AGENDA
Thursday, August 18th
10:00 AM Den Bosch Pre-conference Excursion pick-up at Mercure Amsterdam City Hotel
11:00 AM Den Bosch Pre-conference Excursion pick-up at the Golden Tulip Hotel in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Learn more and register for the optional excursion here.
Friday, August 19th
11:00 – 1:00 PM Registration, Goodie Bags, Beer Expo & Buffet Lunch with typical Dutch cuisine provided by the Mercure Amsterdam City Hotel paired with and poured by beer representatives from La Trappe, Het Hert, Jopen, Kromme Jat, Hettinga and Beerbutler.eu The lunch will highlight Mercure’s impressive Around Beer program. @MercureNL – Floor Lounge
1:00 – 1:20 PM Conference Opening & Welcome from Mercure Hotels – Meeting Room
1:20 – 2:20 PM History, Present, and Future of Brewing in The Netherlands: We’ll hear from Michel Ordeman, “Head of Church” at Jopenkerk Brewery and co-founder of the Campaign for Netherlands Beer Styles, and Rick Kempen of Bier & Co The new beer styles are booming in The Netherlands yet there is a strong component of traditional Dutch culture in the brewing industry. Our moderator will be Arnoud Paternot of blog Beste tot nu toe. – Meeting Room
2:20– 3:20 PM Trappist Beer: Let’s have a glass of Westmalle or Zundert Trappist Beer and listen to Manu Pauwels of Westmalle Abbey @abbeywestmalle and Henri Reuchlin, advisor to Zundert Trappist and author of the oldest beer blog in the Netherlands the Bier Buro @BierBuro, share their expertise and passion for the matter in hand. – Meeting Room
3:20 – 3:30 PM Break
3:30 – 4:30 PM Beer Flavours – A Multi-Sensory Workshop with Dale Smith from FlavorActiV: Dale will conduct a sensory workshop to introduce common beer faults and positives, with a tasting session and live results to test the skills of the audience. – Meeting Room
4:30 – 5:30 PM Live Beer Blogging featuring ten craft beers from the region hosted by European craft beer distributor Bier & Co @BierenCo. The participating breweries are Brouwerij ’t IJ, De Prael, Oedipus, Kees, Emelisse, Maximus, Oersoep, Kompaan, Duits & Lauret and Bax Bier – Meeting Room
5:30 – 10:00 PM Brewery Tour and Dinner with Jopen Bier: We will be picked up and delivered to our destinations on historic buses from Amsterdam. After our brewery tour in Waarderpolder we will move to Jopen’s brewery in Jopenkerk for our beer dinner. This will be a wonderful evening in Haarlem.
10:00 PM Pub Crawl: Tonight’s crawl will start from Amsterdam’s Central Station.
Saturday, August 20th
10:00 – 11:00 AM Will Takeovers Threaten Diversity in the Beer Industry?: One of the amazing things about the current craft beer revolution is the number of small players and the immense diversity of beers they produce. However, we are recently seeing a new trend of mergers and purchases: with craft breweries consolidating, larger breweries purchasing or buying into smaller ones, and even of the big brands merging together. What positives and negatives does this trend have for craft beer and its consumers? Long-time beer writer and consumer activist Tim Webb, Executive of the European Beer Consumer Union, will outline the issues. – Meeting Room
11:00 – 12:00 AM The Secret History of Pale Ale: We will learn about the true history of pale ale, from its 17th century origins to its dominance, decline and rebirth, with all the myths debunked and the errors corrected, including the truth about IPAs past and present and the real story of the Great IPA Shipwreck. With Martyn Cornell from Zythophile. – Meeting Room
12:00 – 2:00 PM Lunch – on your own
2:00 – 3:00 PM Beer Photography – Beer photography was the most requested session for this year’s agenda. Hear from Teo Krijgsman, photographer and artschool lecturer in The Hague, Teo has been taking professional images of beer for fifteen years. – Meeting Room
3:00 – 4:00 PM The Definition of Craft: What is the definition of “craft beer” and does it matter? The Brewers Association in the US has a strict definition … that has changed over time. Is it even possible to entertain an indicator of “quality” when considering this? Does the cultural brewing heritage of Europe change what we mean by craft? We’ll hear from Andrew Morgan, owner of The Bottle Shop, and discuss the subject as a group. – Meeting Room
4:00 – 4:15 PM Break
4:15 – 5:15 PM H41 and its ‘conception’ in relation to Heineken’s beer credentials presented by Willem van Waesberghe, Global Craft and Brew Master, Global Commerce Innovation / Global Production – Meeting Room
5:15 – 5:45 PM Beer Blogger & Writer Reports – Five-minute reports from beer bloggers, writers and industry representatives. – Meeting Room
- Joan Birraire www.birraire.com (Spain) – Barcelona Beer Festival
- Karl van Malderen www.bapas.be (Belgium) – Bapas Beer Pairing
- Sarah Finney www.5minfinney.com (Ireland) – Video Blogging
- Wayne Dunne www.irishbeersnob.com (Ireland) – Podcasting
- Dr. Jacopo Mazzeo www.beerwithoutfrontiers.com (United Kingdom) – Globalization and the “Craft Beer Revolution”
5:45 – 6:00 PM Announcement of 2017 Date & Location – Meeting Room
6:00 – 8:00 PM Dinner with Pilsner Urquell – Long time supporters and friends of beer bloggers and writers around the world Pilsner Urquell will once again host Saturday’s dinner. @Pilsner_Urquell – Floor Lounge
8:00 PM Bottle Share – Conference attendees are invited to bring some of their favorite beers or the beers they are currently writing about to share. Beers can be dropped off at the conference registration for cold or room temperature storage. These beers will then be presented and shared with everyone after dinner. Please fill out this form for each beer you share. Like the beer, the information collected via this form will also be compiled and shared. Proost! – Floor Lounge
10:00 – midnight Goodbye Drinks – Bier&cO invites all conference goers and staff for goodbye drinks at ‘In de Wildeman Kolksteeg 3 Amsterdam. Please bring either the conference badge or the map from the goodie bag. The drinks are on Bier&cO! @bierenco
Sunday, August 21st
11:00 AM Brouwerij De Molen Post-conference Excursion starts at the brewery in Bodegraven, the Netherlands. Learn more and register for the optional excursion here.