Lautering.net

Beer Festivals, Real Ale Festivals, Cask Ale Festivals, you see them advertised all the time and they range in size from the national and regional festivals organised by the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) and the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) with hundreds of beers to the more humble local pub showcasing half a dozen ales for its regulars.

Consider this, that if you stock real ales, then you are in effect providing a year round beer festival; all you do with a specially promoted beer festival is try to peak consumption in a very short period. If you keep and serve real ales then you can run a beer festival, it just needs a little planning and organising.

Apart from giving you the chance to find out what real ales your clientele prefer, you can try new products out on them and increase custom in your pub. Get it right and a real ale festival is great fun and can be highly profitable and will be a talking point for a long time after the event.

Look in your local newspaper, you'll often see Cask Ale festivals either being advertised or reported on and as such are a great way of promoting your outlet in the local community and the local newspaper. This is especially true if aligned to a community or charity event (for instance local art festival, food faire, charity fundraising events such as sponsored runs or family days)

My next appointment at the Brau brings me from Brumas to JS Maschinen. The mid-sized company from Bergen/Wang (near Munich) have been selling, producing and repairing machines and appliances for the brewing industry for the last 16 years.

When I arrive at the stand, there is lot going on. The junior manager refers me to the director of the company and soon the discussion is underway.

At 10 am the fair hall in Nuremberg is still very quiet; the fair opened for industry professionals only an hour ago. Brumas' stand is located in hall 7. Volker Rothbauer, by trade an alumnus of Weihenstephan, is cheerful. You can't notice any signs of stress, even though a trade fair as big as the Brau is not exactly a walk in the park for the exhibitors. I start asking questions and quickly a discussion is in full swing about a product he developed: the BrauEule.

In 1991 the penny is dropped: an automatic brewing machine for the hobby brewer is to be developed. The standard was and is high: brewing should be "as easy as making a cup of coffee". However, during the development phase it becomes clear to the inventor that "lautering and fermentation cannot be automated that easily". But even without automating these two processes the actual working hours could be reduced down to one hour; a remarkable saving of time comparing to the six hours one would usually spend with the brew. It took 12 years before the first BrauEule saw the light of day.

The press accreditation went smooth. It took about 1 minute, much faster than expected. The congress centre is huge and there are many exhibitors around. According to the Brau Beviale website they host about 1400 exhibitors, 40% of them are international. 34.000 visitors are expected to visit the biggest European beer production and beer marketing fair in 2010. Even the regional newspaper was reporting about the Brau Beviale writing on the other hand that beer is getting more expensive because of risen barley prices.