Best-in-class speakers and panellists from the world of brewing and beyond will be taking part in the 2023 Brewers Congress in London this October 18th and 19th.

Expect talks and discussions on subjects as diverse as building company culture, quality control, brand creation, ingredients, sustainability, business resilience, the future of craft, barrel-ageing, alcohol duty, cask beer and much, much more…

So without further ado, let’s meet the speakers and panellists confirmed so far!

Basil Lee: Basil Lee, co-founder of Finback Brewery located in New York City, is passionate about creativity in beer. The brewery embarked on a project of brewing exceptional beers through iteration and rotation deploying a variety of hops, ingredients, and techniques as a creative journey in bringing unique beers to the consumer. With a previous career in design, Basil brought strong training in process and collaboration in building Finback as an engaging beer experience.

Emma Reynolds: Emma Reynolds started Tonkotsu in 2011 as a series of pop-ups with Ken Yamada, her friend and business partner. The first Tonkotsu restaurant opened on Dean Street in Soho in 2012. They ran some beautiful but unsuccessful sushi and katsu places before Tonkotsu and learned a few lessons the hard way. Tonkotsu has since grown to 17 restaurants – 15 in London, with Brighton and Birmingham also – and 280 staff over the last 11 years.

Rob Lovatt: Rob Lovatt is the head brewer and production director at Thornbridge. One of the UK’s most respected brewers, he has helped establish the Bakewell-based brewery as an outfit known for quality and consistency in equal measure. Lovatt is also responsible for a wealth of leading collaborations such as Serpent with Brooklyn Brewery and more recently, Czech Mates with Budweiser Budvar.

Gaïa Freytag: Gaïa Freytag is the Quality Manager at Beavertown Brewery, where she is responsible for quality control and assurance while also contributing to new product development and innovation. With an academic background in Food Science, Gaïa holds a Master’s degree acquired between Italy and Belgium, and has worked in the Brewing industry for the last 7 years.

Paul Davies: On his journeys Paul Davies has amassed a huge amount of knowledge of the country’s bars and breweries, and built up a network of contacts with the key people involved in Belgian’s vibrant beer scene. A resident of London for over 35 years he have developed an in-depth knowledge of the capital’s most iconic pubs and bars. More recently he have spent the past 10 years exploring the most innovative and exciting craft breweries in the city. In a previous life, he was a member of the Quality team at Fuller’s, London’s oldest brewery. He also delivered brewery tours at its Griffin Brewery in Chiswick, welcoming visitors from the UK and overseas. He has hosted tutored beer tastings for many years, and has a thorough knowledge of beer – from grain to glass.

Janos De Baets: Janos De Baets is the co-founder and head brewer of Dok Brewing Company in Gent, Belgium. Dok has brewed in its 5 years of existence more different beer styles than any other brewery in the history of Belgium. Varying from very ancient, almost forgotten styles to modern experimental craft beer. At the age of 33 he developed more recipes and beers than most brewers do in their entire career. While most brewers specialize in particular styles his aim is to see beer as a medium to translate flavors, history and food processing techniques in liquid form.

Stephanie Brindley: Stephanie Brindley is a brewing scientist with over 10 years of experience in the industry and is passionate about the science, creativity, and social aspects of beer. Her unique perspective on the brewing industry comes from her background in research, where she studied the nutritional requirements and phenotypic properties of brewing yeast gaining both a Masters and PhD from the University of Nottingham. She also from worked as a brewer at Round Corner in Melton Mowbray before gaining her current role as a Technical Representative at Murphy and Son. So if you’re after brewing tech know-how, she’s a go-to source.

Melissa Cole: Melissa Cole’s passion is life is getting people to learn as little, or as much, as they want about what she considers the finest social lubricant known to humankind – beer. Respected the world over for her fine palate, she is invited to judge at competitions in New Zealand, the US and Brazil, as well as closer to home in the UK and across Europe. Contributing editor to The Brewers Journal, her other passion is food and she is recognised as probably the UK’s leading expert in pairing, and cooking with, beer having spent years dedicated to figuring out which beers work in which dishes and why.

Des de Moor: Des de Moor is one of the UK’s top beer experts, the author of award-winning guidebook London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars, a regular writer for CAMRA’s BEER magazine and a contributor to numerous other magazines, books and websites. He’s an Accredited Beer Sommelier, a busy beer and brewery tour guide and tutored tasting host and a sought-after beer judge in both Britain and abroad.

