The brewing world will be beating a path to New Zealand’s craft beer capital at the Institute of Brewing and Distilling’s 2018 Asia Pacific Conference.

The institute has undertaken significant strategic initiatives to reinvigorate industry members opportunity for professional development and training in brewing and distilling.

Once the province of larger brewers, the 2018 conference has a dedicated craft focus to ensure relevance to all parts of the brewing spectrum.

Convention Chairman Chris O’Leary said education is critical to the health of the entire brewing industry.

“As the beer drinker has become more knowledgeable they are becoming a lot more discerning and when they pick up an off note or something that doesn’t look like it should, they are the first to comment on social media,” he said.

“The brewer firstly needs to know how to respond to that, and secondly to check through their process to find out what may have caused that.”

“Back when I started brewing, brewers didn’t necessarily have that education. You could brew up big hoppy beers and that could cover up a lot of flaws and faults.

“These days you can’t get away with that. There are so many competitors out there that you need to be ahead of the game and be able to respond if you have a problem – whether it be micro or flavour – and this is where education that IBD offers is so important. We give you those tools.

Chris said that the experience gained at these conferences continues to pay dividends.

“I went to the conference in American about seven or eight years ago and the contacts that I made and the knowledge that I gained was a real investment and I still look back at those notes now. It’s an incredible experience to be surrounded by three or four hundred people who are just like you and you can swap notes and experiences and you can swap beers even. It’s fantastic.”

The program is currently being finalised but includes sessions targeted at craft brewers as well as plenary sessions available to all.

Over two dedicated days of craft brewing program sessions will include Dry Hopping Options for Craft Brewers with Warren Pawsey, Soren Erikson covering Barrel Aging and Kelly Ryan looking at Sour Beer, as well as sessions on The Implementation of a Centrifuge into a Craft Brewery and A Portable Skid for Yeast Pitching in Small Breweries.

The IBD Asia Pacific Section will also be conducting training around the same time, probably following on after the convention. The training is targeted at brewers wishing to sit the General Certificate in Brewing (GCB) and you do not need to have membership to take the training or sit this particular qualification exam.

More information on the conference.