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The big beers of Brooklyn

By: Roger Putman

01/11/2007

“You must be crazy Roger,” said my host, “This is your first visit to New York and you spend it going around a goddam brewery,” he said with some incredulity. Yes, the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Central Park and the concrete canyons will have to wait for another time. The view of Manhattan from a distance is impressive; in most US cities ‘downtown’ of high rise buildings occupies but a small part of the horizon. In New York, it stretches to fill your entire view with the Empire State Building, still far higher than anything else making a most prominent landmark. I did however experience the subway and how difficult it was to lug a suitcase through the barriers. A lot less graffiti than you see on the movies though!

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Cellar to Seller 2007

By: Michael Parsons

01/11/2007

So was the 12th Exhibition and Conference the best ever? Certainly the one time Manchester Central railway station provided first class space for 48 stands and an excellent conference. The stands were integral part of the International Brewing Convention exhibition; positioned on a red carpet, they provided a remarkable concentration of the technology and expertise being brought to bear on the subject of ‘dispense’.

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Technological kicks

By: Paul Buttrick

01/11/2007

The German economy is characterised by many small to medium sized manufacturing companies whose expertise is in supplying specialist equipment. Many of these companies supply the 1200 odd breweries still in operation in Germany and others around the globe. One such company is Esau & Hueber based in Schrobenhausen about an hour’s drive to the north east of Munich.

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New spirit in the Kingdom

By: Frank Robson

01/11/2007

The kingdom referred to in the title is, of course, the Kingdom of Fife, that rather strangely-shaped area between the Forth and Tay rivers extending from St Andrews to Dunfermline. The name kingdom is attributed to the fact that in the longgone days of the Picts, their capital was at Abernethy in Fife.

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Glenmorangie insists on assured malt

By: Peter Crowe

01/11/2007

The rain water which falls on the hills above the Glenmorangie Distillery gently seeps down into the local sandstone. It is estimated that it does not see daylight again for another hundred years. At that point it finally flows through the spring that provides 10,000 litres of water every hour for the production of the world famous single malt whisky.

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Top ten tips for a greener office

By: Catherine Murphy

01/11/2007

There is more pressure than ever for businesses to reduce their carbon footprint. Whether climate change is at the top of organisations’ agendas or not, measures to reduce CO2 emissions can significantly cut costs and improve staff, partner and customer relations, making business as well as environmental sense.

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IBC tells the brewers just what they have to do

By: Roger Putman

01/11/2007

There has not been a brewing convention in the UK since the sixth Harrogate Conference back in April 1996. I presented a paper on the mind bogglingness of IT and recommended a £1500 entry level 90MHz PC with 16MB of RAM and a 1.6GB hard disk. Today you can get a 1600MHz machine with 1024MB of RAM, a 250GB disk and a 19-in flat screen for £229. Has the last eleven years been as kind to the buyers of beer and the brewing industry? We review the recent IBC in Manchester to find out.

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Mixing science, art and passion

By: Kristy Lark

01/11/2007

The 16th May 2005 is a day I’ll never forget, not only did I get engaged, but also I received a scholarship to travel to Scotland – to the heart of whisky – and learn about brewing and distilling whisky and the industry in general. I’m still not sure which was more exciting. (actually no, that’s not true!).

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Sterile filtration instead of pasteurisation

By: Axel Jany

01/11/2007

Breweries can go two completely different ways when addressing the problem of biological stability of their beers. The technical department of breweries all over the world will decide in favour of sterile filtration rather than thermal treatment if the sterile filter not only guarantees the original taste of the beer, but is also economically competitive.

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Towards the centenary at Shiner

By: Roger Putman

01/11/2007

Your editor has been called a lot of things in his time but until his trip to Texas last autumn to look at Gambrinus Company operations, ‘Rain God’ was not amongst them. During my day at Shiner which is some 80 miles east of San Antonio about half way towards Houston, the heavens opened and deposited 1.3 inches of rain, thus well and truly ending a long drought which was threatening the third hay crop of the year. The area raises stock and grows a little maize so the rain was most welcome. Founded in the late 1880s, Shiner is the ‘cleanest little city in Texas’ and has only 2,100 inhabitants, mainly of Czech and Bavarian descent.

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Ziemann takes care of brewing

By: Roger Putman

01/11/2007

Plant and vessel manufacturer Ziemann is based at Ludwigsburg, some 15km north of Stuttgart in Southern Germany and the Company claims it has built more complete breweries than anybody else. Back in 1903, German settlers built a brewery at Qingdao on China’s eastern coast with Ziemann equipment, today Tsingtao is the world’s ninth largest brewing company.