Interview with Natalya Watson, creator of WSET in beer

Natalya Watson is a certified beer sommelier by the IBD, an advanced Cicerone®, creator of WSET in beer, and a WSET beer educator for levels 1 and 2. Passionate about this field, Natalya Watson shares with us her vision of the industry, emerging trends, and the reasons why she decided to launch WSET in beer.

There is a growing popularity of craft and premium beers. Why do you think this is and how has this impacted the training you offer?

As the range of beers on offer globally has continued to expand, consumers are looking to spend their hard-earned money on the highest quality products they can find – whether that is a beer brewed with more premium ingredients, or one with bold and exciting flavours from unique brewing processes or added flavourings.

That said, we wanted to ensure that our courses covered a broad range of beer styles, but also that they imparted the tasting skills to help students confidently taste any beer, even if it’s a style that’s new to them. In our Level 2 Award in Beer, our Systematic Approach to Tasting® also teaches candidates how to assess the quality of a beer – considering elements like the absence of faults, balance, complexity and definition, and expressiveness – using a framework that can be applied to all beers, regardless of style.

What additional trends are you seeing in the European beer market at the moment?

In addition to the growth of craft and premium beers, ‘free from’ beers are becoming very popular – including both no- and low-alcohol beers and gluten-free beers. The growth in both of these spaces has seen large and small breweries start producing low alcohol and gluten-reduced or gluten-free beers, and not just in bottles or cans, draught versions are becoming a big focus, as well. Given this trend, we’ve made sure to include information in our Level 2 Award in Beer on the different production methods used to make these beers and students are able to taste a range of styles to help them develop their confidence when tasting and describing them.

You have certainly encountered many successful brewers throughout your career. Could you share an inspiring story with us?

I can share three in one go! For a recent WSET blog post, we spoke to three brewers – from different sized breweries, in different countries – and got to hear their inspiring stories of what led them to pursue a career in beer and what their roles really entail. In ‘The brewer’s craft: Insights from industry experts’ you’ll hear from Jayne Lewis of Two Birds Brewing in Australia, Caiti Sullivan of Coven Brewing in the US, and Mike Sayer from Molson Coors Beverage Company in the UK. Hopefully their insights leave you feeling inspired to learn more about their shared passion of brewing.

What do you think are the main challenges that beer professionals will need to tackle in the short and medium term?

As discussed earlier, new beers and beer styles are continually being introduced to the market and beer professionals need to have both product knowledge, to help them understand how these beers are made, and tasting skills, to confidently describe the flavours in these products to their customers. WSET’s new beer qualifications cover not only what beer is made from and how it’s brewed, we introduce 20 different beer styles at Level 1  and 60 styles at Level 2. We also focus on developing tasting skills, enabling candidates to accurately and confidently describe any beer in the glass in front of them, even if it’s a beer or style they’re not familiar with or it’s a totally new innovation.

Beer professionals also need to be mindful of service, particularly ensuring that they’re storing and serving beer correctly. For example, storing beer at cold temperatures and away from light, consuming it fresh, and from clean, style-appropriate glassware. Knowledge of these extra details – beyond beer’s ingredients and the brewing process – helps to ensure the beer stays tasting the way the brewer intended and gives the customer the best possible drinking experience.

To conclude, how do you see the evolution of training in the beer sector in the coming years?

We’re looking forward to seeing WSET’s new beer courses and qualifications being delivered in more markets and to supporting all beer industry professionals and enthusiasts in achieving their qualifications. Currently, many people in the beer industry view beer education as something specific to servers or brewers, but we firmly believe that beer education is a must-have for all industry roles – including the marketing, finance, delivery teams and more – as it can benefit everyone.

We’ve designed our courses to deliver both product knowledge and tasting training, enabling all attendees to become better beer tasters and be more beer-confident. A drinks and hospitality industry where everyone has improved beer knowledge, tasting skills, and confidence is the world we’re working to create.

Thanks Natalya Watson