Mareike Hasenbeck is an expert when it comes to beer. The 36-year-old from Aying not only writes as a journalist about craft beer, i.e. artisanal beer outside the mass market, but she also gives lectures and runs the successful blog feinerhopfen.com on the subject. And: Mareike Hasenbeck is the only woman to have made it to the final at the World Beer Sommelier Championships in Munich.
SZ: Ms. Hasenbeck, how does an Anchor Steam Beer taste?
Mareike Hasenbeck: This is a very fruity and very hoppy beer – with a high drinkability. That means you can drink a bottle or two of it. The Anchor Steam Beer is not a super funky craft beer, but one that was made to drink.
And yet: If you were to serve such a drink in a beer garden in her home town of Aying…
…then most guests would probably be shocked. Because the taste does not meet the classic Bavarian palate.
The Anchor Steam Beer from San Francisco was drawn to you in the final of the World Beer Sommelier Championships at the Munich Exhibition Center. They then had five minutes to present the beer to a jury.
I was lucky to get a beer style that was well known to me – that makes presentation easier. I even went to this brewery myself while on a trip through California to trace the origins of craft beer.
Nevertheless, in the end it wasn’t quite enough for a place on the podium…
I’m still very happy with how things went for me at my first world championship. I’ve had a lot of stress the past few weeks and little time to train. That I still made it to the final was a great thing.
They took third place in the preliminary round among 82 participants from 18 countries. You had to recognize different beer styles as well as certain aromas in the beer. Is that talent or practice?
There are no born sensors, it’s all a matter of training. My big advantage is that I have been working internationally in the industry for ten years and travel to various competitions around the world as a juror. Because the more often you do something like this, the better it tastes.
You were the only woman in the final of the nine best beer sommeliers. Is beer drinking still a male domain?
Unfortunately yes. But it’s nice to see that more and more women are coming into this scene. Or rather: come back. After all, thousands of years ago it was probably women who invented the first beer.
As the?
Science assumes that the first beer was created by chance while baking bread. And women used to be responsible for that, while men went hunting.
After reaching the finals in Munich, you are now one of the best beer sommeliers in the world. Will that also help you professionally or is it just for fun at a World Cup like this?
In such a competition, of course, you also compete to win something. So I’m very proud of myself. I’ll just have a look and see what else comes of it. Since I was the only woman in the final, I can at least say that I am the best beer sommelier in the world. And that definitely sounds really good.