For the twelfth time, and after the forced pause in 2020 and an online edition last year, the VLB Ibero-American Symposium on Brewing and Filling Technology was held in the city of Uberlandia, Brazil - a country whose territory occupies more than 40% of the South American continent, with a population of around 210 million, hosted the Ibero-American Symposium for the fourth time. The expectation was great, since, by the time the decision was made, still in 2021, the global pandemic situation was still not entirely clear. Even so, 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 Uberlandia and Uberaba breweries respectively.
The Uberlandia Convention Center, with its more than 1,000 m2 area, served as the venue for the Symposium. On Monday November 21, as usually, 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 Uberlandia brewery. In both breweries, after the words of welcome, two trees were planted, a symbol of the ties between VLB and South America, and of the deep roots of the brewers that have been formed in the institute. Both breweries, which have state-of-the-art equipment, showed their impeccable facilities in detail, something very well received by all the visitors.
The next day, Tuesday November 22. Roberto Biurrun, in charge of the coordination of the Southern Hemisphere by VLB, gave a cordial welcome to the participants, before making a brief presentation of the institute. It was followed by an interesting presentation by Rodrigo de Mattos (Euromonitor International), with statistical data and trends in the Latin American beer market.
The first session, dedicated to raw materials, was moderated by Wilson Fornazier (Ambev). Cesar Pierobom (BMS), showed in a very graphic way, the panorama 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 geopolitical impact on the barley and grain market. In his presentation, Harald shared the undertakings of the hop farmers, in the process of reducing the carbon footprint in the cultivation and production of hops. To end the first session, Leonardo Penna (Grupo Petrópolis), presented the progress of the hop crop development project in Brazil, by this brewing group. The first break served for the attendees to interact, also visiting the technical exhibition, with direct conversations with the suppliers of equipment and raw materials.
The second session, moderated by Roberto Biurrun (VLB), was dedicated to innovations in the brewhouse. Konstantin Ziller (Ziemann Holvrieka), showed the developments of his company, with a view to optimizing brewing process, mainly focusing on the brewhouse area, although it also covered other areas of the production process. He was followed by Karl Stam (Steinecker), who also shared with the attendees an innovative alternative for the "upcycling" of spent grain, through the "Phoenix" concept.
After the lunch break, session 3 continued, led by Celio Myagui (Heineken). José Pizarro (Fermentis) and Patricia Diniz Fischer (VLB) focused on the issue of non-alcoholic beers. The first, showing brewing alternatives, through the use of yeast strains, and, Patricia, showing the particularities and differences in the sensory evaluation of these beers.
This was followed by two presentations with a focus on applied research, by Luk Daenen (AB-Inbev) on “Increasing the intensity of natural esters in beer during fermentation” and then Burghard Meyer (VLB), who showed the results of his research work on the achievement of continuous fermentation, through the use of crossflow reactors. The first day of presentations ended with a pleasant evening in the foyer of the convention center, sponsored by Rovi Ingenieria and JT Instrumentacoes.
On Wednesday, November 23, it began with the session moderated by Burghard Meyer (VLB). André Trombe (Pall) showed the advantages of stabilization with PVPP, using the CBS concept, a development of Pall. Then, Evaldo Carmo (Anton Paar) presented the latest developments in the instrumentation part, and its advantages in optimizing the automation and monitoring of the brewing process. Presentations by Rodrigo Zampa and Marcelo Rampazo (both Pentair) followed. Rodrigo showed Pentair's membrane filtration concept, something that allows continuous filtration, in a reduced space and without the use and subsequent disposal of infusoria soil. Marcelo, for his part, shared with those present the different options offered by Pentair in order to reduce the carbon footprint, focusing on the recovery and/or co-generation of CO2. The last presentation of the block was given by Jeferson Stamborowski (Sartorius), who showed a concept for the aseptic transfer of yeast.
The last session of the conference, moderated by Alvaro Nogueira (Grupo Petrópolis), had the area of packaging and logistics as its main topic. Christoph Jurgensen (KHS) shared with the participnts 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. Then continued Alexander Scharlach (VLB) who gave a summary of the aspects to consider in the logistics and transport of containers, through the use of digital sensor technologies.
The last presentation of the day was given by Saulo Miguel (Heineken), which, beyond presenting aspects of new technology, served to discuss Heineken Brazil's path towards a high performance organization. After the words of thanks to the sponsoring companies and the breweries that supported the event, as well as to the VLB "behind the scenes" team, technical and sound, and the translators, a satisfied Roberto Biurrun invited the participants to the closing toast .
The 13th Ibero-American VLB Symposium will be held in Bogotá, Colombia, from September 18 to 20, 2023
As a token of the ties between VLB and the South American continent, Everaldo Miranda (Grupo Petrópolis) and Roberto Biurrun (VLB) planted a commemorative tree.
Part of the Symposium participants visiting Ambev's Uberlandia plant
A large group of participants gathered at the Uberlandia Convention Center to participate in the 12th Ibero-American VLB Symposium