VII FORUM OF BREWERS AND RESTAURATEURS UNITED A CRAFT COMMUNITY OF UKRAINE AND FOREIGNERS IN LVIV: FOCUS ON THE MARKET DEVELOPMENT
24.06.2019, 23:33
June 18-19, 7th Forum of Brewers and Restaurateurs took place on the territory of Fest Republic and brought together owners and managers of restaurants and breweries, experienced and novices brewers, technologists and marketers of medium and small breweries, Ukrainian and foreign producers. First of all, this Forum is aimed at developing the brewing industry that is a driving force for other sectors of the industry in the overall and, the development of each brand individually. The forum was attended by about 200 participants from Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, Sweden, France, Belgium, including 23 producing companies that presented their products, solutions, and services, including food partners who treated us with craft delicacies and Ukrainian cider. Thus, the two-day rich program of the forum included the best speakers and experts, brewers and restaurateurs who were at the beginning of developing craft in our country.
We were pleased to meet as new faces, including constant participants at the forum, with whom we have already passed along the way in seven Forums, from the very beginning of the craft revolution in the country! As it was emphasized by the founder of the project "Technologies and Innovations" and the author of the idea of the Forum, Kateryna Koneva, that having regard to the fact that the "hot" season for brewers have already started, when each minute has its value, they eventually found spare time to visit this event. Together we took the course to develop the craft market, and only joint efforts are possible to make Ukraine as a brewing country! Pravda Beer Theater Lviv has hosted the craft movement, which overcomes all the obstacles on its way to development and establishment, on the territory with an atmospheric spirit of the Fest Republic and in Pravda Beer Theater as well.
During the opening of the Forum, Yuriy Zastatnyi, co-founder of Pravda Beer Theater has noted: "I heard the word "Pravda" 10 times more at this forum than when we organized here our beer festival. Thanks a lot! We have to help and support this industry on its way to the development. One of the best activities in my life is to brew beer. The beer has brought us together, and its main task - is a social role, it`s communication. You may be lost your investment of time and money here, if not get acquainted with three new people before dinner, and with three more after lunch. Communication is what brought us here. So, let`s communicate, enjoy, as we are in the best business!"
Technologies and innovations have become a central theme of the conference day, as the driving force on the way to the development of the brewing industry. So, we talked about new opportunities for hops and malt, Ukraine`s beer identity, bottling and packaging, investment, compared the methods of rubbing - decoction and infusion, worked on the mistakes in creating own brewery. We analyzed and found out the peculiarities of the introduction of the HACCP system. The experts of IP and Law firm "Pakharenko & Partners", the Main Legal Partner, have helped to find out with the legal issues and nuances of intellectual property. Within the framework of the marketing and economy sections, we talked about the concept of a beer restaurant, beer retail, and food pairing.
Dmytro NEKRASOV, the main brewer of FDB, the godfather of many Ukrainian and foreign breweries, noted that the format of the Forum is improving with every year, we meet new faces more and more every time, moreover, I`d like that the audience in craft brewing would expand larger and attract more people in the craft business! The question that is today on the agenda for medium and small manufacturers is as follows:
He answered the following: "Now the situation in the craft business is not the best and many craft breweries have to leave this market and sold their business. But in my opinion, it will be a good lesson for those who are just at the beginning of its business, and those who are now running this, because you should not be afraid to properly estimate own business. If you think that your product doesn`t cost accordingly to your set price, so you shouldn`t attach a lot for selling it. Unfortunately, only your creative idea is not enough for doing this. So, it is a hard time, but those who survive will be strong. I am glad that interest is not disappeared among many of us, that talks about how it is hard don`t make us afraid. What tasks do I see for the Ukrainian craft brewing business for the future? I think we should be strengthened in the finance aspect and stable production, as well as we should respect our competitor."
Thus, the Forum program was full of theories, practices, and communication, the exchange of important experience and unification around industry-wide issues. A pleasant pause in the series of speeches was the Open Public Tasting of beer from Ukrainian producers, including the winners of the East European Beer Award 2017 and 2018. It should be noted that there were presented beer of the following breweries: Red Cat Brewery, FDB, Volyn Brewery, Private Odessa Brewery, brewery Riven`, Ale Point, Rock Dog Brewery, SOF PIVKOM DOR, Karabas-Barabas.
The presentation of snail farming food from the founder of the farm Zakhidnyi Ravlyk, Iryna YUSKEVICH was not only a gastronomic reveal for many participants, but also as a new variant in pairing with craft beer. No one was left indifferent after having delicious snacks of Ukrainian production, in particular, tartlets with snails with creamy cheese and herbs, as well as with honey-lemon sauce and spicy, with soy sauce, paprika and garlic.
