The MEBAK members' meeting originally planned for Bern was spontaneously relocated to Freising-Weihenstephan at the invitation of Prof. Jacob and held in strict compliance with the necessary COVID 19 protection measures on 2 October 2020 in Lecture Hall 6 of the Technical University of Munich.
At the invitation of Dr. Stefan Kreisz, Managing Director of Erdinger Weißbräu, the "MEBAKers" met on the evening before the plenary session to talk shop and enjoy a convivial evening at the Hotel & Gaststätte zum Erdinger Weißbräu.
At the general meeting, new elections to the board were held as scheduled, and the results of the election were as follows:
- 1st Chairman: Dr. Martin Zarnkow, Weihenstephan Research Centre for Brewing and Food Quality (BLQ) TUM;
- 2nd Chairman: Dipl.-Ing. Matthias Hansen, Ireks Kulmbach;
- Secretary: Dipl.-Ing. Markus Jentsch, Romeis Institute, Bad Kissingen;
- Treasurer: Dr. Gerold Reil, Chair of Analytical Food Chemistry TUM.
The results of the 95th MEBAK plenary session can be summarised as follows:
In future, the MEBAK volumes will no longer be published in traditional book form. Instead, the complete collection of methods is to be made available online. In mid-2021, it is planned to completely redesign the visual appearance on the website and to fill the database with the German versions, starting with the three MEBAK core volumes Water, Raw Materials and Wort Beer Mixed Drinks. Access to the database will be regulated by an appropriate subscription.
The working groups Raw Materials, Hops, Water, Wort Beer Mixed Drinks, Sensory, Containers and Product Equipment, Filtration and Microbiology are continuing to work quickly on the individual completions so that they can then be entered into the future MEBAK database.
The Brewhouse Control Working Group has completed its work, the Guideline for Brewhouse Evalution is now available in book form and, like all existing MEBAK volumes, guidelines and the Microbrewery Compendium, can be obtained from the online bookshop of the Fachverlag Hans Carl, Nuremberg, www.carllibri.com.
Due to their services to MEBAK, Prof. Frank-Jürgen Methner was appointed honorary chairman and Dr. August Gresser honorary member. Both MEBAK members will continue to support the association as needed.
At this point, in addition to Erdinger Weißbräu, special thanks should once again go to the Weihenstephan Research Centre for Brewing and Food Quality for the opportunity to host the general meeting in Weihenstephan.