Georgina Young: Georgina Young is a brewing director, overseeing brewing and operations at St Austell Brewery and Bath Ales. She joined the company in May 2019 – leaving her leading role at Fuller’s to become Bath Ales’ head brewer. After graduating from Heriot Watt University, with an MSc in Brewing and Distilling, Young started her brewing career at Smiles Brewery in Bristol, working alongside Richard Dempster – one of the founders of Bath Ales. She went on to run the pilot brewery at Camden BRI before joining Fuller’s as a production brewer in 1999, where she served in roles across all aspects of production. She ascended to the role of Head Brewer in 2017 – the first female at Fuller’s to take on the role – and is a Master Brewer of the Institute of Brewing and Distilling.

Jim Wilson: Jim Wilson represents Fermentis in the UK. He is involved in sales, business development and technical support for alcoholic beverage producers (beer, spirits, wine, specialty beverages) including (global) trade shows, seminars, webinars & conferences, budgeting and initiation of R&D projects. Fermentis works with everyone in the world of beer, wine, spirits and other fermented beverages. Their mission is to create & deliver innovative and reliable ferments & derivatives for all kind of beverages.

Amber Thorne: Having started her career in beer in the sales team at Siren Craft Brew, she has since moved to the iconic Bristol beer scene working with Good Chemistry and is now the Customer Account Manager at Arbor Ales. As well as, spending time at non-alcoholic lager brand, Lucky Saint.

Roman Jove: Roman founded Cervecera Peninsula in 2017 in Madrid Spain, with the idea to share the beers they love and enjoy what they do everyday. It all started when his family moved to Fort Collins Colorado (USA) and his Dad started homebrewing with the neighbours, and as a young boy he got to see first hand how beer made people come together an have fun as a community.Years after getting his industrial engineering degree he decided that he wanted to brew beer and share it with friends, so he started homebrewing with my Dad’s old kit, after a couple of years going at it he finally decided that brewing was what he wanted to do in life so he went to the UC Davis (California) brewing program where he got my brewing education and learned a lot about brewing culture. From there it was all about where to start a brewery and they are happy they found an incredible home in Madrid, starting by its people and the great culture surrounding casual eating and drinking in any occasion accompanied by great brewing water and a young beer community that we are all helping shape has made this past six years amazing. 

Todd Isbell: Todd Isbell has a BS in civil and environmental engineering from Clarkson University and is a graduate of the United States Army Chemical School. He graduated from the University of California at Davis Master Brewer program and recently received a Master of Research from the University of Nottingham studying Kveik yeast metabolism. He has been a professional brewer for twenty years in the United States, has taught fermentation sciences at Rockingham Community College for five years, and was the founding technical chair for the Master Brewers Association of the Americas Carolinas district. He is currently the Senior Brewing Technician at the University of Nottingham and International Centre for Brewing Science.

John Keeling: John started his career in brewing as a laboratory technician for Wilson’s Brewery in Newton Heath, Manchester in 1974. Three years later he left to study for a degree in Brewing and Distilling at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and in 1981 her headed south to join Fuller’s as a Junior Brewer. During his time in West London, he held various positions culminating in his promotion to Brewing Director in April 1999. Now retired, he predictably remains in demand across the globe judging competitions, delivering talks and hosting beer tastings.

Verity Phillips: Verity is the Media Lead at Asahi UK, working across a portfolio of premium brands including Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Asahi Super Dry, London Pride and Cornish Orchards, to name a few. Verity is responsible for the Media strategy within the Marketing team: anything from social media to radio to TV. Verity has helped the Asahi brands reach a broader lager drinking audience in the UK whilst maintaining their premium position in the category.

Alex Lippens: Alex Lippens is the co-founder of Brouwerij ‘t Verzet based in Anzegem, Belgium.  Known foremost for their devotion to Oud Bruin, the team also produce a range of blonds, porters, IPAs and anything they find interesting. Their thirst for experimentation has also taken the Oud Bruin style to another level.

Chris Smith: As brand ambassador for one of the biggest Whiskey Distilleries in the World, Chris has spent the past 6 months living, breathing, and educating people about Bourbon, Rye, and Corn Whiskey. Using his knowledge, built up over a decade of experience at infamous Live-music and whiskey lounge, The Lexington, and three years working in Craft Beer, he moved to the other side of the bar in early 2023 to share his passion for American Spirits all over the UK.

