Plumstead beer writer Lucy Corne will put her highly-trained taste buds to the test at the World Beer Cup, in America, next month.
This international beer competition crowns the world’s best breweries.
A self-confessed “hophead”, Lucy was selected as one of 200 highly qualified beer experts from 30 countries who will judge more than 90 styles of beer.
Lucy is the author of African Brew and she blogs at www.brewmistress.co.za She is also a qualified judge under the American Beer Judge Certification Programme (BJCP).
The bi-annual competition, known as “the Olympics of Beer”, is organised by the Brewers Association, a trade group representing America’s small and independent craft brewers, to celebrate the art and science of brewing.
Lucy applied to be a judge while attending the World Beer Cup last year.
“The application process is a fairly simple procedure: you send your resume along with references from industry players. It is a huge honour to have been selected to be a part of the competition – a challenge that is in equal parts mildly terrifying and extremely exciting.”
This year, 10 South African breweries have entered beers in the competition – a record number of entries from local soil.
In 2016, the competition judged 6 595 beers from 55 countries. The three most entered categories were American-Style India Pale Ale, Imperial India Pale Ale and American-Style Pale Ale.
Judging will take place in Nashville, Tennessee, in late April, with the winners announced at a gala dinner on Thursday May 3.
