Qualifications

The Food Science and Technology bachelor's degree provides a rigorous scientific curriculum that prepared me for a variety of roles in the food industry from quality assurance to sensory analysis to research & development. Through my studies, I have generated knowledge about foods through research with the goal of ensuring the availability of safe, nutritious, appealing food, with minimum environmental impact, for the benefit of all people.

The UCD Brewing Program is one of the oldest programs in the US, with a very well respected national and international reputation. The program has given me a foundation of knowledge in enzymology as well as technical and practical malting & brewing science knowledge. As part of my studies, I participated in the Iron Brew Competition. As a group, we developed a recipe and brewed our beer during class to be entered into the competition where local brewers and industry members judged our beer. My team achieved second place with our California Common.

During my studies, I also participated in an Intro to Brewing study abroad course hosted at the University of Nottingham. This course was led by the head of the brewing department at UC Davis, Charlie Bamforth. His passion and vision for the industry inspired me to continue my studies in brewing and he showed me that a career in beer is possible. We visited a hops yard, traditional cask brewery, a malt producer, and Murphy and Son to get a full picture of the brewing process from ingredients and processing aids to final package. I also tasted my first cask ale on this trip!

I began my career in brewing as a Brewing and Packaging Operative at Everards Brewery. This role focused on the support of day-to-day beer production across brewhouse and packaging operations. I operated and monitored packaging machinery to ensure safe, efficient, and high-quality output. I performed routine quality production checks, accurately recording results and escalating deviations. This role also incorporated the performance of brewhouse operations, including process monitoring, preparation, and cleaning. I worked within a fully rotational team, gaining proficiency across all brewing and packaging roles and demonstrated strong attention to detail and strict adherence to SOPs, hygiene, and health & safety standards. It was important for the functionality of the team to communicate effectively to support smooth production flow and continuous improvement. Sep 2021 - Jan 2025

I progressed in my role and was promoted to Technical Brewer. This role utilises technical skills developed through experience and pursuing the CIBD Brewing Diploma. I have a focus on recipe creation and maintenance, assisting with planning the beer schedule, identification and delivery of improvements, and securing accreditation. This role also incorporates research and development of flavours and recipes for our limited edition and small batch products. Jan 2025 - Apr 2026

In preparation for the Beer Sommelier assessment, I attended the How to Judge Beer and Understand Off Flavours. As a professional brewer, I was already familiar with many of the off flavours and their sources. What completed the picture for me was being able to experience these aromas through the flavour standards. It also highlighted which aromas I’m more sensitive to and which ones I struggle to sense. Not having access to flavour standards to practice with at home will add to the challenge of this part of the assessment, but having a good understanding of what aromas I should look for will have to be enough .

I have also had the opportunity to use a range of judging criteria from the CAMRA scoring rubric to BJCP scoresheet so I was familiar with the formats. Using each of these formats to judge the quality of beer really illustrated how you can come to different conclusions about the quality of a beer based on the grading scale and weight of each category.

From my perspective, the organisation of beer into styles is vital for drinkers to set expectations for their experience, and therefore we should judge a beer against the guidelines of that style. It’s one thing to make a delicious and high-quality beer, but is it delivering what’s expected? This is why it’s advantageous for brewers to constantly taste their beer, seek feedback from customers, and even submit their beers to competitions to get feedback from expert tasters to continue improving and honing their craft.

In preparation for the Beer Sommelier Assessment, I attended the Food and Beer Pairing Course run by the Guild of Beer Sommeliers. I have always believed that beer is a better beverage to pair with food than wine, and this course strengthened that belief while also giving me another perspective on pairing theory. Beer naturally has aromas and flavours that are also found in food, which allows it to bridge flavours in really interesting ways. Both malt and hops can contribute flavours like toast, bread crust, citrus, herbs, and wood, creating opportunities for both complementary and contrasting pairings.

Although I had already read books about beer and food pairing, the course highlighted how many different elements need to be considered when building a successful pairing, including intensity, balance, contrast, and how certain flavours can cut through richness or enhance more delicate characteristics.

