At the invitation of the Versuchs- und Lehranstalt für Brauerei in Berlin (VLB) e.V., 15 members and honorary members of the Mitteleuropäische Brautechnische Analysenkommission (MEBAK) e.V. met in Berlin. Guests included Robert Jell from Erdinger Weißbräu Werner Brombach GmbH, Florian Lehnhardt from the Weihenstephan Research Center for Brewing and Food Quality, and Michael Wöß from Mich. Weyermann® GmbH & Co. KG were present. The 1st chairman Dr. Martin Zarnkow as well as Dr. Josef Fontaine, the managing director of VLB Berlin e.V. welcomed the participants to a punctual start of the meeting at 9 o'clock. Special thanks for a successful pre-event program at the Lemke Brewery in Berlin as well as for the further organization in this context also go to Dr. Nils Rettberg, also from the VLB.
In addition to general association matters such as the cash report, which Dr. Gerold Reil presented in detail as usual, the MEBAK board was newly elected at this meeting. The previous board was confirmed in office and the following unchanged constellation resulted:
- 1st Chairman: Dr. Martin Zarnkow
- 2nd chairman: Matthias Hansen
- Minute Taker: Marcus Jentsch
- Treasurer: Dr. Gerold Reil
All members of the board accepted the election and thanked the board for their confidence. The members present also expressed their thanks for the very good work and commitment of the board.
The working group Sensory reported that the method Sensory collection is also available online in English since this year. There were also detailed reports from the other working groups on new methods and planned ring tests. In particular, we would like to refer to the method collection Microbiology, which will soon be included in the method database, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Mathias Hutzler and 16 group members.
Mr. Michael Wöß from Mich. Weyermann® GmbH & Co gave a lecture on the exciting topic: Phenol content in malt - steam-volatile phenols for determining the smoke flavor in malt. Here he described different formation paths as well as the influence of growing conditions and barley variety. After the presentation, Mr. Michael Wöß was unanimously accepted by the MEBAK members into the expert group.
Taken together, the meeting can be evaluated as very successful and informative. The next meeting will take place in April 2023.
