technical talks attracted the attention of the professionals. These were: Sustainable beer/ECO beer by Carlos Núñez, Commercial Director Molina for Brewers and Albert Vilardell, Ceo Biolupulus; Sour beer without bacterial acidification using cider yeasts by Sara Dormido, Alejandro Manso, Pedro Muñoz from ESCYM; External dry hopping: the solution to the problems? by Johann Lombaard Van Niekerk, sales representative for the Iberian peninsula and technical specialist at Banke, and Joan Motasell (Lallemand Brewing) closed the presentation with Brewer’s yeasts and sustainability.
The round tables, reserved for Saturday afternoon and held in the same space but in a more leisurely and relaxed way, had some great panels and two of them were moderated by Joan Villar-i-Martí ‘Birraire’, a good friend and loyal collaborator of BBFPro and InnBrew. His proposed themes and his good work were a very important part of the level of debate and the high level of audience participation. See the first topic: Independent and united. Present and future of brewers’ associations: objectives, organisation and functioning. The speakers were none other than Simone Monetti ASSOCIAZIONE UNIONBIRRAI, Víctor Cerdán GECAN, Jabi Ortega BASQUE BEER. The second round table, under the title Loyalty and militancy. Models and initiatives to generate a beer community through the brand. presented a panel with Fermin Frayssinet OGHAM, Roman Jové CERVECERA PENÍNSULA and Henk Cortier LAMBICUS: different points of view and very different success stories. The third panel discussion was moderated by Judit Càrtex, director of InnBrew, and featured Agus Blanco LÚPULO DIGITAL and Mar Sánchez PINKBOOTS SOCIETY under the title: Invisibles. Initiatives to promote the visibility, integration and safety of women in the brewing sector. A comfortable and safe space was provided to address serious and serious issues with a great final debate with the audience.
All the conferences and round tables were streamed thanks to our partner Brew&Hub, sponsor of Inntalks, and you can view all the content in Talks archivo – Brew&Hub (brewandhub.es)