Craft Brewers Powwow | 2022 Speakers

Spike Buckowski

Terrapin Brewing Company Brian "Spike" Buckowski is Brewmaster and Co-Founder of Terrapin Beer Company. Creating world-class beer recipes for Terrapin is not only his job, but his passion. Since Terrapin's launch in 2002, Spike has racked up numerous medals & awards for his outstanding brews. This includes gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival for his Rye Pale Ale & Tree Hugger & a silver medal at the World Beer Cup for his Golden Ale. Spike is a current member of the Master Brewers Association. He enjoys music, concerts, travel, & a nice cold Terrapin.

Adam Dulye

Brewers Association & CraftBeer.com Adam Dulye is executive chef for the Brewers Association and CraftBeer.com. Dulye is a Culinary Institute of America graduate and co-author of the CraftBeer.com Beer & Food Course and The Beer Pantry: Cooking at the Intersection of Craft Beer and Great Food. Dulye also oversees culinary side of SAVOR®: An American Craft Beer and Food Experience, PAIRED® at the Great American Beer Festival®, and the World Beer Cup®.

Pete Slosberg

Pete’s Brewing Company Pete started Pete's Brewing Company and created Pete's Wicked Ale, the Original American Ale, in 1986. Pete's had ten consecutive years of 100 % annual growth, becoming the second largest US Craft Brewing Company. In 1998, he wrote Beer for Pete's Sake, a bestselling book. That same year, Pete's Brewing was acquired. Pete then continued entrepreneurship & started a chocolate company, Cocoa Pete's Chocolate Adventures, which was acquired after 7 years. He then co-founded the South Beer Cup, the South American only Competition and Conference. He is also a Mentor at SCORE.

Cara Simpson

Aroxa & Cara Technology Ltd Cara Simpson graduated with a degree in Politics from Goldsmith’s College (University of London) in 2015. Upon leaving university, she discovered her love for beer and the intriguing world of sensory science. Cara is an experienced sensory trainer in the food and beverage industry. She has trained industry in a variety of food and beverages, including lager, craft beer, carbonated soft drinks, potable water, food, spirits and wine. She is an International Beer Judge, having judged in Brazil, Mexico, Europe and the United States. Having joined the company in 2015, Cara currently provides technical support to professional taste panels all over the world, assisting companies with setting up their internal sensory systems and day-to-day tasting. She is also an ASBC sensory subcommittee chair, and is the author of various technical posters and papers in the brewing industry.

Stéphane Meulemans

Fermentis Stéphane graduated from the University of Louvain as a Chemical Engineer specialized in Food Science. Following an additional MBA completed at the K.U. Leuven, he started as process engineer at the Alken-Maes Brewery in Belgium. In 1994, he joined the Food Science Department of Pfizer. From 1997 until 2013, he developed Global Sales of hops for Yakima Chief, Inc. From 2005 together with a partner, he started up and developed Brasserie de Jandrain-Jandrenouille. In 2014, he joined the Group Lesaffre as GM of the Business Unit Fermentis.

Joerg Kress

BASF Joerg started his brewing career at Eichbaum Brewery in Mannheim where he learned Malster and Brewing. In 1999 he then went back to school to study Brewing Technology at TU Munich and finished in 2004. Upon completion of his studies, Joerg took on the role of technical services & applications in BASF’s Brewing business in 2005, during the time, his functions were mainly supporting global & regional parts. Since 2010 to date, Joerg was promoted to Technical Sales & Marketing Manager for the EMEA region in Beverages Processing Polymers.

Rolf Zeitvogel

Master Distiller

Gentleman Spirits Born and bred in Germany’s Black Forest, home of more than 28 000 craft distilleries, it was no surprise that Rolf Zeitvogel would follow in the footsteps of the generations before him and continued the family legacy of becoming a Winemaker and Master Distiller, like his father and grandfather before him. After completing his studies at Weinsberg in Germany, Rolf wanted to gain international winemaking experience and chose South Africa, working at well-known wineries like Bergkelder, KWV, Buitenverwachting and Blaauwklippen. In 2002 Rolf settled in South Africa permanently and immersed himself into the world of wine and spirits, inspired by years of heritage and knowledge from his roots in Germany and the Black Forest. Rolf enjoys the journey of creating new products and believes that authenticity, the best ingredients, and innovation is key to the ever-evolving liquor industry. He is a partner and Managing Director of Gentleman Spirits, proud distiller of Triple Three Gin, creator of a portfolio of fruit spirits, brandy, husk spirits, whiskey and liquors, all proudly paying homage to his roots. Gentleman Spirits also offers a contracting distilling and product developing service.

