Siemens’ portfolio for the brewing, beverages and edible oil industries

The event that will be the prelude to this year‘s drinktec, the world‘s leading trade fair for the beverage and liquid food industry, is to be held on 15 September: the Beer Sommelier World Championship. This championship, held every two years, highlights not only the vast range of beers available and the sommeliers familiar with them but also the breweries. Siemens supports the championship in its capacity as a technology partner of and vendor of automation technology to breweries worldwide. Siemens will be showcasing its extensive portfolio of integrated automation and drive solutions for breweries and beverage producers at drinktec, due to open on 16 September 2013.More and more beer enthusiasts are opting to undergo the two-week training required to qualify as a beer sommelier. All the courses scheduled for 2014 are already fully booked. A beer sommelier learns how to distinguish up to 100 different beer types on the basis of taste and aroma. The world‘s best beer sommelier is selected every two years. The next Beer Sommelier World Championship will be held on 15 September 2013 in Munich. This year, competitors from 11 countries will eagerly await the final announcement of a jury composed of acknowledged experts.There are over 5,000 beer varieties in Germany alone. Whereas in Germany the ingredients of beer are restricted to hops, malt, yeast and water only, other countries have been free to develop a gigantic range of beer types and formulae – from honey beer in Belgium to nougat beer in France. The sheer diversity of the beer world and constant new trends make the work of today‘s beer sommelier increasingly challenging. Just as a wine sommelier can judge the quality of a wine, a beer sommelier is qualified to assess the quality of a beer. A beer sommelier can advise restaurant patrons which beer is best suited to a given dish and can compile appropriate beer lists for restaurant owners. But more importantly he is responsible within the restaurant for the presentation and the quality of the beer as served.The current world champion is Sebastian B. Priller-Riegele. Just as the future world champion will be required to do, Sebastian Priller-Riegele had to outperform his co-competitors in beer tastings by detecting certain flavours or off-flavours in a range of beer samples. In the final phase of the championship, six finalists are required to savour and then classify a beer that is unfamiliar to them. The challenge here is to identify the sometimes many different hop varieties used in that beer‘s formula.The Doemens Academy, an internationally operating training and consultancy enterprise for the brewing industry, offers training courses leading to qualification as a beer sommelier.Food & Beverage 18.09.2013, Siemens AG, Industry Sector