The day is chaired by Derek Prentice. Derek is currently passing on the knowledge gained during a lifetime in brewing at Truman’s, Young’s and Fuller’s by acting as a tutor. He is also near to opening a new brewing venture in Wimbledon.

Adam Johnson is currently Technical Sales Representative at Murphy and Son where he provides technical and sales support for customers in the south of England, south Wales and Ireland. This includes advising on all aspects of the brewing process and then extensive range of Murphy’s products. He has a brewing degree from Heriot-Watt and began work as a quality technician at Belhaven Brewery before joining St Austell as Quality Brewer where he ran the laboratory and developed the QMS and HACCP systems.

Sophie de Ronde is the Brewing Technologist for Muntons, helping out brewers with recipe and ingredient queries and also has the facilities to brew pilot trials of their ideas. She gained a BSc from Essex University and, a couple of years later became Head Brewer at Brentwood Brewing Company where she spent seven years developing the consistency of the core beers and creating different beer styles and specialities from Fruit Saisons to rich Imperial Stouts.
Ed Wray holds a degree in Microbiology from Imperial College, London and Post Graduate Diploma in Brewing and Distilling from Heriot-Watt University. He joined Campden BRI as Project Brewery Maltster from The Old Dairy Brewery, where he was Head Brewer. During his time The Old Dairy he was responsible for production of a range of regular and seasonal beers and achieved SALSA accreditation. Having joined BRI he runs the pilot brewery and is involved in a wide range of project work for clients.

Andrew Whalley is Technical Sales Advisor at Charles Faram & Co Hop Merchants, advising brewers on hops, recipe formulation, and brewing. He started his brewing career at Lastingham Brewery in North Yorkshire before moving to York Brewery as Head Brewer, to start up the new brewery in 1996 and spent the next 16 years at York before moving into the brewery supply chain with Charles Faram in May 2012. He passed the IOB AME in 1999, and has been travelling to Slovenia and the USA since 2003 buying and assessing hops, discovering different styles of beer and brewing techniques.