Is beer, and its flavor, directly influenced by the brewer, their technique, the ingredients and the equipment they use? Or is the end result of the brewing process fundamentally deeper than that, allowing beers to showcase true sense of place based on both agricultural and environmental factors – or as it’s known in wine terminology terroir…

In a recent essay for Pellicle, the online magazine he co-owns and edits, writer Matthew Curtis posited that beer cannot possibly possess terroir. This resulted in several days of heated, but largely friendly discussion, about whether or not beer can indeed be greater than the sum of its parts. In this panel discussion, Matthew will host a panel of experts, including beer writer Stan Hieronymus, Chris Schooley of Troubadour Maltings in Fort Collins, Colorado, and Charlotte Cook, head brewer at London’s Coalition Brewing.

Can beer really possess terroir? Should we even be using a term that is so heavily entrenched within wine culture? Join us for what we expect to be a lively, open discussion that helps shed light on what has become one of 2023’s most heavily debated topics within beer.

Charlotte Cook is a brewer with a decade of experience in the craft brewing world, working at breweries as diverse as Pohala, Truman’s, BrewDog and Cloudwater. Today she is head brewer at Coalition Brewing in South London, and very happy to be back in the nitty gritty of brewing. In addition to this Charlotte has also been awarded a MSc. in Brewing Science at The University of Nottingham, with a dissertation specializing in the sustainability of modern hopping regimes and usage.

Matthew Curtis is a writer and photographer based in Manchester, England, who has been writing about beer, pubs and their culture for over a decade. He writes regularly for several publications including BEER, What’s Brewing and Ferment Magazine, and is the author of three books including Modern British Beer, and Manchester’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars, the latter of which is due for release in October 2023. In 2019 he co-founded Pellicle Magazine with friend and brewer Jonny Hamilton. He is as deeply enamored with a glass of fresh West Coast IPA as he is with a good pint of cask Bitter.

Stan Hieronymus is a lifelong journalist who has made beer his beat for more than 30 years. Former editor at RealBeer.com and ProBrewer.com and former co-travel editor for All About Beer magazine, he remains an enthusiastic traveler, happily sharing what he learns along the way. He is the author of eight books – the best sellers are For the Love of Hops: The Practical Guide to Aroma, Bitterness and the Culture of Hops and Brew like a Monk (2005) – and has contributed to many more. He’s also written hundreds of articles for multiple publications and blogs at www.appellationbeer.com.

Christopher Schooley founded Troubadour Maltings in Fort Collins with Steve Clark in 2013 after an 18 year career in specialty coffee. Working primarily in the roasting and importing sectors of that industry, he developed a passion for production and raw materials; learning about and visiting where they came from, why that's important, and then in sharing those stories and how they impacted the quality not just of the product, but of everyone and everything involved in the product. Schooley also served on the Roasters Guild Executive Council and worked for the Specialty Coffee Association in Sensory Experience Design where he helped develop classes and events around production and sensory analysis as well as designing and producing the pop-up coffee service for the 2013 TED and TEDActive conferences. After a number of collaborations with the craft beer and craft spirits industry, Schooley and Clark saw a unique opportunity to create something special in that particular supply chain and to tie everyone in it together in a meaningful and invigorating way. The Troubadour mission from day one has been to produce unique character driven malts that inspire creativity in those who use them. Troubadour has been in full production since April 2015 and works with breweries, distilleries and bakers all over Colorado and throughout the country.