Centre profile

Details

The Italian Brewing Research Centre (CERB - Centro di Eccellenza per la Ricerca sulla Birra) is the first independent research institute on beer in Italy. CERB was established in 2003, as a result of a bilateral agreement between the University of Perugia and ASSOBIRRA (The Italian Brewers Association), to reach common aims in the different activities of the beer sector.

All the pilot plants and equipment were financed by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of University and Research due to their special interest in the creation of this centre for research into brewing science. Research activity into brewing science started in Perugia before 2003, specifically in 1998, when the Food Science Department of the University of Perugia was involved in a project (financed by the Italian Ministry of University and Research) on the nutritional and technological aspects of fermented beverages, particularly beer. The project was developed with ASSOBIRRA. The results demonstrated the remarkable scientific qualification in the sector, and the high reliability of reaching the fixed goals provided the necessity for the realisation of the first and only public Brewing Research Centre in Italy.

The working group of the Centre comprises food technologists, agronomists, chemists, engineers and technical staff. CERB wants to be a "meeting place" for research in the field of the production, development and quality certification of beer to safeguard the consumers and the product. As reported in the Quality Policy of the CERB, according to the ISO 9001:2015 regulation about the "Quality System Management", the Centre has been identified as research, training and analysis of the main processes in the production of beer.

These processes include:

1) Research and testing of the raw materials from the agro-food sector, with the attention to the brewing raw materials and beer;

2) Research activities concerning the brewing process and the quality assessment (nutritional, health, and sensory and commodity) of beer;

3) Implementation of analytical methods (chemical and biological) for the evaluation of raw materials, semi and final products of the beer industry;

4) Consultancy activities for the brewing industries and laboratories;

5) Training activities for university students, microbreweries and brewing industry personnel;

6) Dissemination of scientific results. Research at CERB can be conducted in two ways: initiated by the Centre itself of by commission.

In the first, CERB can initiate studies on topics relating to the beer production chain, such as traceability and quality control of the raw material. The second, CERB may develop projects that have been requested by the brewing industry, such ad improvements to the final product. The Centre has fully equipped chemistry labs that are able to offer the entire range of EBC analyses, in compliance with the ISO/IEC 17025:2018 and following the guidelines of the national body for accreditation, ACCREDIA (The Italian Accreditation System). ACCREDIA is the unique national accreditation body of Italy.

Accreditation guarantees that reports on testing, inspection and certifications - of systems, products or personnel - carrying the ACCREDIA mark are in line with the most stringent international requirements of evaluation, including constant and rigorous surveillance of the activities of the accredited laboratories and bodies.

To constantly monitor and improve the quality of the measurements, evaluating methods ad instrumentation, CERB periodically takes part in several international proficiency tests: Malt Analytes Proficiency Testing Scheme (MAPS) and Brewing Analytes Proficiency Scheme (BAPS) (LGC Standard Proficiency Testing, Lancashire, UK), Gritz corn proficiency test (IFBM, Nancy, FR), and Beer and distilled beverage (AG. DOGANE, Roma, IT).

The Centre is also equipped with a micro-malting plant (including the steeping/germination and killing unit), and a 110 L pilot brewery. The brewery is completely automated, has five separate fermentation vessels in a flexible fermentation system and can be adapted to decoction or infusion mashing, lautering or mash filtration. The plant has both a semi-industrial isobaric bottle filler and a full-system on keg filler unit. The facilities and expertise at CERB provide more than just technical support to brewers. As was expected, a large and very important new field of activity for CERB is as a consultancy for the microbreweries. The Centre also has developed a research programme for students, a Master in Brewing Technologies.

Organization