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Focus Sessions​

ASBC Focus Sessions

Brewery Operations

• Optimizing Pasteurization for Microbial Stabilization of Non-Alcoholic Beverages

  Optimizing Pasteurization for Microbial Stabilization of Non-Alcoholic Beverages

  Join us to explore the latest advancements in pasteurization for non-alcoholic beverages, catering to the needs of both small craft breweries and large-scale industrial brewing groups. Discover innovative strategies for achieving effective pasteurization without compromising the sensory attributes of non-alcoholic beverages. You’ll gain valuable insights into optimizing pasteurization processes to meet stringent microbial quality standards and consumer demand for high-quality, safe non-alcoholic beverages. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from industry experts and researchers.

  
  

Brewing

• Beyond Barley - Brewing with Alternative Grain

  Beyond Barley - Brewing with Alternative Grain

  Brewing isn’t just about barley anymore. Innovate with ingredients during this focus session. You’ll learn solutions to overcome challenges and unlock new flavors with non-traditional starch sources. Broaden your brewing horizons and discover new techniques for working with alternative starch sources and optimizing your process. Taste the difference during a tasting of beers brewed with alternative starches and compare their impact on flavor.

  
  
• Global Perspectives in Brewing Science: Trends, Innovations, and Challenges Across Borders

  Global Perspectives in Brewing Science: Trends, Innovations, and Challenges Across Borders

  This international session brings together brewing scientists and industry experts from around the world to discuss the state of brewing in their respective countries. Speakers will highlight key trends, noteworthy research, and groundbreaking innovations shaping their local and global brewing landscapes. Gain insights into regional brewing challenges, advancements in raw materials and fermentation, and emerging technologies that are transforming the industry worldwide.

  
  
• Going Beyond Beer: A Look at Making THC Beverages and How to Address Quality, Regulatory, and Technical Concerns

  Going Beyond Beer: A Look at Making THC Beverages and How to Address Quality, Regulatory, and Technical Concerns

  The beverage landscape is rapidly changing and evolving, with THC beverages playing a role. Join us to break down some of the mysteries and challenges that come with creating THC beverages. Discover how to approach the emerging market of THC beverages, with expert insights on product development, regulatory and technical concerns, and safety guidelines. This focus session will appeal to those who want to understand the complexity of developing, producing, and selling high-quality THC beverages.

  
  
• Using Practical Research and Innovative Strategies for the Development of New Hop Products

  Using Practical Research and Innovative Strategies for the Development of New Hop Products

  As breweries continue to face new challenges in an ever-changing market, there continues to be no shortage of new and innovative hop products emerging as well. Take a behind-the-scenes look at various advanced hop products and the development process that went into creating these innovative extracts and novel hop products that are currently available in the market today. Gain a better understanding of the options available on the market and their practical applications.

  
  

Sensory

• Flavor Quest: Discovering Flavours and Off-Flavours of No & Low Alcohol Beers

  Flavor Quest: Discovering Flavours and Off-Flavours of No & Low Alcohol Beers

  Unlock the unique aspects of flavour perception of non-alcohol and low-alcohol beer (NABLABs) during this interactive session. Explore the flavour profiles and gain insights into why certain flavours and off-flavours are more prevalent in NABLABs. Engage with flavour kit providers and fellow brewers in a collaborative learning environment and refine your sensory skills with practical tasting sessions featuring typical flavours and off-flavours. Enhance your brewing expertise and quality control processes while meeting the demands of your customers.

  
  
• Strategies for Understanding and Extending Shelf-Life

  Strategies for Understanding and Extending Shelf-Life

  New questions regarding shelf life are emerging as breweries expand distribution, consumers become more discerning and cost-conscious, and the market sees an explosion of beyond-beer beverage offerings. This session will provide an in-depth exploration of how breweries today are measuring and extending shelf life across a diverse range of beer and beverages. Attendees will have time to ask our panel of experts specific questions about shelf life during an engaging Q&A session.

  
  

Sustainability

• Malt and Barley: Emerging Research

  Malt and Barley: Emerging Research

  Malt will always be one of the most important raw materials in brewing due to its contribution to brewing and fermentation efficiency. The malting process begins with the selection of grains of suitable quality. While traditional grains of barley and wheat remain the major grains in the brewing industry, there is growing interest in the value of other grains, especially if they are gluten-free or have more value in on-farm production.

  In this session, experts will present on the latest research on our traditional malting and the grains used, but also the value of considering some alternative grains and the value they bring to our malting, brewing, and distilling industries.

Yeast & Microbiology

• Next-Gen Brewing Yeast: Evolution, Innovation, and Application

  Next-Gen Brewing Yeast: Evolution, Innovation, and Application

  The future of brewing is microscopic—join us at this session to explore novel yeast innovations. A wide variety of yeast strains are available to meet brewers' needs. However, many existing strains have properties that could be improved, such as suboptimal performance, undesirable effects on flavor, or inappropriate flocculation. Furthermore, new yeast properties could be invented that expand the range of what yeast can contribute to the future of brewing, improve existing workflows, and meet the needs of an evolving market.

