Beer Brewing

The Saison beer style has been historically characterised as a farmhouse beer style originating from Belgium and has gained a reputation for its drinkability and yeast-derived flavours. Whilst Belgium-based breweries have gained an extraordinary reputation, many breweries across Europe and the world are now re-interpreting this style with a lot of imagination. This session will feature the archetype of saison (Brasserie Dupont, Belgium) as well as breweries re-inventing the style their way.

Mastering the brewing process is important, but being able to recognise the flavours (as well as the off-flavours) and characterising them is a necessary skill that allows one to perfect and refine the beer, but also to find the commercial arguments to best describe them to consumers and in the end, sell the product in an appealing and non-deceiving way. This session will delve into how brewery staff can be trained to recognise the flavours and use the appropriate wording to sell them to consumers.

In a time of economic crisis, where commodities become increasingly expensive and citizens and consumers try to support the local economy, breweries might consider going for the local hop varieties and suppliers. But is it worth it? This session will present what the EU hop growers and hop breeding community are doing to develop hop varieties bespoke to EU breweries whilst adjusting the historical varieties to climate change.