Brewers Lectures – Including Beer Tasting
Join us from 11:30-6:30 on Wednesday 26th November in Birmingham’s The Indian Brewery for The Brewer’s Lectures. A live event that provides beer professionals with the opportunity to engage in honest conversations about the state of the brewing industry. The half day lectures give a platform to six speakers to inspire change, generate discussion and share brewing insights and expertise.
Our own celebrated brewer Virginia Casadio will give a talk and run a beer tasting in Birmingham, sharing a little on her own career in brewing and how she has found it joining the Duration fold. Virginia is an integral part of a small but might 4 person production team at Duration responsible for producing 300,000L of beer a year.
Duration is based on a working farm in rural West Norfolk. Virginia deftly operates a semi automated 20hL 3 vessel BrauKon brewkit and Virginia heads up most of our brews with a hands on approach to cellaring and packaging and can often be found in her poly tunnel growing veg and flowers or foraging in the woods.
She loves hosting brewery tours and having busman’s holidays. When not in Norfolk she is usually heading out to beers festivals or travelling the world to visit breweries to try ‘all the tasty beers’!
As well as producing all of our core and seasonal beers, Virginia excels at developing her own elegant and balanced recipes spanning both modern and traditional styles including:
- Sorbetto – Raspberry Gose
- Avalanche – West Coast IPA
- Tmavé Pivo – Czech Dark Lager – award winner 2024
- Nostalgia – Cali Common – award winner 2024
Virginia stepped away from city life at in Bristol at Lost + Grounded Brewers to brew in creative solitude inspired by Norfolk’s rich agricultural landscape and the bounty of the woodlands and farmlands around us. Duration featured in a Brewer’s Journal published article HERE which shares a little about our set up and desire to make beers that belong brewed from nature with purpose.
Duration Tasting Beers
Virginia will not only share her own personal insights a a brewer – she will also provide a tasting through 3 Duration beers. We’ll bring our 4 time award winning flagship Turtles All The Way Down 5.5% IPA to share, plus a newer special release Snapshot a 4.5% Session IPA and a double award winning seasonal release Ebb + Flow our 4.8% American Stout to share.
Virginia Casadio | Duration Brewing
Virginia Casadio brews at Duration Brewing in Norfolk. Duration is an modern farmhouse brewery making beautfully balanced ‘beers that belong’, brewed from nature with purpose. Before joining the business in 2024, she was a Lost + Grounded brewer in Bristol and the head brewer at Newtown Park (also Bristol). Virginia says her gateway beer to becoming a beer enthusiast was a pint of Anchor Steam she tried – when studying in the US, and considers herself a complete lifer travelling to breweries around the world to try ‘all the tasty beers’ Photo: Nathan Neeve
Sam Fraise | Molson Coors
Sam Fraise is an experienced brewer who has worked in large – and small -scale breweries in technical and managerial roles. The winner of the ‘Young Brewer of the Year’ accolade at our Brewers Choice Awards in 2023, Sam is Section Chair at CIBD and Process Lead at Molson Coors Beverage Company where he handles the brewhouse, yeast and fermentation.
Dan Hocking | Bundobust
Dan Hocking is the head brewer at Bundobust in Manchester. Bundobust is an Indian street food & craft beer bar, combining modern Indian sharing spreads with award-winning craft beers from their Bundobust Brewery that Dan heads up. Before joining the business in 2020, he was the head brewer at Uiltje Brewing in Haarlem, Netherlands and prior to that Dan had stints at Alphabet in Manchester and Reuben’s Brews in Seattle, Washington. Photo: Mark Newton Photography
Chris Lewington | Brew Resourceful
Chris Lewington has spent his career working with breweries of all sizes, helping them reduce costs, improve efficiency, and lower carbon emissions. Over the past two years, his company, Brew Resourceful, has worked with leading names in the industry such as Northern Monk, Full Circle, Murphy & Sons, and Vault City to deliver practical, process-based solutions that enhance profitability and sustainability. Chris is also a regular speaker at global brewing industry events, sharing his expertise on decarbonising operations and creating more resource-efficient breweries.
Lotte Peplow |Brewers Association
Lotte Peplow is the Brewers Association’s American Craft Beer Ambassador for Europe. Her role is to identify opportunities for international expansion of American craft beer and to raise awareness about the quality, diversity and innovation from America’s small and independent craft brewers. Based in London, UK she’s a Certified Cicerone, Beer Sommelier, beer writer, author, international beer judge and keen beer and food pairing advocate.
Jay Purewal | The Indian Brewery
Jay Purewal is the head brewer at The Indian Brewery. The business, based in Snowhill, opened its new facility at the end of last year and has helped redefined the Midlands’ beer scene with a fusion of bold Indian street food and craft beer. With the new brewery and taproom, the team forward to contributing to the city centre’s cultural and culinary tapestry for many years to come.
Catherine Webber | Attic Brew Co
Catherine Webber is the Business Development Manager at Attic Brew Co. Based in Birmingham the brewery was born from the desire to see locally brewed beer become more readily available to the people of the city and to help Brum better establish itself as a city of great beer. Catherine left the corporate world behind in 2019 to follow a career in beer and has been at Attic since 2022. Outside of work she runs ladies’ beer group Brum Beer Babs and an annual beer festival Brum Brew Fest.
Jim Wilson | Fermentis by Lesaffre
Jim Wilson is part of the team at Fermentis by Lesaffre. Based in Derbyshire, he has more more than a decade’s experience in the brewing industry as a brewer and head brewer in the craft sector in different breweries. Before moving to brewing he worked as a Mechanical Engineer. Jim is responsible for the management of customers in the UK and Ireland for Beer, Wine, Cider and Distilling managing sales and offering first line technical help and advice to customers.