The XVI Beer&Craft Drink Forum 2026 in Ternopil brought together more than 120 representatives of the brewing industry, beverage manufacturers, technology companies and engineers. The main topics of the forum were production stability, enterprise modernization, automation and quality control.
Today, the market is increasingly moving away from “point solutions”. Manufacturers are no longer talking about separate brewing equipment, but about a systemic approach to the entire production, from sanitation and oxygen control to product stability after bottling.
Ukrainian craft has become more systemic
During the opening of the forum, co-founders of the “Technologies and Innovations” media group, Kateryna Koneva and Nadiya Yashchuk, recalled how much the market has changed over the past decade.
But along with development, the requirements for the production facilities themselves have also increased. If earlier small breweries often competed through experiments, now the key ones are:
- quality stability;
- product predictability;
- process control;
- production efficiency;
- energy independence;
- adaptation to European standards.
These are the issues that determine the development of production today.
Technologies have ceased to be an “add-on” to production
One of the main directions of the forum was the technological modernization of enterprises. Today, even small producers are increasingly working with:
- automation;
- laboratory control;
- modern filtration systems and membrane filters;
- equipment for stabilizing processes;
- energy solutions;
- optimization of logistics and inventories.
All this shows an important change in the market: producers are working less and less “intuitively” and more and more through controlled technological processes.
Opillia Engineering: production experience as engineering expertise
The participation of Opillia Engineering attracted the special attention of the forum participants. For the company, this was the first experience of direct communication with the brewing community as a manufacturer of technological solutions.
Director of Engineering and Development at Opillia Brewery, Yevgeny Blokhin, emphasized during his speech:
“The stability of the product does not depend on individual equipment, but on the logic of the entire production system – from sanitation and oxygen control to the integration of technological units. That is why we work comprehensively and are based on real production tasks.”
In fact, Opillia Engineering grew within the existing brewery through reconstruction, integration of new equipment, construction of technological logic and optimization of processes.
That is why today the company works not only with individual units of equipment and beer plants, but also with complex production systems:
- capacitive equipment;
- filtration systems;
- degassing and equipment such as deaerators for oxygen control;
- CIP-washing;
- process automation;
- integration of technological units.
This approach is significantly different from the classic beer equipment supply market, where companies often purchase individual solutions without a holistic production architecture.
The industry is moving towards systems thinking
One of the key ideas of the forum is that modern brewing increasingly depends not on a single technology, but on the coordinated operation of the entire system.
This especially applies to product stability. Many participants emphasized that today the quality of beer is determined not only by the recipe, but also:
- sanitation;
- oxygen control;
- process repeatability;
- fermentation stability using a pasteurizer;
- correct equipment integration;
- laboratory control.
That is why the market is starting to move away from “point solutions”. Companies are increasingly modernizing not a separate node, but the entire production logic.
New drinks and a new audience
In parallel with technological changes, the beverage market itself is changing. A separate discussion panel was devoted to new product categories:
- hybrid drinks;
- wellness-directions;
- soft drinks;
- fermented products;
- experimental formats.
Producers are increasingly actively testing new styles, working with wine yeast, developing non-alcoholic lines and looking for new taste concepts.
But even here, the key topic remained the stability of production. The market has already understood: creativity works only when it is backed by a stable technological base.
European requirements and the new market reality
An important part of the forum was devoted to the future adaptation of Ukrainian legislation to EU requirements. Representatives of Ukrpivo and the Association of Independent Breweries of Ukraine spoke about:
- strengthening quality control;
- requirements for product traceability;
- updating the State Standards of Ukraine;
- new regulatory rules;
- the need for industry consolidation.
For many producers, this means the need for a systematic restructuring of internal processes in the coming years.
From theory to practice
A separate part of the forum was a business tour to the Opillya Brewery and the Kovcheg Brewery Restaurant.
For the participants, it was an opportunity to see real modernization of production not in the format of presentations, but directly at the enterprise. The practical component remains one of the main values of the forum. Here they talk not only about technologies, but also show how they work in real production conditions.
A new stage in the development of the brewing industry
The main conclusion of the Beer&Craft Drink Forum 2026 is that the Ukrainian beverage industry is becoming much more systematic, technological and professional.
The market is gradually moving away from the “enthusiastic craft” model and moving towards mature production, where the key factors are:
- stability;
- process control;
- modernization;
- efficiency;
- scalability;
- engineering approach.
And this is what is shaping a new wave of Ukrainian brewing and beverage production today.