We are District Venezuela. Over 60 years accompanying the MBAA, with a fascinating history. Brewing beer in the Caribbean tropics represents great challenges we have learned from and with this being able to make valuable contributions to the quality and freshness of our great beers and the beers of the world.
Venezuela is a country with a great beer culture with one of the highest per capita consumption in America.
#DistrictVZLA #TropicalBrewing #MBAAVenezuela
The Association of Master Brewers of the Americas District Venezuela was established in January 1, 1958. One of the promoters of the foundation were the Master Brewers Eugenio Gebauer and Carlos Roubicek, who later served as president and vice president of the first board. 26 members participated in its constitution. These are the Brewmasters (in alphabetical order) of the following breweries:
- Cervecera Nacional, Caracas: Eugenio Gebauer y Hans Gegg
- Cervecería Caracas, Caracas: Ulrich Dion, Ernst Lerch, Josef Lubkowitz y Hans Mueller
- Cervecería La Llanera, Maracay: Wolfgang Jetter
- Cervecería Los Andes, Palmira (Edo. Táchira): Heinz Rebling y
- Cervecería Heineken, Caracas: Daniel Erich, Heinrich Musiol y Frank Steeneken
- Cervecería Polar, Caracas: Hans Kulzer, Carlos Roubicek, Edgar Scheller, Christian Sponsel y Gerhard Wittl
- Cervecería Polar de Oriente, Barcelona: Richard v. Puttkammer, Willy Rupprecht y Federico Strass
- Cervecería Unión, Caracas: Hermann Zabler
- Cervecería Venezolana de Maiquetía, Maiquetía: Konrad Bischoff y Baltasar Fassrainer
- Cervecería Zulia, Maracaibo: Georg Baumgartner, Wolfgang Guggenberger, Heinz Kaden y Hanns Obermeier
The first board was constituted as follows:
- President: Eugenio Gebauer (Cervecería Nacional)
- Vice-president: Carlos Roubicek (Cervecería Polar)
- Secretary: Ernst Lerch (Cervecería Caracas)
- Treasurer: Daniel Erich (Cervecería Heineken)
- Auditor: Edgar Scheller (Cervecería Polar)
Our Caribbean has hosted two conventions with international technical presenters and participants from all over the continent:
The first was in Caracas, June 1962 with a total attendance of 130 people, including six brewers from Colombia, one from Panama, and 21 from the US. There were technical talks by Leonard Saletan, Dr. Joern Olshausen, and Bob Gross. from Wallerstein, Siebel's and Schwarz respectively, and representatives from Great Lakes Carbon Corp. (Dicalite), who contributed four talks on filtration. Our colleague from Cervecería Unión Ernst Lerch with an interesting practice-oriented intervention complemented these.
Bernie Erf; Publisher of The Brewers Digest magazine for the US brewing industry featured extensive coverage of the convention in its August 1962 issue.
In the historic year 1974, the second international convention was held in Caracas, where Georg Marx from Cervecería Polar presented a paper on the evaluation of the performance of bottle washers with the novelty of using dirty bottles as an inspection pattern.
A memorable excursion was organized to the Avensa camp in Canaíma, with a low-flying flight over Angel Falls. Guests slept to the thunderous noise of the Canaima Waterfall, there were also local excursions to Owens-Illinois, the El Palmar sugar factory and the Ron Santa Teresa facilities.
Today conventions and meetings are more modest, with a work schedule, beer talks, excursions and of course sharing good beer and food cannot be missed. Generally on a date close to Brewer's Day, making visits to breweries in our country. Our last Distric Meeting took place in Carabobo, where the District Officer among with some former district member discuss Venezuelan beer industry forecast and then shared some beers.
Presidentes 1958-2025 MBAA VZLA
