Kentucky-based Alltech honored two brewing and distilling pioneers at its first International Craft Brewing and Distilling Convention, held last week in Dublin, Irelnd.

“Both recipients have dedicated their lives to educating and inspiring young brewers and distillers, while being innovative in the industry in their own professional capacity,” Alltech president Perase Lyons said, announcing awards to Graham Stewart and Bill Owens.

Stewart received the outstanding service in brewing and distilling education award. He is professor emeritus in brewing and distilling at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and special professor in bioethanol fermentation at The University of Nottingham, England.

He received his BSc in microbiology and biochemistry from the University of Wales and his PhD and DSc degrees from Bath University. He was the director of the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling at Heriot-Watt University from 1994-2007. He held a number of positions with the Labatt Brewing Company in Canada, serving as technical director from 1986 to 1994. Since retirement, he has established a consulting company – GGStewart Associates, based in Cardiff, Wales, which provides guidance to the alcohol and fermentation industries.

Stewart was president of the Institute of Brewing (now the Institute of Brewing and Distilling, or IBD) in 1999 and 2000. He is a member of the American Society of Brewing Chemists (ASBC) and the Master Brewers Association of the Americas (MBAA). He holds fellowships in the IBD, the Institute of Biology and the American Academy of Microbiology. Stewart has more than 300 publications to his name. Honors include the Horace Brown Medal of the IBD (2009), the Award of Distinction of the ASBC (2008), the Presidential Award of the MBAA (1983, 1998) and its Award of Merit (2009) and the Charles Thom Award of the Society of Industrial Microbiology (1988).

Owens was honored with the lifetime achievement in craft distilling award.

Following a successful career in photography, Owens began brewing beer again in the 1960s. He later left journalism and opened Buffalo Bill’s Brewery in 1983, the first brewpub in California, followed by Brewpub on the Green and The Bison Brewing Company. He also founded and spent two decades as publisher of American Brewer magazine, and later started BEER: The Magazine. In 2002, he founded the American Distilling Institute (ADI) and still serves as its president today. The institute has more than 600 members and hosts an annual conference drawing 900 attendees. It will host its first one-day Craft Distilling Expo in London in the fall of 2013.

The Siebel Institute of Technology has announced the appointment of John Hannafan as Director of Education.

Hannafan, who has assisted more than 20 start-up and established brewing facilities, is a graduate of the World Brewing Academy (WBA), a partnership between Siebel Institute of Technology and Doemens Akademie. Shortly after graduation from the WBA program, he took on the role as a brewing supervisor at City Brewing in La Crosse, Wis.

He has taught as an adjunct professor at Siebel Institute of Technology and has been a judge for professional competitions such as the World Beer Awards. He also has served as a Cicerone Certification Master Program section test grader. A member of Master Brewers Association of the Americas and Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), England, Hannafan is also frequently asked to participate in brewing industry panels.

German brewers say that fracking endangers the purity of their country’s beer.

They have urged Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to block the tapping of shale gas by means of hydraulic fracturing (known as fracking). The Association of German Breweries said current proposals related to fracking are inadequate to protect drinking water.

“We are concerned that fracking endangers the brewing water that more than half of Germany’s breweries take from private wells,” Marc-Oliver Huhnholz, a spokesman for the group, told Bloomburg. “And that it threatens our absolutely pure beer.” The association has sent a letter voicing its concerns to six Cabinet ministers including Environment Minister Peter Altmaier, he said.

Merkel has agreed on draft legislation in her coalition that would outlaw fracking in some areas. It remains unclear whether a law can be passed before the election, Altmaier said.

Germany’s brewers point to what they say is the oldest food-safety regulation in the world to justify their concerns about fracking. The Reinheitsgebot was drafted in April 1516 at the instigation of Duke Wilhelm IV in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt. The law states that only malted barley, hops and water may go into beer, with the later addition of yeast, which had not yet been discovered at the time.

By the time you finish reading this two more breweries will have opened some place in the United States. (That’s only a bit of an exaggeration.)

Those who study The Brewers Association’s Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery by Dick Cantwell will almost surely have a better chance of success. The second edition of the guide has been completely rewritten and covers, among other things:

– Business plans
– Financing
– Quality assurance
– Site selection
– Flooring choices
– Branding
– Raw materials
– Distribution
– Regulatory requirements
– Equipment considerations
– Sustainability practices
– Wastewater

Cantwell is co-founder of Elysian Brewing, which has three pub locations and a production brewery. Cantwell recently talked about the book with Eric Gorski of the Denver Post.