One of the most helpful parts of the course was experiencing pairings firsthand and understanding why some combinations worked really well while others fell flat. I have often paired a Helles lager with soft pretzels during beer tastings because the delicate bread-crust flavours complement each other, while the salt enhances the beer’s subtle herbal hop character and crisp finish. During the course, though, the beer was paired with hummus — something I have not considered myself. Tasting the two together completely changed my perception of the beer and brought out nutty characteristics I had never noticed before in the lager.

Other pairings I really enjoyed included Marmite crisps with a nut-brown ale, which brought out more of the savoury umami qualities in the beer, and lemon mousse with a kriek, where the beer's tartness and cherries complemented the citrus, while the dessert's creaminess softened the acidity. These tastings gave me a much broader perspective on pairing possibilities and gave me more to think about going forward when creating tasting menus.

I also really enjoyed the menu pairing exercise, where we were tasked with selecting a beer to pair with a dish from a set menu and explaining the reasoning behind our choice. I was initially anxious about making a decision and building a case for my pairing, but it ended up being great practice for thinking on the spot, much like it will be in the exam.

Overall, I gained a huge amount from this course, both in terms of my understanding of beer and food pairing and the industry connections I made.

I received cellar training at Everards from one of their trade quality managers, Terry. Terry has worked at Everards for more than 40 years and has spent much of that time delivering expert cellar training to pub staff and brewery workers, ensuring beer tastes just as good on the bar as it did leaving the brewery.

The course covered the fundamentals of cellar operation, including cellar setup and safety, line cleaning, cask conditioning, and how different draught systems function. One of the most interesting parts of the training was Terry’s approach to troubleshooting. His role often resembles investigative work: identifying an issue at the bar and tracing it back through the dispense system to find the root cause. He walked us through common faults such as sour beer, excessive head retention, and flat pints, explaining how issues with conditioning, gas pressure, line hygiene, or dispense technique can affect the final product.

We also moved to the bar, where he demonstrated how to pour from a hand-pull, a CO₂ keg system, and a mixed-gas draught system, each of which requires a different dispense technique. Conditioning cask beer is only one part of the process. Because cask has such a short shelf life, line cleaning, correct storage, proper venting, and serving beer within its ideal window are all crucial to maintaining quality. If beer is poorly conditioned or handled incorrectly, it can become cloudy, flat, or sour, resulting in a poor customer experience.

The training reinforced how much care and expertise goes into serving cask beer properly and how important cellar practices are in doing justice to the brewery, the beer, and the customer.

WSET Level 1 in Beer
This course covers primary beer styles, the basics of the brewing process, and a systematic approach to tasting (SAT). This course also touches briefly on the storage and service of beer as well as the building blocks of food and beer pairings. I took this course with my fellow mentees in the Women in Beer Mentorship program and the lovely Natalya Watson leading the session. Natalya communicates the approach to tasting in a clear and engaging fashion. My greatest takeaway from the session to take note of some of her techniques to use when I lead beer tastings for friends.

WSET Level 2 in Beer
The Level 2 course builds on the knowledge gained in Level 1 by adding more styles to learn accompanied by 30-40 tasting samples. This three day intensive course focuses on practising the SAT and demonstrating the diversity of flavours celebrated in the glass. This course opened my eyes to styles I never would have approached or appreciated if it weren't for my newly found understanding of the style, like in the case of a Flander's Red Ale. This incredibly unique beer tied together my interest for alternative fermentation and production methods and weird and wonderful flavours.

The Chartered Institute of Brewing and Distilling offers a Diploma in Brewing, which provides in-depth technical knowledge of the brewing process. The course covers brewing materials, the brewhouse, fermentation, maturation, conditioning, packaging, engineering, and processing.

The diploma is split into three modules: Materials & Wort (B), Yeast & Beer (B), and Process Technology & Resource Management (A). I was also the recipient of the Brewing Engineers Association Engineering Award for achieving the highest score in Module 3.

