Nobody Owns Craft: Trends to Know from North America and Around the World
Some of the most cutting-edge innovations in small-scale brewing are happening in the United States, and many people think of craft beer as an American(-style) thing—but it isn’t, and it never was. It’s a global conversation that’s continuing, and accelerating, and more of the world is going to have a bigger say in the years to come. Joe plans to share some observations about the latest trends in North America and how they might be useful to European brewers—but he’ll also zoom out and look at what’s happening in other countries, and how people are processing “craft” through their own traditions, ingredients, and local tastes.
Joe Stange is the executive editor of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine, the Brewing Industry Guide, and Craft Spirits & Distilling, Also the co-author of the Good Beer Guide Belgium (with Tim Webb) and Around Brussels in 80 Beers (with Yvan De Baets), he’s also an experienced beer judge, mediocre homebrewer, and obsessive foodie. He currently lives in Bangkok.
Benefits of AI in the Brewing sector
This seminar focuses on AI’s role in the brewing industry by showcasing the practical applications and sharing real-world examples of successful AI implementations. Ultimately, the seminar aims to alleviate fears associated with AI, inspire the audience with its potential, and encourage creative solutions for your brewery by highlighting what the industry has already achieved.
Dr. Thomas Schlechter holds various academic degrees in Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Information Technology (EEI), Economics and Psychology. In 2019 he took part in a beer brewing course at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria and since then, his passion for beer has never left him. He has taught brewing courses at the university resulting in winning the Austrian National Beer Brewing Championship 2023 with his students in the category “Festbiere”. He is also a certified Brewery Sensory Expert and Biersommelier.
Beer ON-flavours: Build your flavour vocabulary and become a better beer taster
Instead of focusing on off-flavours (which we often do in beer education), we will focus on identifying the on-flavours – the positive aromas that enhance our tasting experience. This will help build our flavour vocabularies and become better beer tasters. Natalya will prepare flavour kits with real world examples of different malt-, yeast-, and hop-derived aromas (things like bread, digestive biscuit, coffee, chocolate, clove, black pepper, banana sweets, raisins, dried mango, grapefruit, etc) to enable attendees to familiarise themselves with and make a memory of each aroma. Then, we’ll put our skills to the test, by tasting 3 beers together to see which of these possible aromas we can detect and describe in the glasses in front of us. Based on successful presentations at UK trade shows, this seminar demonstrates that mastering beer tasting is accessible and fun.
Natalya Watson is an award-winning beer educator passionate about sharing her knowledge of beer with others because she believes that beer is simply too delicious to remain undiscovered. Natalya joined WSET as Business Development Manager in September 2023 to support the launch of the organisation’s new beer qualifications within Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Prior to joining WSET, she ran her own online beer education business, Virtual Beer School, for which she was named Training Professional of the Year at the British Institute of Innkeeping’s 2022 National Innovation in Training Awards. Natalya is qualified as an IBD Beer Sommelier and Advanced Cicerone®. She is also the author of Beer: Taste the Evolution in 50 Styles (Kyle Books, 2020).