Katia Niño’s hard work in the beer industry is finally paying off as she heads to Munich this September to join close to 100 beer sommeliers from around the world at the the World Championship of Beer Sommeliers.

This will be the first year that Mexico will be represented at the competition and Niño is excited not only to be representing her country but all women in beer throughout Mexico. While 2019’s winning beer sommelier was Elisa Raus, a woman from Germany, every other competition since the World Cup began in 2009 has been won by a man.

“I’m so proud to be chosen for this first selection, representing Puebla and women [in beer],” she said in an interview with El Sol de Puebla. Niño has her own craft beer brewery in Puebla city — Cervecería Ángeles de Zaragoza — and is a certified beer sommelier, meaning she has had to learn all there is to know about the process, production, and tasting of the beverage.

The World Cup championship participants have been chosen from over 5,000 beer sommeliers worldwide, and compete among a group that is narrowed down to about 100, from different countries. The final eight will compete publicly in front of a group of expert judges and have to prove their knowledge of theoretical basics about beer and the sharpness of their sensory skills in beer tasting. The final stage of the competition will also require a little showmanship on stage and the winners will have “best presented the message of beer culture and its diversity,” according to organizers.

Niño hopes that she can put a spotlight on Mexican beers during her time in Munich, in particular their use of endemic ingredients that give them unique flavor profiles. While Mexico is not where beer originated, the country is one of the top three exporters of beer in the world and one of the top five consumers.

“Beer is a thousand-year-old beverage,” says Niño, “and a lot of the time we drink it without understanding the weight of its history.”

With reports from El Sol de Puebla