PRESENTATION CONFERENCE PROJECT BE^2R
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On March 12th at 5:00 PM, the Presentation Conference of the BE^2R project will be held on the Zoom platform (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88495744005). This project is funded under the PSR Puglia 2014-2020 - SM 16.2 "Support for pilot projects and the development of new products, practices, processes, and technologies," for an amount of €392,419.28.
The project aims to promote the development of Puglian agricultural beer production by seizing the growth opportunities available in this market. Therefore, the project will work on creating a protocol for agricultural beer production with a strong territorial identity by using traditional Puglian cereals (such as hops produced by local hop growers, yeasts self-produced on farms) and processes suitable for niche productions with high quality.
Background: The Puglia region boasts over 40 artisanal breweries and approximately 25 beer firms, ranking among the most flourishing in Italy for beer production. These breweries draw inspiration from internationally recognized styles but reinterpret them in a personalized manner by increasingly skilled master brewers who perceive the need to rely on raw materials destined for mass production or, alternatively, on niche raw materials generally available only from foreign suppliers. In this perspective, several producers have inaugurated a new trend, characterized by giving their artisanal beers a territorial imprint through the addition of minor ingredients (in quantity), such as, for example, oranges from Gargano or aromatic herbs typically used in regional cuisine. In this trend, the members of the G.O. believe that the quality leap capable of consecrating Puglian production could be represented by the creation of beers whose characteristics reflect the geographical environment and its intrinsic natural and human factors, as the raw materials are mainly obtained from specific areas of the region. This implies that, in addition to water, which is also the predominant ingredient strongly characterizing the sensory quality of beer, it becomes appropriate to use other ingredients that can be: typical of the territory (as in the case of cereals traditionally cultivated locally); not native to the territory but obtained by adapting cultivation to the specific pedoclimatic environment (as in the case of hops); generally purchased in standardized form but possible to be self-produced on farms (as in the case of yeasts).
The BE^2R Project: The partnership of the BE^2R project is working systematically at all levels of the production chain: from the recovery of ancient cereal varieties to the development of protocols for malt and agricultural beer production and up to the recovery of by-products. The production protocols will be developed by the research bodies involved, both with reference to field activities and as regards transformation processes. Adaptation and testing will be carried out by the involved agricultural companies and the agricultural brewery, and consequently, the developed protocols will be immediately operational in the companies that wish to adopt them.
Specifically, the innovative elements will be represented by:
- Protocols for cereal production of ancient grains in two Puglian areas;
- Protocols for hop production in a Puglian area;
- Protocols for self-production and maintenance of yeasts suitable for brewing;
- Brewing process protocols;
- Recovery of draff for the production of functional bakery products.
The project partners form an Operational Group of the PEI AGRI, a cooperation model based on the "interactive innovation model" that involves collaboration among various actors to make the best use of different complementary types of knowledge, with the main objective being the co-creation and dissemination of solutions/opportunities ready to be implemented in practice.
The BE^2R Operational Group is composed of important figures: from the Brewing sector (Birra Salento Società semplice agricola, as the lead partner; Officine Birrai; Soc. Coop. Agricola Valle Verde; Solimando Giuseppe; Birra Salento Srl); from the Research world (University of Foggia, Council for Agricultural Research and Agricultural Economics Analysis, National Research Council), consulting companies that have been promoting and evaluating innovations in the agri-food sector for years (Alimenta Srl, Aretè Srl, Cassandro Srl); from Dare Puglia (Agri-food Technological District) and from the Italian Farmers Confederation.
During this first meeting, the scientific manager of Unifg, Professor Antonietta Baiano, supported by the representatives of the other partner companies of the O.G., will illustrate the objectives and the initial results of the project.
