From one “Mondial” to another | June 2018 was all about beer! The month began in Montreal, where the Mondial de la Bière welcomed 112 breweries, showcasing 573 beers from 14 countries. The event was held at the Palais de Congrès Exhibition Centre from 6-9 June. Then, from 29-30 June, the Mondial de la Bière returned to the Paris Maison de la Mutualité Conference Centre, where 120 brewers from 20 countries offered punters a chance to taste 600 different beers.

The new portal of The Brewers of Europe, called "Brew-Up" has been activated for six months now. Registered users can retrieve information about brewing technology, marketing, statistics and trading forecasts, alcohol policy and brewery industry in general. As of recently, all speeches and presentations held at the “Brewers Forum“ that took place on June 7th and 8th in Brussels, Belgium, can also be retrieved.

The Brewers of Europe Forum | Perhaps it was just as well that the Brewers of Europe, a lobby group representing 29 national associations, chose Brussels as the location for its first Forum on 7th and 8th June 2018 to discuss “Beer and Beyond” in 40 seminars.

Successful integration | The lectures for EBC Symposium were integrated into the first ever Brewers’ Forum at the Brewers of Europe in Brussels (p. 287) and spread over two days (June 7th - 8th 2018). Approximately 80 attended the lectures, and EBC president Tiago Brandão was very pleased with the resonance among the participants. A call for papers is also planned for future events.

On June 28, opening day of the 2018 American Homebrewers Association’s Homebrew Con, the United States Senate, led by Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD), Susan Collins (R-ME), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Michael Bennet (D-CO) passed a resolution honoring the 40th year of the American Homebrewers Association^® (AHA) and the man who founded it, Charlie Papazian, the godfather of homebrewing. With this resolution, Congress is celebrating the long history of innovation and excellence of our country’s homebrewing and brewing communities.

Over 3,200 homebrewers and beer enthusiasts gathered at the 40th Annual Homebrewers Conference presented by the American Homebrewers Association^® (AHA) from June 28th to 30th, 2018, at the Oregon Convention Center, where they attended seminars, bonded over brews and had their beers judged in the world’s largest beer competition.

The “Oscars” for Beer | The European Beer Star is considered to be one of the most successful and established beer competitions of its kind. Since its inception, the number of breweries entering beer has been growing steadily along with the number of style categories. To manage such an event, the organization has to be well thought out. After all, all of the beers in the competition must not only arrive in the best possible condition, they must also be coded so that the members of the tasting panel do not know who brewed them. How does it work? We visited Doemens Academy in Gräfelfing, Germany, to have a look behind the scenes at the preparations leading up to the European Beer Star.

A growing community | It has the atmosphere of a family gathering: when, under the mantle of the KU Leuven, Technology Campus in Ghent, Belgium, the TU Berlin, the University of Nottingham, Oregon State University and the Italian Brewing Research Center CERB send out an invitation to the Trends in Brewing, everyone comes. This was certainly the case at this year’s 13th conference held from April 8th through 12th 2018.

CBC 2018 | One simply cannot overlook 14 000 brewers and beer enthusiasts when they come to town – even in a bustling US city like Nashville, Tennessee. The city is not known for its lullabies or quiet bashfulness, but rather for the celebrated artists of that great American genre of music known as “country”. The dynamic atmosphere of the music scene is omnipresent in downtown Nashville, where the honky-tonk tones of country melodies can be heard drifting out of the numerous bars and dance halls. It is readily apparent when wandering the streets there why Nashville’s nickname is Music City.

The 35th IBD Asia Pacific Convention was held in Wellington, New Zealand, from 19th to 23rd of March 2018 and exceeded all expectations. So much of what happened in the technical sessions really embraced the conference theme – “Explore the Past to Discover Our Future”.