Elisa Raus from Germany is the winner of the sixth World Championship of Beer Sommeliers which took place on September 27, 2019 in Rimini, Italy.
The 28-year-old press officer of the Störtebeker Brewery from Stralsund, Germany, is the first female winner in this contest. This year, 80 beer sommeliers from 19 nations competed against each other in the competition organised by the Doemens Academy.
The participants demonstrated their beer knowledge and sensory abilities in preliminary runs. In the semi-finals, the top ten beer sommeliers from the preliminary rounds competed against each other with a beer presentation. In the finals, the six best beer sommeliers were able to present a previously unknown beer to the top-class international jury and the audience.
Only beer sommeliers from Europe qualified for the finals: 1 beer sommelier from Austria and Switzerland each and 4 beer sommeliers from Germany. Elisa Raus finally won the title with her outstanding stage presence and her enormous expertise. Second place went to Patrick Thomi from Switzerland, third to Michael Friedrich from Germany.
Elisa succeeded by giving an emotional and thrilling beer presentation of the Westmalle Tripel, a Trappist beer from Belgium. Elisa Raus, who has been a beer sommelier since 2016, will hold the title for two years.
"I'm very happy about the first place and didn't expect to be able to actually assert myself against such strong competitors,” she said. “The level was incredibly high this year. It was a unique experience to participate and win. With my victory at the World Championships of Beer Sommeliers, I am looking forward to representing beer as a cultural asset internationally. My main concerns here are to bring the fine sensory qualities, the colorful variety of beer specialties and the high quality of beer closer to the people and especially the women out there and to communicate them to them".