Although this qualification is designed to support professional brewers, having a technical understanding of how beer is made—and how each stage of the process contributes to flavour—is a significant advantage when discussing beer styles and interpreting tasting notes.

Part of my role at Everards involved writing recipes for both the main brewery and the small batch brewery. While the main brewery focused on commercially proven styles, the small batch brewery gave me the freedom to experiment with flavours, ingredients, and techniques that genuinely excited me. By the end of my time at Everards, I was writing around 85% of the recipes that passed through the brewhouse.

Recipe development gave me a much deeper understanding of beer styles and ultimately made me a better beer taster. Researching the detailed descriptions of beer styles (mostly through the Beer Judge Style Guidelines) taught me how ingredient choices, hop schedules, yeast character, and brewing techniques shape flavour, balance, and aroma. I regularly experimented with hop additions, mashing regimes, and unconventional ingredients to better understand how small brewing decisions could dramatically influence the final beer.

Some of my favourite creations included a maple nut brown ale, blueberry pancake milkshake IPA, vanilla cream ale, and the Salt and Lime Lager, which became Everards’ highest-selling summer seasonal beer. Inspired by contemporary West Coast craft Mexican lagers, it exceeded expectations and became increasingly popular each year. In 2026, the demand for the Salt and Lime Lager is expected to increase and the brewery has planned to double production. Experiences like this reinforce my appreciation for both creativity and technical understanding in brewing, while also deepening my ability to analyse and evaluate beer styles with greater precision.

Women In Beer is an incredible community of women supporting women across the brewing industry by promoting women-led breweries at the Women In Beer Festival, supporting ambitious women looking to grow their careers and professional networks through the mentorship programme, and, starting in 2025, recognising the incredible work women do in the industry through the Women In Beer Awards.

I applied for the Women In Beer Mentorship in the summer of 2025 because I was eager to transition out of production brewing and needed guidance on what career paths were possible for someone like me who enjoys connecting with people over beer and sharing my knowledge and passion for brewing. I was matched with Genevieve Upton as my mentor. She is currently a Technical Educator for Aroxa, but has forged a path through packaging, technical brewing, research and development, and head brewing. She is a Master Brewer, Beer Sommelier, and someone I greatly admire.

She provided guidance when I was unsure about my next steps and helped me shape my career direction while supporting my continued professional development.

The mentorship has also introduced me to an amazing network of women. I made some great friends in my cohort, and it has been incredibly rewarding to watch us all progress in our careers.

This mentorship has been the most impactful experience of my career so far. Finally feeling like I belong in the industry, and having my career goals reaffirmed as achievable, has been monumental to my professional growth and career progression.

The No Half Measures Collective is a group in Nottingham dedicated to creating safe spaces for women to enjoy, learn about, and drink beer. I became a member at the beginning of last year when I met one of the founders, Lucy Simmons, at a beer tasting event. Since then, I have created a beer tasting group within the collective, and we are currently planning a summer beer tasting event.

I have also organised a collaboration brew day between No Half Measures and Everards Brewery, giving women the opportunity to step into a space that is not normally available to them and providing a safe environment to ask questions about brewing and beer tasting.

This course is designed to help improve beer assessment and judging skills. We learned how to judge a beer based on CAMRA criteria and had the opportunity to determine the winner of the Welsh bottled beer (4.4%+ ABV) category, which will go through to national judging in 2027.

What’s interesting is that, unlike in the National Homebrewing Competition, where brewers select the category in which the beer will be judged, CAMRA members and tasters determine which category the beer should be placed in. This ensures that the beer is judged in the correct category, with the aim of eliminating points lost for not being true to style.

We worked as a team to judge and come to a consensus on each sample, and the scoring system is designed to account for everyone’s individual judgment. Overall, even though each judge had completely different experiences and backgrounds when it came to tasting beer, we consistently came to similar conclusions.

I gained more experience leading a tasting and judging panel and working together to give constructive feedback.