Certified Brewmaster Course 2022 The graduates have the certificate in their pockets

CERTIFIED BREWMASTER COURSE 2022

The graduates have the certificate in their pockets

On 22 July, the Certified Brewmaster Course 2022 came to an end. 22 graduates of this year and a total of 7 participants from 2020 and 2021, who could only take their exams now due to the pandemic, (finally) received their certificates. During the ceremony, VLB Managing Director Dr. Josef Fontaine acknowledged the performance of the examinees and thanked all VLB staff who contributed to the success of the course both in front of the class and behind the scenes.

(ew) VLB Managing Director Dr. Josef Fontaine opened the graduation ceremony with an address to the graduates as well as to a handful of family members, friends and partners who were able to attend the farewell ceremony in person for the first time in two years. He congratulated the newly graduated Brewmasters and praised their achievements, some of which were outstanding, before presenting the coveted VLB Certified Brewmaster certificates. In January, 30 participants from 18 nations took part in Part 1 (theory) of the Certified Brewmaster training. The majority followed the lectures online, only about a third were on site in Berlin from the beginning. Phase 2, the practical part of the training, began in mid-May. Now not only those participants who had joined online during the first three months came in person. Those who had to interrupt the training in the pandemic years 2020 and 2021 and had to leave early at that time also joined them. The practical work took place in the in-house laboratories and in the Wilfried Rinke Brewery Technology Centre. Around 25 VLB staff or lecturers gave lectures and practicals. External guest lectures with Tim Schrodt and Julia Rossmann from Endress+Hauser as well as Dr. Roland Pahl-Dobrick from Pall enriched the lecture programme. And not to forget: Cramming for the final exams was also on the agenda. But a pleasant post-pandemic premiere cushioned all these exertions. After a two-year break, the budding brewmasters were finally able to taste the results of their craft again in the legendary Zunfthaus. Course leader Burghard Meyer thanked all participants for their support. He was pleased that almost all participants were able to successfully complete the course again this year and invited them to join the VLB alumni network “former VLBers”. It got emotional at the end: course coordinator Heike Flohr is retiring in spring 2023 and therefore dismissed her protégés with a special farewell: “It's always a bit sad when you see people leave. But it also makes me happy that in the last course I supervised from start to finish, almost all of them were able to finish the course and finally hold their certificate in their hands without the pandemic having too much of a hand in it.” And because the pandemic actually took a bit of a back seat, the subsequent farewell party took centre stage.

On the last day, a total of 25 Certified Brewmasters proudly received their certificates in person. Some participants unfortunately had to leave before the ceremony