News

The Golden Beer Idea is an award granted by the Bavarian Brewers Association and the Bavarian Hotel and Restaurant Association for special services which support the work of the Bavarian brewing industry. This year, Dr. Wolfgang Stempfl, former long-term managing director of Doemens Academy, was honoured for his achievements in the training of beer sommeliers.

Dr. Stempfl was largely responsible for the fact that the professional development programme for certified beer sommeliers has gained such wide acceptance in the brewing and gastronomy industry. The training programme, which was first launched in 2004, laid the foundation for more respect and appreciation of value as well as a more mindful perception of beer as a cultural asset.

This was achieved through persuasion, a technically sound concept and perseverance. Only with such wide acceptance of trained beer sommeliers in the gastronomy sector, in the specialised beverage trade as well as in field services provided by the breweries, a classic win-win situation for Doemens as a training location and for the entire brewing industry was achieved.

Over the years, Dr. Stempfl and his team have managed to place the training of beer sommeliers on solid footing, to continually target new groups and to successfully internationalise the training. Worldwide, the designation Certified Beer Sommelier is closely associated with Doemens, as their successful training programme has now been established in 17 countries in 8 different languages on 4 continents. Through Doemens’ efforts, the international network of certified beer sommeliers has grown to over 7,000!