Warren Wiese

AbInBev Production Brewer for Newlands Spring Brewing Company, Warren studied a BSC Microbiology & later obtained his Master Brewer Diploma through the Institute of Brewing and Distilling. Warrens career started with SAB at Alrode Brewery in Johannesburg in 2007 as a Brewing Technical Operator, from there he completed a Brewing Technical Traineeship and moved over to Cellars as a Yeast Specialist. His passion was always craft beer and was given the opportunity to head up Fransen Street Brewery in 2015. In 2018 his dream of working at Newlands came to fruition & was asked to head up Newlands Spring Brewing Company.

Hennie Blom

Dematech Hennie’s story in the beverage industry starts with what is still his favourite beverage – beer. It all began as a group of Stellenbosch engineering students trying to reduce the cost of their slightly excessive beer intake. He started homebrewing with pots, gas burners and cooler boxes & produced some truly horrible beers. Once he completed his studies he worked at Darling Brew for 3.5 years & enjoyed every moment. An opportunity at Dematech then presented itself as a Beverage technologist, focusing on soft drink production and has been involved with new product development & production at Dematech ever since.

Murray Stephenson

While completing a BSc(Hons) degree in Zoology, Murray picked up a passion for homebrewing which eventually lead him into a professional brewing career. He comes from Cape Town where he completed his IBD Diploma in brewing and spent six years working as a brewer, honing his skills in all facets of brewing operations. Looking for a new adventure, he joined Okavango Craft Brewery in 2020 and moved to Maun, Botswana. He currently heads up the brewing and malting operations, where locally sourced grains are malted and used for brewing in an effort to grow a sustainable wildlife economy that rewards local farmers who coexist with elephants.

Andrew De Groot

Regional Sales Manager – Africa

Fermentis After graduating with a B.Sc in Human Life Sciences at the University of Stellenbosch, Andrew pursued a post-graduate degree in Wine Biotechnology. He has worked at wineries in New Zealand, California and France as well as in the brewing industry, at both large-scale and smaller producers.

Ross Eaton

Barrington Brewery Ross’s lifelong love of craft beer began while (literally) train-surfing to the bars and fledgling taprooms at the heart of the American craft beer revolution; Colorado circa ‘07. From there, equal parts passion and gravity did the rest as he advanced from home brewing to apprenticeship and professional brewing at Brau Bothers Brewing Co in rural Minnesota. After taking off on an enlightening beer-sabbatical across Europe, Ross landed at the famous Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he further honed his brewing skills for years on a state-of-the-art 65 hectoliter system before making the move to South Africa, where in 2019 he became the Brewmaster of Drifter Brewing Company in Cape Town. During the pandemic, Ross became the Brewmaster of Barrington’s Brewery in Plettenberg Bay, where he’s kept the beer flowing ever since. Among the accolades and achievements collected over a decade-long international career, none has been as rewarding as cold pint on a hot day with cool people.

Axel Jany

Weyermann® Axel Jany is an international malting & brewing expert at Weyermann® Specialty Malts in Bamberg, Germany.

As a trained brewer and maltster with a brewmaster degree from VLB Berlin, Axel holds over 35 years of professional brewing experience and he is the link between the Weyermann® distribution partners around the globe, as well as our international customers and the Weyermann® malthouse in Bamberg. Axel and his team offer customer support, such as recipe development as well as malts and brewing advise. As a certified Doemens beer sommelier, he also judges at international beer events.

In his spare time, Axel enjoys the great outdoors with his wife and border terrier Islay and his vintage Land Rovers.

Ralph Bethlem

Duotank Ralph Bethlem, a graduated business innovator, entrepreneur and sales and marketing manager at Duotank. I am responsible for closing new business and manage these projects. Specialized in events and microbreweries.

Patricia Pillay

CEO BASA As CEO of the Beer Association of South Africa, Patricia's key role is to represent the Craft Brewers as well as big brewing companies, SAB ABInbev and Heinekin in the alcohol industry. Her vast legal, advocacy, regulatory experience having served as the Executive for Legal, Regulatory & Sustainability at the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa for the past ten years has adequately prepared her for this role which requires close collaboration and partnerships with government, industry bodies and regulatory agencies in order to represent the interests of the beer industry She is also an Attorney of the High Court of South Africa and a certified part-time commissioner of the CCMA.

Patricia is passionate about empowering woman for the betterment of our society and in her spare time she works with the Home of Hope for Girls, who provide support to girls rescued from Human Trafficking Patricia is also currently completing her MBA with Henley Business School.