Craft Brewers Powwow | 2020 Speakers

Rob Heyns

Master of ceremonies

League of Beers Rob Heyns founded League of Beers in 2012 as a way to bring crafters and drinkers of quality beer closer together. Since then, and after joining forces with Yuppiechef in 2013, League of Beers has shared the stories and flavours of craft with over 200 000 foodies and beer fans across South Africa.

Stefan Wiswedel

Little Wolf Brewery Born and raised in Cape Town, trained as a botanist, passionate about nature, and inspired by great beer. As the founder of Little Wolf Brewery, my dream is to create complex, previously unknown drinks for South Africans to enjoy.

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.

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.

Heine du Toit

Okavango Brewing Co. 4 years ago Heine – a Food Science professional - was presented with two small bags of sorghum and millet from Botswana. The clients, wildlife biologists and now business partner's all loved beer and it was unanimously agreed that beer should indeed be the end result of this venture. So they started experimenting... The initial results were disastrous! 4 years down the line they just opened a brewpub brewery and DIY micro malting operation in the Okavango Delta in Maun with the mission to empower local farmers to practise conservation friendly agriculture supplying them with millet.

Graham McCulloch

Okavango Brewing Co. Dr Graham McCulloch is a wildlife ecologist who has spent the past 26 years in Botswana conducting research and working in conservation science and wildlife management. Graham embarked on a PhD to understand the ecology and biodiversity of the Makgadikgadi salt pans wetland system. Gaining a PhD led to a career as an ecological and biodiversity consultant and co-founded a new community owned game reserve outside Francistown; called Tachila Nature Reserve. In 2007, he established a consulting company: EcoStars (Pty) Ltd. & has since been involved in various community area and protected area management plans, at local, national and regional levels.

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.

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.

Michael Jordan

Boxing Cat Brewery Michael is originally from the Pacific Northwest in the USA. He has a B.S. in Life Sciences from the University of Portland. Michael began homebrewing in 1993 & made the jump to professional brewing in 1995. He has worked for many different breweries in Portland including a Lead Brewer position with Widmer Brothers Brewing. In 2008 he ventured away from Oregon to work in Denmark as Brewmaster with Bryggeriet S.C. Fuglsang. Michael moved to Shanghai in October 2010 to work for Boxing Cat Brewery. Michael is an IBD Diploma Brewer and active participant in China craft beer circles.

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.

Maria Skalli

Yakima Chief Hops Maria is the New Distributor Accounts Manager at Yakima Chief Hops. Yakima Chief Hops is a 100% grower-owned global supplier of premium quality hops and uncompromising service. Located in Scotland, Maria covers Europe and Africa and works to connect brewers and Yakima Chief Hops products with the help of their various distribution partners. Maria has previous 5 years’ experience in the Malt Extract industry.

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.

Axel Jany

Weyermann® Axel Jany is the team leader of the International Customer Consultants at Weyermann® Specialty Malts in Bamberg, Germany. As a trained brewer and maltster with a brewmaster degree from VLB Berlin, Axel has over 33 years of professional brewing experience. He is the technical link between brewers and distribution partners around the globe & the famous malthouse in Bamberg. Axel and his team offer customer support, finding the right Weyermann® specialty malts, recipe development as well as giving brewing advise. As a certified Doemens beer sommelier, he also judges at international beer events.

Doug Odell

Odell Brewing Company Doug is Co-Founder of Odell Brewing Company, Colorado, USA. Homebrewer since 1975, Doug knew he loved everything about beer. He began as an ‘all-around man’ at Anchor Steam Brewery in San Francisco in the late 1970’s and then attended brewing science classes at U.C Davis in 1988. Doug has helped guide Odell Brewing Company to its current 125,000 barrel annual production. Odell Brewing beers are available in 19 Rocky Mountain & Western Plains states as well as Ireland. Doug’s professional commitments include being the Past President of both District Rocky Mountain Master Brewer’s Association and the Colorado Brewers Guild. He is also an International beer judge.

Christopher Rothmann

LiquidCulture Christopher has a M.Sc. in Mycology/Biotechnology & is currently completing his Ph.D. in Food Biotechnology, specializing in mycology. Having started brewing at a young age, the growing passion for fermentation sciences has led to the start of their own brewery (Kraft Brewing Co.) in Bloemfontein, formally established in 2017. Christopher is the CEO and co-founder of LiquidCulture Yeast Laboratories established in 2018 & located at the University of the Free State, providing liquid yeast propagation & fermentation consultation for home-brewers & commercial breweries & is committed to the Craft Brewing community & actively involved in festivals, indabas etc.

Shawn Duthie

Facilitator

African Beer Cup Shawn is the Co-founder and Competition Director of the African Beer Cup Awards. He is also the owner of Dissident Brewing Company in Cape Town. Brewer & former president of the Southyeasters Homebrewers Club, Shawn judged his first competition in 2009 in South Korea. He has been instrumental in setting up BJCP competitions and judging exams in Cape Town.

Ross Eaton

Drifter Brewing Company Ross is an American craft brewer who now calls Cape Town home as the head brewer of Drifter Brewing Company. His seven years of professional experience range from small to large scale operations, including an emphasis on quality control. Believing that the collective quality, consistency and longevity of craft beer in South Africa will serve to elevate the industry as a whole, Ross has developed a successful DIY method for the early detection of beer spoilage bacteria that he is excited to share.