During the whole conference day, a traditional exhibition of equipment, technologies of raw materials, as well as in packaging, bottling, closure, and related products for brewing has worked. Products and solutions, new developments were presented by manufacturers and importers: FERMENTIS, Harvest Agrokhim Ukraine Group, Thermo Pack Ltd, Donau Lab Ukraine Ltd, Sphera SIM, Pontum AB, Browamator / HeyHops , Atlas Brewery Design, GEA Ukraine, Castle Malting, Pat Technology, Vetropak Hostomelʹsʹkyy Sklozavod, Belimo Ukraine Ltd, Bühler Group, Fil - Tech Ltd, EMCITI COMPANY, and entrepreneurs Sesame Iva, TM Tepli Morya, Shkvarka, MagNum-beer, ROYAL FRUT GARDEN, Beer Set.
Both the exhibition and the theoretical part of the Forum covered the most current themes of the industry: innovations, brewing technologies, beer quality improvement, effective sales, marketing, export, successful breweries.
Participants will be remembered the practical part of the second day of the Forum, in particular, Beer Tour, Gurme-tour, collaborative brewing, work-shop for brewers.
Thus, Beer Tour "Craft Way" included a museum complex of beer history Lvivarnya, the only interactive beer museum in Ukraine and one of the most up-to-date that includes 200 exhibits, also pizzeria Tisto, which treated the magnificent combinations of authentic Italian pizza and a craft beer; beer store of the Beer Set network, which has the largest selection of craft beer in Ukraine; the Czech restaurant-brewery Stargorod that brews beer according to Czech technology using only Czech ingredients. During visiting restaurant-brewery Stargorod, participants were able not to be only treated by food and beer its production but also got a real excursion to the production.
Gurme-tour became a nice pleasure for gourmets and lovers of creative concepts during visiting by establishments of !FEST Holding of Emotions, in particular, THE FIRST LVIV GRILL RESTAURANT OF MEAT AND JUSTICE, ARSENAL. RIBS, POST OFFICE ON DRUKARSKA STREET, Pravda Beer Theater. Chefs, brewers and managers of these establishments impressed with their hospitality and warmth!
An extremely interesting four-hour workshop for brewers was conducted by Jindrich Chejn, an expert in brewing from the Czech Republic, a co-founder of the Czech Brewmasters and Kunratice. The theme of the seminar was "The most common problems in small breweries: how to overcome them?" The expert revealed in detail the problems concerning beer quality and stability and hygiene measures. Beer tasting became as a practical part of a workshop, in particular, three tests of tasting abilities for participants.
Jindrich Chejn noticed the same problems in the craft brewing of Ukraine which has been in the Czech Republic 10 years ago at the beginning of the craft revolution there. In particular, it is the complexity of working with the product on the market, and we already know how to solve them. He focused that the problem was how to sell your products, how to give it to consumers, how to provide the stability of the taste these are very important moments and enough complicated for the craft breweries through the limit in resources. He said, "There are many solutions on how to straighten this situation; I spoke about them at the workshop. There are many approaches on how to start with marketing, for example, if you have a limited shelf life, then you can take advantage of this disadvantage. And there are technological ways how to extend shelf life for beer. Concerning the problems that brewers may face in the future: big market players will notice that the craft segment is growing, and understand that it is profitable to enter there. Having unlimited resources in comparison to craft brewers, big players will be applying special marketing approaches, including distribution opportunities and production capacities, that will be a threat to the craft market. In any case, you have to be ready and self-confident, because even being in such a situation is possible to be successful!"
Meanwhile, collaboration brewing of beer began its work at the new Pravda factory, and within an excursion, all forum participants were able to visit this event at the end of the conference day. So, Vienna lager with Ukrainian flavor with adding of Ukrainian raw materials and spices was brewed.
Besides, a representative of the Kharkoiv Brewery Red Cat, Kateryna Kryvega admitted that the forum took place in a friendly atmosphere of the craft community of Ukraine. She said, "We all are aimed at one goal, to popularize the craft brewing in our country. It should be noted that such an event helps people find each other according to their interests to share experiences and talk about some methods in achieving these goals, as well as sharing their impressions. Today we occupy 1-1.5% of the market. Having regard to the fact, we need to popularize craft further! And, I was inspired by the idea of supporting each other, Ukrainian producers of raw materials and equipment that is good for Ukraine on its way to becoming a craft country! Moreover, I was very impressed with the topic of food-pairing, very interesting, and make you rethink everything you know, and being ready to experiment with food and beer."