Master Brewers Focus Sessions

Brewery Operations

• "Ask Me Anything" About Brewery Engineering

  "Ask Me Anything" About Brewery Engineering

  The topic of brewery engineering is often thought to be limited to the large breweries with robust plants and resources. This cannot be the case as the industry is met with headwinds in sales, limited budgets, and increased pressure from consumers and regulators. This panel will collect a diverse breadth of industry experts in brewery engineering to ask questions, present considerations, and give resources to attendees who are interested in maintaining or improving their brewery's operations. Leave this session more empowered to tackle brewery engineering problems faced by your brewery.

  
  
• Ask the Brewmasters: Navigating the Challenges of Modern Brewery Operations

  Ask the Brewmasters: Navigating the Challenges of Modern Brewery Operations

  Join us for an engaging panel discussion on navigating the challenges faced by modern brewery operations, featuring four brewing experts sharing their varied experiences and wide-ranging knowledge base. Discover new technologies, new ingredients, and new products that allow brewers to adapt to the current environment. Explore supply chain challenges and opportunities, and gain a better understanding of the non-beer CBD/THC beverage opportunities. Take advantage of the opportunity to get your brewing questions answered by the expert panelists representing over 100 years of brewing experience.

  
  
• Yield Improvement: Practical and Advanced Techniques to Do More with Less

  Yield Improvement: Practical and Advanced Techniques to Do More with Less

  Helping the planet can help your bottom line! Making the most of our raw materials is critical to success, as materials and labor costs rise and the market for beer faces headwinds. Eliminating waste is only more critical with time, especially considering the economic and environmental challenges our industry faces. Discover yield improvement techniques, including hot side centrifugation, fermenter management, dry-hopping techniques to minimize loss, and beer recovery from yeast. Learn how yield improvements can increase the environmental and economic sustainability of your brewery.

  
  

Brewing

• An Open Panel Exploration of the History, Evolution, and Brewing of Lager Beer

  An Open Panel Exploration of the History, Evolution, and Brewing of Lager Beer

  What do you think of when you think of lager beer? Something tasteless? Something tasty? A delicate beer with nothing to hide? The anti-hero of the American beer industry? A beer you know all too well.

  Join Greg Casey, Ashleigh Carter, and Jack Hendler as they discuss these points and more on the history and brewing techniques of lager beer. Come with your questions, but first take a seat and listen as these three giants of American lager brewing fearlessly debate and provide essential knowledge on this timeless and complex style of beer.

  
  

Packaging

• Canning, More Trouble Than It Seams

  Canning, More Trouble Than It Seams

  Consumer preference continues to shift away from bottles, resulting in more breweries packaging their products into cans. Learn how to protect your product by protecting your seams in this packaging focus session. Presenters will discuss both potential common and uncommon seam defects and their personal experience as field experts in this area. Walk away with a better understanding of the seaming process, what specifications need to be met, and critical areas to watch out for to ensure success by maintaining product integrity.

  
  

Recipe Development

• Tying It All Together: Linking the Science to Sensory and Practical Brewing

  Tying It All Together: Linking the Science to Sensory and Practical Brewing

  New and emerging scientific research often lacks direct relevance to everyday brewing. Join us to explore the complexities of recent thiol research, providing clear insights into how quantified amounts of these compounds truly affect the sensory experience of the final beer. Participate in a live sensory exercise to demonstrate how the measured amounts translate to aroma quality and intensity, and learn how additional aroma compounds can influence the perception of thiols. Discover how to incorporate thiol compounds into various recipes and the best practices discovered throughout the process.

  
  

Regulatory

• What You Don’t See Can Hurt Them: Protecting Your Customers, Business Partners, and Brands Through Food Safety

  What You Don’t See Can Hurt Them: Protecting Your Customers, Business Partners, and Brands Through Food Safety

  While beer itself is often considered shelf-stable, the brewing process involves equipment, chemicals, and raw materials that pose potential risks if not properly managed. These practices become even more imperative for breweries producing non-alcoholic beer or alternative beverages, where the reduced alcohol content or added sugar can heighten the risk of contamination. Panelists will break down FDA expectations, highlight common missteps in program creation—such as inadequate hazard analysis, poor traceability systems, and overlooked equipment risks—and share practical resources to build robust, compliant plans. By adopting strong food safety practices, craft breweries can safeguard their products, build trust with customers and business partners, and strengthen their position in the market.

  
  

Supply Chain

• Alternative Grains and Cropping Systems: Potential for the Malting and Brewing Industries

  Alternative Grains and Cropping Systems: Potential for the Malting and Brewing Industries

  Sustainable agricultural systems will be critical to the long-term future of the brewing industry as climate change threatens the existing barley supply chain. Maltsters and brewers are already looking towards alternative grains and/or agronomic systems for resiliency. This session brings together growers, agronomists, and researchers working in this space to discuss the potential for new barley cropping methods as well as several grains other than barley that may contribute unique flavors to beer. The goal of this panel is to demystify the many buzzwords that surround agriculture and provide clarity on the opportunities to chart a more sustainable future.

  
  
• Brewing Strong Partnerships: Managing External Contract Relationships

  Brewing Strong Partnerships: Managing External Contract Relationships

  Building mutually beneficial partnerships requires managing relationships and expectations with external contractors and effective collaboration to ensure smooth operations. Discover practical strategies and tools that will empower you to build and maintain successful external contractor relationships. You'll gain insights into the importance of these partnerships, how to select the right contractors, and the best practices for maintaining and nurturing these connections. Tackle the common challenges and uncover solutions to help you navigate your brewery’s partnerships with confidence.