12th Ibero-American VLB Symposium in Uberlândia was a great success

After the forced break in 2020 and an online edition in 2021, the 12th VLB Ibero-American Symposium on Brewing and Filling Technology was held in the city of Uberlândia, Brazil, from 21–23 November 2022. Even though, the global pandemic situation was still not entirely clear, the supply industry gave VLB an absolute vote of confidence, as did the large brewing groups Ambev and Grupo Petrópolis, by offering to visit their Uberlândia and Uberaba breweries respectively.

political impact on the barley and grain market. In his presentation, Schwarz shared the undertakings of the hop farmers, in the process of reducing the carbon footprint in the cultivation and production of hops. At the end of the first session, Leonardo Penna (Grupo Petrópolis) presented its group's progress of the hop crop development project in Brazil. During the first break the attendees used the opportunity to interact and also visit the technical exhibition.

(BF) The Uberl â ndia Convention Center, with its more than 1,000 m2 area, served as the venue for the Symposium. On Monday, 21 November, was the day of technical visits. In the afternoon, after the registration, a large group of the 140 participants headed towards the Petrópolis Brewery in Uberaba. An hour later, a second group would do the same, this time to Ambev's Uberl â ndia brewery. In both brew - eries, two trees were planted as a symbol of the strong connection between VLB and its South American partners, and of the deeply rooted network of the brewers that have been trained at VLB Berlin. Both breweries, which have state-of-theart equipment, showed their impeccable facilities in detail, something very well received by all the visitors.

Day 2

On the following day, Roberto Biurrun, head of international sales at VLB, cordially welcomed the participants, before giving a brief presentation of VLB. It was followed by an interesting presentation by Rodrigo de Mattos (Euromonitor International), with statistical data and trends on the Latin American beer market.

The first session, focused on raw materials, was hosted by Wilson Fornazier (Ambev). Cesar Pierobom (BMS) gave an overview of the barley market worldwide, and its repercussions in Latin America. Harald Schwarz (Hopsteiner) followed this presentation, which summarized not only the climatic but also the geo -

The second session, hosted by Roberto Biurrun (VLB), was dedicated to innovations in the brewhouse. Konstantin Ziller (Ziemann Holvrieka) spoke on how to optimiz the brewing process, focusing on the brewhouse and other areas of the production process. He was followed by Karl Stam (Steinecker), who also shared with the attendees an insight into innovative alternatives for the “upcycling” of spent grain, by using the “Phoenix” concept.

After the lunch break, session 3 followed, hosted by Celio Myagui (Heineken). José Pizarro (Fermentis) and Patrícia Diniz Fischer (VLB) focused on the issue of non-alcoholic beers. Pizarro showed brewing alternatives by using yeast strains. Diniz Fischer showed the particularities of the sensory evaluation of these type of beers.

The next two presentations focused on applied research. Luk Daenen (AB InBev) talked about “Increasing the intensity of natural esters in beer during fermentation”. Burghard Meyer (VLB) showed the results of his research project on continuous fermentation by using crossflow reactors. The first day of presentations ended with a pleasant evening in the foyer of the convention center, sponsored by Rovi Ingeniería and JT Instrumentacoes.

Day 3

The third day began with a session hosted by Burghard Meyer (VLB). André Trombe (Pall) showed the advantages of stabilization with PVPP, using the CBS concept, which is a development of Pall Corporation. Then, Evaldo Carmo (Anton Paar) talked about the advantages of optimizing the automation and monitoring of the brewing process. Presentations by Rodrigo Zampa and Marcelo Rampazo (both Pentair) followed. Zampa showed Pentair's membrane filtration concept that allows continuous filtration without the use and subsequent disposal of infusoria soil. Rampazo shared his experience with the different options offered by Pentair in order to reduce the carbon footprint by recovering CO2 The last presentation of the session was held by Jeferson Stamborowski (Sartorius), who showed a concept for the aseptic transfer of yeast. The subject of the last session of the conference, which was hosted by Alvaro Nogueira (Grupo Petrópolis), was packaging and logistics. Christoph Jurgensen (KHS) shared his company's innovations in the field of filling and packaging. He was followed by Anton Diehl (Heuft), who showed the applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in packaging inspection. Alexander Scharlach (VLB) gave a summary of the aspects of digital sensor technologies in the area of logistics and transport. The final presentation was given by Saulo Miguel (Heineken), who, apart from presenting aspects of new technology, discussed Heineken's path towards becoming a high performance organization in Brazil. At the end, Robert Biurrun invited the participants to the closing toast, after he expressed his thanks to the sponsoring companies and breweries as well as to the VLB “behind the scenes” team, to the sound technicians and translators and to everyone who supported the event.

13th Ibero-American VLB Symposium on Brewing & Filling Technology

Challenges and Solutions for the brewing industry through innovations & process improvement

Bogotá, Colombia, 4 to 6 September 2023

Topics

+ Situation of the Latin American beer market

+ Raw materials: Barley, malt, adjuncts, hops

+ Brewing process: Innovations and improvements

+ Filling, packaging and logistics of beer and beverages

+ Environment aspects

Technical Visits

+ Cervecería Bavaria Colombia, Tocancipá

+ Central Cervecera de Colombia, Sesquile

This symposium will be held in English and/or Spanish with simultaneous translation

Platinum Sponsor

Gold Sponsors

Silver Sponsors

Bronze Sponsors

Media Partners Brauwelt International +++ Euromonitor International +++ Engarrafador Moderno www.vlb-berlin.org/es/colombia2023