OnTap Magazine

EVENT RECAP FDT AFRICA & MICHELLE ERASMUS MASTERCLASS THE IBD AFRICA T he IBD Africa Master Class, hosted alongside FDT 2019, was a showcase of innovation and sustainability in the beer and brewing industry. e main FDT event was brim full of stainless steel and everything that your heart might desire to ll and control those shiny pieces of kit. Although toys are cool, I found the knowledge shared by industry legends like Professor Charlie Bamforth totally worth a day’s leave. His energy and passion for the industry made even quality control and assurance seem exciting. It is just a pity that so few brewers took the chance to attend this free event. The master class kicked off with presentations on research into and advances in the use of brewer’s yeast. Celine Roland presented wonderful insights gained by Fermentis following research into the synergistic e ects between their products and hops. Focussing on brewing the cloudy and avourful New England IPA, the following three strains will definitely receive more exposure. At the top of the list was the well- known S-04 strain, but the real surprises were the lager strain S-33 and the ale strain K-97 used in brewing clean Kölsch style beers. I’m de nitely pencilling these into my future IPA brew sessions. Christopher Rothman from Liquid Culture unveiled equally interesting news in their search for a truly local yeast strain. If being on the cutting edge of yeast-derived avours inspires your brewing then de nitely keep your eyes open for their new releases. Moving away from yeast, Dr Bettie Lodolo brought an air of urgency to water use and its impact on a sustainable business. As a water scarce country we will do well to heed her call and actively pursue good water practices in the brewing industry. e focus then shifted to the importance of avour stability in beer and the high levels of training required to meaningfully evaluate beer. Craig Groeneveld spoke about sensory analysis and the importance of submitting your beer to a sensory panel for evaluation. Here it is critical to know what you are expecting to gain from that evaluation. Blind tasting panels can take many forms, the most well known and accessible in SA being to enter your beer into a BJCP sanctioned event. Sensory evaluations at these events will give you an idea of how well you’ve interpreted the stylistic expressions associated with a speci c beer style.Once it comes tomore specialised sets of sensory evaluations, the size and experience of the sensory panels are critical and an investment in the process of a meaningful evaluation. e keynote address delivered by Professor Charlie Bamforth highlighted the need to deliver beer that meets your customer’s expectations. Customers return to your product for the familiarity it provides. This familiarity is achieved by doing the basics right every time. Good fermentation control practices and keeping oxygen out of packaging should be a lifelong objective for production breweries. FDT returns in 2021 with a fresh line up of experts taking brewers through the IBD Africa Masterclass. We as an industry need every morsel of education that comes our way – and when that education is free, well, there’s really no excuse not to attend! Totally worth a day’s leave Julian Pienaar introduces the CBASA Sensory Experience Professor Charlie Bamforth takes the stage Seven SA microbreweries showcased their beers at the event, joined here by CBASA's Apiwe Nxusani-Mawela 8 | Spring 2019 | ontapmag.co.za