Among 2,000 people from all over the globe, a woman has been selected the best taster. The winner’s name is Joanna Wasilewska and she works in the Białystok brewery. She has won the SABMiller Taster of Year Award in a global competition for the second time in a row.
As many as 2,000 professional beer tasters from SABMiller Group were involved in beer tasting for 12 months. The finals consisted in three disciplines: recognition of the beer type, identifying 10 various smells as well as recognising, ordering and scaling the intensity of a chemical compound.
Jacek Winiarski, director of the Białystok brewery, explained: "The SABMiller Taster of Year Award is a reliable evaluation system applied exclusively in SABMiller to people tasting beer professionally and regularly as members of panels in the company’s regional hubs all over the world. The basic idea behind the competition is to select a person who can perfectly identify beer’s sensory features".
This year, the finalists were tasting at the same time, but in their own countries. The finalists included representatives of specific continents: Jeremiah Kamambi from Africa, Jaideep Wanchoo from Asia, Joanna Wasilewska representing Europe, Jose Louis Magana Fajardo from Latin America, Joanne Sundermeier from North America and Frida Derhmann from South Africa.
A panel headed by a champion
Joanna is in charge of a tasting panel at the Białystok brewery. The panel consists of a team of carefully selected members with above average sensitivity to flavours and aromas. The tasters, members of the panel, are employees representing various functions in the company: production, laboratories, administration, planning, IT or technical.
The Taster of the Year explained:
‘We look for people with special skills and then train and test them. All candidates constitute a group of about 20 people often sensitive to various aromas. We learn from each other. In our diversity we are one as a panel. When the panel works for some time it turns out that we can name with the same language all aromas detected in beer in order to regularly monitor flavour and aroma-related quality significant from the consumer’s point of view".
The tasting panel is responsible for sensory controls of all raw materials used in the beer brewing process.
"This is why we make sure that between delivering the material to the brewhouse and beer packaging, everything is strictly monitored and of best possible quality", said Joanna Wasilewska, Sensory coordinator for Kompania Piwowarska.
The sensory war of sexes
A beer taster is oftentimes compared with a wine taster with many similarities in the nomenclature, flavours and the process of extracting aromas.
Joanna compared the two professions: “The major difference is the attitude to bitterness. Tasters who evaluate beer quality need to swallow a bit of the beverage. This is necessary as the taste buds in charge of perception of the bitter taste, are placed in the rear part of the tongue (tongue dorsum). On the other hand, wine tasters spit out the wine. This is why they do not really have an opportunity to taste real bitterness in wine”.
The differences between women and men certainly affect some predispositions to specific professions. However, it would be difficult to state unambiguously if gender plays an important role among professional tasters.
"Research suggests that women are more discerning and determined tasters. I think it is more about the features of character, innate predispositions", said Joanna and added: "Men are very good at identifying aromas. While women are more analytical, men easily identify and describe aromas and the associations with a given sample. We always have teams in panels because it is about selecting diverse people, specialists in their areas of knowledge. Only then is a panel a genuine reflection, some sort of a cross-section with reliable results."
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Joanna Wasilewska has worked for 14 years at the Białystok brewery. Graduate of the History and Sociology Faculty at the Białystok University, she is member of the European Tasting Panel in Budapest. She coordinates tasting panels for Kompania Piwowarska. She is regularly involved in heading the tasting panel at the Białystok brewery. She is happiest spending her free time with her family.
Notes to editors:
Kompania Piwowarska - leader of the Polish beer industry
Kompania Piwowarska is the largest brewer in Poland. Hundreds of years of experience in brewing, state-of-the-art technology and rigorous adherence to the ‘world class manufacturing’ principles guarantee the highest quality beer. The company's brand portfolio includes best selling Polish beers, such as Tyskie, Żubr, Lech, Dębowe Mocne, Redd's as well as international premium brands: Pilsner Urquell, Grolsch and Peroni Nastro Azzurro. Kompania Piwowarska, established in 1999, operates three breweries (in Tychy, Poznań and Białystok) and fourteen depots across the country. Kompania Piwowarska is engaged in a number of social programs, addressing poverty based social exclusion as well as eduactional programs promoting responsibility and moderation in alcohol consumption. In the fiscal year F09, ended on 31 March 2009, KP sales volume amounted to 15.1 mill hectoliters.
SABMiller – one of the largest brewers in the world
Kompania Piwowarska is part of SABMiller plc. SABMiller plc is one of the world's largest brewers with brewing interests or distribution agreements across six continents. The group's wide portfolio of brands includes premium international beers such as Grolsch, Miller Genuine Draft, Peroni Nastro Azzurro and Pilsner Urquell, as well as market-leading local brands such as Aquila, Castle, Miller Lite, Snow and Tyskie. SABMiller is also one of the largest Coca Cola bottlers outside the US. In the year ended on 31 March 2009 the group reported US$ 3.4 billion in adjusted pre-tax profit and group revenue of US$ 25.3 billion. SABMiller plc is listed on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges.
