Kitchens — chefs & food makers
Cocheche, garum, chili crisp — a pantry that's been fermenting for ten thousand years, re-read by the people cooking with it now.
Chef talksLive demos
✳ Edition 04 — The Fermentation Summit
BRINE '26 — open the lid.
Three days where chefs, founders, and food scientists work side by side on the oldest biotechnology on Earth — live demos, the hard science, and the business of bubbles.
Oct 08–10, 2026 ✳ PDX Foundry, Portland, Oregon
450 seats38 sessions12 live demos1 very long tasting
Admit one ✳ Early bird
−$75
BRINE '26
- Date
- Oct 08–10, 2026
- Venue
- PDX Foundry, Portland
- Access
- Full, from $324
Doors open in
00Days
00Hrs
00Min
00Sec
Early-bird seats312 / 450
BRN26·PDX·004
01 — Who it's for
Serious about the bubble.
BRINE pulls together the people who work with living cultures every day — from a home crock to a 10,000-gallon tank. Roughly a third of every edition is chefs, a third founders, a third scientists. No vendor hall. No fluff.
450
Attendees
38
Sessions
12
Live demos
03
Days
Science — fermentation biology
What's actually happening in the crock: pH, salinity, phages, and the microbiology behind a clean, repeatable ferment. Assumed background: zero.
Lab talksOpen Q&A
Business — founders & operators
Scaling a culture without killing it — unit economics, QC, shelf life, and the unglamorous path from garage to grocery.
PanelsPitch hour
Beverage — brewers & bottlers
Kombucha, kefir, hoppy sake, and the fizzy, sour, funky edge of the drink world — tasted, not just talked about.
Tasting flightsBottling demo
02 — On stage
The people who make it fizz.
38 sessions · 4 tracks · 1 keynote stage
Keynote ✳ Fri 09:30
Dr. Mara Lindqvist
Fermentation biologist · Nordic Food Lab, Copenhagen
"The ten-thousand-year-old engine — why every kitchen is a bioreactor, and what that means for the next decade of food."
Main Hall · 90 minutes · no slides, one crock
Tomás Rivera
Chef-patron · Casa de Sal, CDMX
"Cocheche, garum & the new Mexican pantry"
Priya Raghavan
Founder · Wild Tank, San Francisco
"Scaling kombucha without killing the culture"
Kenji Watanabe
Master brewer · Hoppo Sake, Osaka
"Sake, miso & the shared vat"
Dr. Amara Diallo
Food microbiologist · Wageningen Univ.
"Clean label, dirty truth: what cultures actually do"
Sofia Marchetti
CEO · Crock & Co., Milan
"From garage to grocery: building a $40M miso company"
Jules Baptiste
Chef-pâtissier · Maison Levain, Paris
"Brettanomyces & the bakery as bioreactor"
"The Saturday long-table lunch alone is worth the ticket. I've been back three years, and I'm buying one for my sous chef next."
— Chef Dana Whitfield · 2025 attendee, repeat offender
03 — Program
Three days, four tracks.
All times PT · Main Hall, Tank Room, Lab & Demo Pit
Day 01 — First pour. The keynote, the science, and a very long lunch.
-
08:00
Lobby Check-in
Registration, coffee & first pour
Doors, badges, jostle
-
09:30
Main Hall Keynote
Keynote: The ten-thousand-year-old engine
Dr. Mara Lindqvist
-
11:00
Tank Room Talk
Sake, miso & the shared vat
Kenji Watanabe
-
13:00
Hall Meal
The long table: an all-fermented tasting menu
Eight courses, one table
-
14:30
Demo Pit Demo
Live demo: building a 1,000L kraut press
Wild Tank crew
-
16:00
Lab Science
Phages, pH & repeatable ferments
Dr. Amara Diallo
-
18:00
Main Hall Social
Opening night: garum & grape
Bring a story, leave with a contact
PDX Foundry
Est. 1911 · ex-fish cannery
04 — Venue
An old fish house, a new bioreactor.
214 NW Flanders St · Portland, OR 97209
A 1911 cannery on the Willamette, now three halls of exposed brick, a working demo pit, and a tasting room that smells faintly of sauerkraut. Yes, that's intentional. The old smoking racks now hold kombucha.
Fly
PDX is 12 minutes away. We run a free shuttle from the terminal all three days.
Transit
B-street MAX is two blocks. Bike valet at the door — 400 spots.
Stay
Partner rates at The Nines & the Heathman. Code BRINE26 for 15% off.
05 — Tickets
Pick your access.
Early-bird ends Aug 31, 2026 — save $75. 312 of 450 seats already claimed.
Day pass
$199
After Aug 31: $274
- ✳ Saturday only, 09:00–19:00
- ✳ All 12 Saturday sessions
- ✳ One live-demo slot
- ✳ Tasting room access
Most popular ✳
Full access
$324
After Aug 31: $399
- ✳ All three days, all 38 sessions
- ✳ Every live demo + the ferment walk
- ✳ The Long Tasting (Sun)
- ✳ Session recordings, 2 weeks post-event
- ✳ BRINE '26 swag crate — jar, salt, zine
Pro + tasting
$574
After Aug 31: $649
- ✳ Everything in Full Access
- ✳ Chef's table seat — 40 only
- ✳ 1:1 intros with five founders
- ✳ Sunday workshop: build a culture library
- ✳ Priority seating at the Long Tasting
Reserve your seat
Hold a crock in your name.
No payment now — we'll email a 48-hour payment link. Full refund until September 1.
✳ You're in, friend.
Confirmation BRN26-0000 is on its way to . The payment link inside expires in 48 hours.
Show it at the door, or don't. We'll find you.
Group rates for 5+ · Student & chef rates · Questions? hello@brinesummit.com
06 — FAQ
Before you ask.
No — roughly a third of every BRINE is people with crocks, not companies. The science track assumes zero background, and the tasting room is where home and pro actually mix. Bring your best jar if you have one.
Everything is vegetarian; most of it is vegan; a lot of it is fermented. The Friday long-table lunch is the best meal of the year, in our very biased opinion. Dietary flags at checkout are honored to the letter.
Full Access and Pro tickets include recordings, released two weeks after the summit. The live demos are, by nature, unrepeatable — that's the point of being there.
Full refund until September 1, 2026. After that, tickets are transferable — just email hello@brinesummit.com and we'll move the seat. Life happens; cultures are patient.
No, but the Sunday workshop is better if you do. Sterile jars, salt, and scales are provided; your grandmother's starter is optional but encouraged. We will not be responsible for what it does to your bread.