Together, we look back on a year that has been eventful and challenging for all of us in many respects. Unfortunately, this press release cannot do without the word "pandemic". For the first time, MEBAK e.V. met virtually at its 96th plenary session, and the 97th session on the occasion of the 50th anniversary could at least take place as a hybrid session. The pandemic is still present, we will continue to learn to live with it, and it is certainly also in many ways a sign of the times, which has touched all our lives in 2021 sometimes more and sometimes less.
For MEBAK e.V., however, it was especially a successful and special year, as we celebrated our 50th anniversary together and, after years of immense work, we were able to celebrate the online launch of our methods database. This means that much has been achieved, but there are still great and greater challenges ahead of us, which we are happy to continue to tackle together in the future with a great deal of commitment. The MEBAK working groups are energetically active, revising and evaluating methods and contributing to MEBAK's continued foresight in responding to future trends and putting them into practice in a timely manner! With the successful online launch, further steps have now been taken. It will be interesting to see what innovations and changes will be published by MEBAK next year. Special thanks are due to all members of MEBAK e.V. for their personal commitment and valuable time! MEBAK is an important part of all our professional lives and a great enrichment. This feeling of working and achieving together welds us together. This can be experienced again and again at every meeting, whether virtual or personal - even if each and every one of us would certainly like to have less virtual and more personal togetherness. In this respect, we would also like to thank all the companies, institutes and universities that have enabled and continue to enable their employees to carry out the important committee work at MEBAK e.V. by releasing their employees from work.
The "Analysator", a Doppelbock brewed for MEBAK's 50th anniversary by Marcus Jentsch from Institut Romeis Bad Kissingen GmbH, has meanwhile been sent to the active and honorary members of MEBAK as well as various cooperation partners and sponsors and has thus made it (over)punctually under the Christmas tree. Many thanks again and to Marcus Jentsch for this great beer, IREKS for the malt, Hopsteiner for the hops and the Weihenstephan Research Centre for the yeast. Cheers!
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Wilm Bartels for the great interview he gave on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of MEBAK, in which he reported on the history of its origins, the first hours and his personal experiences with MEBAK e.V.. Special thanks are also due to Dr. Walter Hagen who, with his almost inexhaustible detailed knowledge of the founding period of MEBAK, was available to answer questions. The interview with Dr. Bartels was published in BRAUWELT and can be read here.
But there has been a lot more going on at MEBAK in 2021. Three new experts were welcomed to the Analysis Committee: Dr. Andreas Brandl, Doemens e.V., Sandro Cocuzza, Simon H. Steiner Hopfen GmbH and Hubert Walter, Weihenstephan Research Centre, were unanimously accepted and are already very actively supporting the multi-layered committee work. The MEBAK Guideline Membrane Filtration could be published thanks to the voluntary commitment and cooperation of numerous experts under the working group leadership of Dr. Stefan Kreisz, Privatbrauerei Erdinger Weißbräu, Erding. The MEBAK guideline thus completes the MEBAK filtration guidelines, which can be ordered via the Carllibri book shop. Great thanks are due not only to Dr. Stefan Kreisz, but also to all contributors who have jointly contributed to the implementation. Furthermore, the International Society of Beverage Technologists (ISBT) and MEBAK have declared a future cooperation. Together, the two organisations will promote, develop and disseminate the science of beverage technology and face and overcome current and future challenges.
It can be done. And it works best together. With this in mind, the Executive Board as well as the Press Officer of MEBAK e.V. wish everyone a reflective holiday season and a good start to the year 2022. And above all: stay healthy!
