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Dutch Craft Beer Conference 2024
Last week, the 2024 edition of the Dutch Craft Beer Conference took place in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Contrary to this collection of random blurbs from the day, the conference was well organized and structured: a great example of how such educational events in which networking is a crucial component can be executed! Let’s start with the boundary…
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Tripel Intelligence: are robots coming for the jobs of brewers?
Disclaimer: After a brief conversation (initiated by me) on LinkedIn, Frontaal shipped a box of this product, for which I promised to write a blog post in return. Neither Frontaal nor Handpicked Agencies had a role in the writing, hence all expressions and opinions presented are my own. My everyday life is mainly occupied with…
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Breaking the glass ceiling of beer
Imagine: A beer tasting is about to start. “Oh, it seems we’re getting fancy beers tonight!” Phrases of this general tenor are not uncommon when I pour the first round into a glass that isn’t your average tumbler, stacking glass or red solo cup. Apparently, the fanciness of the beverage is measured by the vessel…
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Stouts are black. Or are they?
A year or so ago, I finally had my go at a “white stout”. I never went after it, because in my opinion, this seemed like just a funky gimmick you could do, without much added value. Stouts are black after all. Almost all sub-styles of stout are, and the flavor profile of a stout…
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Pivoting my career?
Spoiler: not just yet. After obtaining my sommelier diploma it felt like falling into a black hole. Nothingness. Nothing to do on Monday nights. No more blind tastings. No more studying. No more off-flavor training. Help! As I do like learning, I quickly found out about the Institute of Brewing and Distilling. They offer a…
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International Diplom Biersommelier
The Grande Finale. An illustrious trip to a magical place in Austria. Returning home with an internationally recognized certificate with a German title, but only if you pass the mysterious exam of which no one seems to know how many people passed and failed in the past. The culmination of an educational program about beer.…
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The results are in!
Did an exam, but still learned something As you may have noticed on this blog before, a beer exam is what kept me occupied over the last couple of weeks or months. The results are in… Passed! With flying colors! So that’s a big relief. This positive result lines me up to travel to Obertrum…
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Beer Exam
Exam month! Training and studying is what keeps me occupied these days…
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So. Many. Beers.
It has been quiet here for a while… The main reason for that is that I am spending the spare time I have on my upcoming beer school exam (if I make it, I can go to the Kiesbye Akademie in Obertrum, Austria, to become a Doemens International Diplom Biersommelier!), rather than jotting down random…
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Pondering subscriptions for the new year
In these days of ever more online shopping, webshops are probably growing in market share in the beer world, too. Beer subscriptions are the extreme end of that spectrum for the beer geek: you pay once (or re-occurring, but you subscribe once) and then get beer delivered to your doorstep regularly. Easy. Subscriptions come in…