The CIBD Sustainability in Brewing Conference 2025

I recently attended the CIBD's Sustainability in Brewing Conference in Nottingham. I was working so though there was plenty of networking and CPD I didn't take notes. I did take some pictures though:

This is meta or something

And a few things have stuck in my memory.

Nominative determinism from Tom Brewer

Tom Brewer from ABInBev is a big fan of cranking it up on high gravity brewing: 20-22°P (1.083-1.092 for those that use a more sensible non-sucrose based scale). My inner microbiologist was pleased to hear that despite being an engineer he accepted it might not be fermented at this gravity. He was also a big fan of simmer and strip, where instead of a rolling boil the beer is simmered and gas sparging is used to drive off unwanted volatiles. This will save a lot of energy but I've never been impressed by beers I've drunk that were boiled using energy saving techniques like this. Still, I'm sure they know what they're doing and as many of their brands are not exactly overflowing with flavour they'll have to get it right or it will be very noticeable. 

He's clearly very dedicated to his job. I would even say passionate if that wasn't something that only craft brewers are capable of feeling. He seemed disappointed that they're not making faster progress on their sustainability goals but I was impressed that 13 of their breweries have got their liquor to beer ration below two.

Greg Rachon, one of the last people still working on the brewing side at Campden BRI, gave a talk with Connor Bartlett from Adnams on research into pasteurisation optimisation and how they're looking to reduce the amount of pasteurisation units used in Adnams' beers. 

More papers on pasteurisation than you can shake a stick at

Kara the hop goddess gave an update things at Wye Hops and detailed the use of genetic markers in hop breeding. 

Klara the hop goddess

Chatting to her afterward I learnt that she's not named a hop herself yet, though she did express disappointment that Wyggle, the working name of the wilt-resistant Fuggle, was not used. 

The thing that most amazed me though was about malt not hops. Dave Griggs from Crisp Malt said that to lower water usage they're looking to reduce the number of steeps in the malting process. The greatest success of the Brewing Industry Research Foundation* was the introduction of air rests into steeping, thus increasing the number of steeps from one to two or three. This makes malting faster and more efficient but greatly increases water use, which is why they're now trying to find ways of going back to one! Science eh? Isn't it amazing!

The talks were all videoed so hopefully will be online in the not too distant future. 

*Which ended its days at the Nutfield site of Campden BRI until the bastards closed it down. The abrasion process, which also came from there and the late great Geoff Palmer was immensely proud of, failed to pass the test of time.