Tanya Kondratyuk: Tanya Kondratyuk is the Quality Manager at Northern Monk Brewery in Leeds. She started her career in the industry working in quality control, sensory analysis, and the bourbon barrel aging program at Goose Island Brewery, based in Chicago, IL. Her experience is rooted in microbiological & analytical fermentation analysis, yeast propagation, bourbon & sour barrel sensory and blending work for brands such as Bourbon County Stout variants, Sophie, Juliet, etc., recipe creation, as well as research & development. In the last 2 years at Monk she designed and supervised the build-out of the new QC laboratory, launched the current analytical and microbiological sampling programs, yeast propagation plan, sensory panels, barrel aging program, as well as taking a part in production planning and recipe development. 

Michael Knoth: After completing his Master Brewer education at Weihenstephan and the Scandinavian School of Brewing, he immersed himself in the brewing industry. His journey began at Carlsberg, Denmark, during the early days of craft brewing. Fueled by his passion, he ventured to establish his own craft brewery, GourmetBryggeriet, which swiftly became listed on the Danish stock exchange. After five successful years, he embarked on a new path, working as a brewery consultant for both large and small brewers. In recent years, he has served as the Global Production Manager at Mikkeller, followed by an exciting five-year tenure as the Brewery Manager at To Øl. At To Øl, he spearheaded the construction of a state-of-the-art brewery. In June 2023, he returned to his consultancy role at Craft Brewing Consult, with a track record of aiding nearly 20 brewers in establishing a craft brewery and assisting numerous others in expansion and optimization endeavours.

Alice Batham: Alice Batham is the head brewer at Bathams, the revered brewery based in Brierley Hill, England. Formerly a brewer at Brewsters and Thornbridge, Alice is the first female head brewer at The West Midlands business, which was established in 1877. Alongside her sister Claire, they are leading the Black Country brewery into its next stage.

Colin Stronge: Colin Stronge has been at the centre of the UK beer scene for nearly quarter of a decade. The winner of our ‘Brewer of the Year’ accolade in 2022 has invented beer styles, lighting the way for new breweries, dishing out advice, support and encouragement to new and existing brewers as well as being an excellent all-around brewer.

Luca Lorenzoni: Luca has spent the last six years as CEO of two of the UK’s fastest growing craft breweries: Camden Town Brewery, and most recently Northern Monk. Prior to his time in the UK, Luca spent 10 years at AB InBev working in the Canadian, European and Global Businesses across Production and Commercial roles. Having started his career at the largest brewery in the world and ending at what was a 12khL brewery in Leeds has given Luca a perspective on how to succeed and fail in both large and small breweries, as well as both highly saturated and very high growth markets. Now, he’s taking the learnings from those experiences to help craft breweries evolve within the saturating market we now find ourselves in.

Jessica Maye: Jessica is the SHE Compliance Manager at Beavertown Brewery. She took a winding path to this role, previously a practicing Pharmacist, then a molecular biology PhD candidate, and, prior to Beavertown, a lab technician and Quality & Compliance Manager at Fourpure Brewing Company. Jessica manages Food Safety, Health & Safety and Environment & Sustainability across the brewery’s sites and is passionate about making a positive impact through cross-functional engagement and ever evolving systems.

James Heffron: James Heffron is the co-founder and head brewer at Verdant Brewing Co of Penryn, Cornwall.  James is fanatical about flavour and how to successfully deliver it to the consumer.  In his own words, he’s never satisfied, always searching for improvement…and always searching for more flavour. Along with his team, Heffron has ensured that Verdant are one of the UK’s most regarded breweries.

Barry Watts: Barry Watts is Head of Policy and Public Affairs for the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) which represents the UK’s small and independent breweries. He is a former brewer with more than a decade’s worth of experience in lobbying and public affairs.

Hayley Pearce: Hayley Pearce is a brewer at Siren Craft Brew in Wokingham.  Originally from the north of England, Hayley headed south in 2008 to study Biochemistry at Imperial College London. In 2012 she joined Fuller’s Graduate Programme and it soon became clear that her future lay in the brewhouse. Progressing from junior brewer to shift brewer and now with an IBD Diploma in her pocket Hayley was ready for a new challenge.  She helped to commission and run the Pilot Brewery at Fuller’s until, in 2021, she was drawn by the song of the Siren where she continues to spread her infectious enthusiasm.

Mauritz Borg: Mauritz Borg is a pillar of the capital’s beer scene. He has worked in beer-focused bars in London for the last 10 years including The Draft house, The Kings Arms and The Axe, part of the Graceland group of bars, before reopening The Kernel Brewery Taproom in 2019 where he currently resides.