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ontapmag.co.za | Spring 2021 | 67 www.vlb-berlin.org/ABC2021 Rawmaterials / Brewing Technology / Filling / Quality / Sustainability and more... 2 nd VLB Africa Brewing Conference August 24-26, 2021 VLB Virtual Campus Platinum Sponsor: Gold Sponsors: Silver Sponsors: Media Partner & Supporter: BRAUWELT INTERNATIONAL www.vlb-berlin.org/ABC2021 at reducing unnecessary movement to minimise risk of infection.” Innovations in packaging will bring smaller pack sizes. Innovations in flavourings will see younger drinkers lean towards lighter and flavoured beers. And economy brands have already benefited from larger volumes at the expense of premium brands translating to stronger value growth in the affordable categories. THE CASSAVA REVOLUTION Brent Atthill from RMI Analytics gave an African perspective on raw materials and their global supply chains. “World beer production has seen an overall decline of 6%, and while there’s been a sharp rebound followed by a return to 2019 volumes, longer term growth will be slow,” says Brent. “The good news is that African beer production growth from 2021-2025 is expected to outpace other regions at 3% to 5% annually with SA, Nigeria and Ethiopia topping the chart in beer production, representing 52% of the total volume.” Africa mostly gets its barley from Europe, the largest producing region worldwide. Imported malt has a long supply chain and this adds cost. But local barley is also expensive because of development costs and a low agronomic output. However, there is opportunity to promote more local barley production, as is the case in SA and Ethiopia, and local barley sourcing is gaining greater importance. Hops are of course already grown in SA, but RMI Analytics questioned whether other African countries would invest in localised production. Locally grown raw materials, such as cassava and sorghum, featured highly in the conference. Sike-Ezo Okeoghene, a cassava agronomist based in Nigeria, highlighted both the challenges of cultivating cassava and the profitable opportunities for local farmers to grow the crop for use in beer production. Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of cassava, and it is the second largest carbohydrate food source across sub- Saharan Africa. Expanding the portfolio of available locally sourced raw materials to make African beer was Petr Vesely, head of product and process innovation at AB-InBev Africa. “Making beer doesn’t take weeks, it takes about 10 years and starts with the field development of new varieties suitable for the African climate,” said Petr. “Our challenge was that crops like cassava and sorghum were grown by small-scale subsistence farmers, with no seed programme, no pest control, no irrigation… and no guarantee of sufficient supply for brewing at the required quality.” The main challenge when using brewing adjuncts such as cassava or sorghum is that there is no or little enzyme content to facilitate the starch conversion to achieve the required sugar spectrum. Enter IFF, an ingredients and solutions provider with a team of brewmasters. “The sustainability impact of brewing enzymes is high relative to the very low levels needed per hectolitre of beer,” says Jens Eiken, global product manager for brewing and distilling at IFF. SUSTAINABLE BREWING Using starch from locally grown raw materials brings innovations in the brewing process - this is where brewing equipment and technology companies come into their own. Sustainable beer production in Africa was the running theme in the conference. We heard Steinecker Ziemann-Holvrieka, Siemens, GEA, KHS and PALL, among others, share their latest advances in brewing technology for the African market with a focus on brewing sustainably with alternative and locally sourced raw materials. Ralph Schneid, product development manager at Steinecker, part of the Krones Group, gave an overview of a turnkey project with Kenya Brewery Limited in Kisumu brewing one million hectolitres of 100% sorghum beer per year using efficient mashing technology. ‘How to start your new brewery’ was the inviting title of Florian Schneider’s presentation from Ziemann- Holvrieka, a leading supplier of tanks, process technology and engineering services, and a company behind the largest brewery in the world. Representing Siemens in Africa and talking about automation in the brewhouse was Munish Kumar Choudhary. He outlined six manufacturing challenges: time to market, quality, flexibility, cost, environmental efficiency and security. With the often-rapid changes in brewing recipes based on available raw materials, flexibility in processing is a key factor for process optimisation. NO- AND LOW-ALCOHOL The session on fermentation and the production of no- and low- alcoholic beers (NAB, LAB) proved very