Ulrich Brendel new member of VLB’s Administrative Board / Brian Gibson new Head of TU Department for Brewing and Beverage Technology

Ulrich Brendel new member of VLB’s Administrative Board

On 7 December 2020, the VLB General Assembly unanimously elected the Technical Director of Warsteiner Group, Ulrich Brendel, to the Administrative Board. In this role, he is replacing Peter Himmelsbach, who retired in June 2020.

(oh) Ulrich Brendel began his professional career at Warsteiner Brewery as a production engineer in 1992. In 2002, he was promoted to Technical Director and in 2007 he took over full responsibility for operations at the headquarters in Warstein. In July 2020, Brendel was appointed Managing Director Technology of Warsteiner Group with seven brewery locations – replacing Peter Himmelsbach, who retired at the end of June 2020. Ulrich Brendel has had a long collaboration with VLB Berlin. He has been an active member of the Committee for Logistics of the Business Management Committee (BWA) of VLB Berlin for around two decades, to which he gave important impetus as Chairman from 2007 to 2020. Warsteiner Brewery (Haus Cramer) is one of the longest standing member companies of VLB and has been represented there on the Administrative Board for decades, most recently by Peter Himmelsbach. After Himmelsbach's retirement from active working life, the General Assembly unanimously accepted the proposal to elect his successor Ulrich Brendel to the VLB Administrative Board. “I am pleased about this trust and gladly take on this honorary position,” said Ulrich Brendel after the election, which was carried out online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Administrative Board decides on all fundamental matters affecting the VLB and is thus one of the three steering bodies of the VLB alongside the general assembly and the management. It is elected by the General Assembly for a period of four years and currently has nine members.

Ulrich Brendel, Warsteiner Brauerei

Photo: Warsteiner

Brian Gibson new Head of TU Department for Brewing and Beverage Technology

At the beginning of the winter semester 2020/2021, Dr. Brian Gibson accepted the appointment of the Technical University of Berlin as the new Professor and Head of the Chair of Brewing and Beverage Technology. He succeeds Professor Frank-Jürgen Methner, who headed the department from 2005 to 2019.

(BF) Before joining TU Berlin as the VLB-endowed Chair of Brewing and Beverage Technology, Brian Gibson was employed as a Principal Scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Ltd, where he was responsible for research and industry brewing projects, and generally directing the brewing research activities. He also holds a Docent position at University of Helsinki. His main research focus is brewing yeast biology and its impact on fermentation and beer quality. Topics of interest include improvement of yeast performance through hybridization or adaptive evolution, as well as optimization of process conditions. Underlying mechanisms (genetic, molecular, physiological) that govern yeast performance are a particular interest. A number of innovations resulting from the research have been applied industrially. Brian, in addition to working on beer, has carried out research on a range of fermentation systems including wine, cider, kombucha, and sourdough bread. He has published 60 peer-reviewed articles on topics related to brewing, and has successfully supervised multiple PhD, MSc, and BSc-level research projects. He was awarded his PhD from UCD, Dublin, Ireland in 2004, after which he carried out research at Oxford Brookes University and University of Nottingham, before moving to VTT. At TU Berlin, Brian will oversee the updating of Brewing and Beverage Technology course material, establish a well-equipped laboratory for brewing yeast and fermentation research, and will promote the university as an attractive research partner for the brewing and beverage industry. VLB Managing Director Dr. Josef Fontaine commented: “We are very pleased that the Chair of Brewing and Beverage Technology at TU Berlin has been newly appointed by an internationally recognized brewery scientist and look forward to a constructive collaboration with Dr. Brian Gibson.” The university professorship of the Technical University of Berlin for the field of brewing and beverage technology is a foundation professorship, which is co-financed by the Research & Teaching Institute for Brewing in Berlin (VLB) e.V.