Welcome to my beer sommelier adventures

The Dutch team for the World Cup in 2027 holding up their certificates of the Dutch Cup of Beer Sommeliers stating their place in the finale and the Dutch Champion of 2024 and World Champion of 2025 Léon Rodenburg who was the judge this year inbetween. From left to right: Elianne, blonde hair, wide smile, blue clothes, Martin, short hair, wide smile, blue clothes, me, brown hair, wide smile, with pullover, selfmade green skirt with a hopplant print, Yoran, short blonde hair, wide smile, blue shirt, black trousers, Dennis, blue hat, salt-and-pepper beard, green suit, Léon, blonde curly hair, blue jacket, white shirt, jeans, Thijs, short hair, wide smile, sage shirt, jeans.

I am over the moon. I came in fourth in the fifth Dutch Cup of Beer Sommeliers! And as such will be part again of the Dutch team for the World Cup of Beer Sommeliers in Vienna next year together with Dutch Champion Dennis Kort, Yoran Zonneveld, Thijs van Til and Martin Ter Harkel. Elianne Mercx, who came in sixth, will join us as reserve, although I’d much prefer her as a sixth member of the team so she’d get the chance to participate fully as well.

Cannot believe it has been a week already since. And what a rush it was!

In the finale I got the uniquely awesome (and nerve wrecking) opportunity to present the delightful StiBONFire, a wonderfully balanced, subtle, yet complex rauchhelles brewed by StiBON students during their course in Gulpen.

I haven’t had a moment yet to write a blog post this time, but for anyone who is interested, there will be a major in-dept article on the Dutch Cup in PINT magazine number 266 (who had the right answer to that question in the preliminaries? 😉 )

In the meantime, please enjoy what others wrote about the Dutch Cup and cheers!

Me sniffing a glass with the StiBONfire rauchhelles in it. Pinkbrownish shoulderlength hair with a selfmade green crunchy with a hopplant print, white shirt with wide long sleeves and a corsetstyle waistcoat with dark green ribbons and brownish vine embroidery.
My husband Paul and metamour Anneke with me in the middle holding the certificate, all smiling widely towards the camera.
Me holding up a glass with an altbier in it, looking at the glass. Pinkbrownish shoulderlength hair, white shirt with wide long sleeves and a corsetstyle waistcoat with dark green ribbons and brownish vine embroidery, selfmade green skirt with a hopplant print and a crunchy in the same fabric around my wrist.

LÉON WON GOLD AND DENNIS WON SILVER!

THE DUTCH TEAM WON THE WORLD CUP OF BEER SOMMELIERS

Like every person born in the 60s, 70s and 80s in the Netherlands I grew up in the beer wastelands. It was a time where pils was synonym to beer. Needless to say I didn’t begin my alcoholic adventures with beer, but I got there eventually and I even decided to study beer. Now I’m an international biersommelier and the runner-up of the Dutch Cup of 2024! Which means I will be going to the World Cup in 2025. You can read more about me here.

I love to organise beer talks, beer walks, beer games and other beer activities in Dutch (Nederlands) and English and I could organise something for you as well.

I also love to travel around for beer and research the subject more. Even though the blog part of this page is mostly on hold for now, you can still find previous adventures in my blog. And only the blog part is on hold, I am still active with all kind of beer related activities.

I’m from Eindhoven, so of course there’s a dedicated page to Eindhoven.

Want to know more? Click on the subject of your interest in the menu above.

News!

2026 April 1st

That’s a wrap for the Dutch Beer Challenge 2026!

2026 March 24th

In a week we will be judging beers again for the twelfth Dutch Beer Challenge!

2025 September 9th

Since we are a 80% Brabants team we made it into the three Brabantse newspapers!

2024 November 24th

I finished second in the Dutch Cup of Beer Sommeliers! I am going to the World Cup next year!

You can find more short updates over here: 
News and Short updates

Latest blog posts

  • Board game: The Taverns of Tiefenthal
    I have a library full of games. Naturally I have several games about beer and once in a post I’d like to tell more about one of them. This time it’s time for:
  • Malt houses
    Malt. Since you are reading this blog, you probably know something about beer and its present-day main ingredients: water, yeast, hops and malt, But what’s malt?
  • World Cup of Beer Sommeliers 2025
    I participated in the World Cup for Beer Sommeliers!
  • Lambic Academy, Zenne Valley and Brussels
    Not as long and extensive as my usual blog posts and a bit too staccato and all over the place, but it became too long for the News section, so blog post it is.