Spanish brewers flex their muscles at the Brewers Forum and the 38th EBC Congress
The Escuela Superior de Cerveza y Malta (ESCYM), the oldest institution in Spain providing specialised training in the brewing sector, founded in 1965, has left its mark on the Brewers Forum and the 38th EBC (European Brewery Convention) Congress held from 29 May to 1 June in Madrid. ESCYM delivered a technical presentation on one of its projects, which involves the production of a non-alcoholic IPA using the yeast Saccharomycodes ludwigii, and also presented two student projects: a sour beer with low gluten content and another on how to optimise hop utilisation.
In the conference block “Alternatives for brewing alcohol-free beer”, students Rubén González, Alba López, Albert Portal and Eduardo Riaza presented their project. The merit of using Saccharomycodes ludwigii is that it does not belong to the Saccharomyces family, the universal branch for brewing beer. However, Ludwigii can ferment monosaccharides, sucrose and maltose. Its great advantage is the low alcohol content it produces compared to its traditional counterparts. The result is an IPA where hops take center stage, without the typical organoleptic profile of alcohol-free beers.
At the same time, ESCYM has also presented two other projects from students in its master’s programs. The first deals with the production of a gluten-free sour-style beer; to this end, the authors have researched the use of lactic bacteria to break it down. The technique used is known as “sour mash” and employs two different bacterial strains: Lactobacillus and Pediococcus, selected on the basis of previous studies in wheat sourdough. This master’s thesis was written by Alejandro Andreu, José Javier Avilés, Amaya Campos, Fernando López and Mónica Ríos.
The second of the projects presented deals with how to optimize the use of hops, which is, after all, one of the most expensive raw materials in brewing. Its authors, Miguel Ángel Campos and Román González, have achieved a yield of over 83% by reusing hops from the dry hopping of a first batch in the boil of a second batch. “It’s easy to do and requires few resources,” González asserts. According to the study, this technique could be applied continuously in successive brews without altering their organoleptic profile, both with bittering and aroma hops.
These three projects represent the brewing excellence of our region, cradle of great master brewers and researchers. For its part, ESCYM is establishing itself as a breeding ground for skilled professionals, and during the event it shared a stand with other national institutions such as the Spanish Brewers Association, Maltsters of Spain and the Spanish Association of Beer and Malt Technicians.
