Our 2023 Judges

Tim Webb

United Kingdom

Tim Webb began writing about better types of beer when most of what could be said had to be reported in the past tense. During six years on the board of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), he ran Britain’s national beer festival and co-founded CAMRA’s publishing company. He has written Good Beer Guide Belgium continuously since 1992, co-authored The World Atlas of Beer since 2012, and has won awards for beer writing in four countries. In a career spanning over 40 years he has witnessed and chronicled the return of the craft of beer brewing, perhaps the most extraordinary consumer-led revolution of modern times.

Luc de Raedemaeker

Belgium

Luc de Raedemaeker learned early on that if you have to eat and drink anyway, you might as well enjoy it. Born and raised in Brussels, he was quick to appreciate the offerings from the Zenne valley: Geuze and Lambiek. He acquired his taste for beer as a student bartender.

Luc is now a lecturer in zythology, chief editor of Bier Grand Cru, and the author of The Belgian Beer Book, which has been hailed as the perfect guide to Belgian beer and beer culture. He is also the co-founder and director of the Brussels Beer Challenge, a prestigious international beer competition.

Andreas Fält

United Kingdom

Andreas Fält has been working in the beer industry for over 20 years, starting by importing beers to Sweden in 2000. Since 2006 he has been promoting beer across the globe from Leeds in northern England and was for years he was the Brewers Association’s American Craft Beer Ambassador in Europe. In this role, he promoted American craft beers and grew the European market for numerous Brewers Association members.

Today he is an export consultant/agent, helping setting the stage for breweries around the world on the international stage. He has also spoken at the Craft Brewers Conference in the USA, the Great American Beer Festival, Brussels Beer Challenge 2012 and Russian Brew World 2017, and judged at competitions like the World Beer Cup, Great American Beer Festival, Great British Beer Festival, Mondial de la Bière, European Beer Star, and many others.

Lisa Morrison

USA

Lisa Morrison is a longtime journalist who cut her teeth early in the craft beer scene, reporting for any publication that would let her write about the subject. She has taught beer classes for women and mixed audiences and hosted a beer radio show/podcast called Beer O’Clock. In
addition to writing Craft Beers of the Pacific Northwest, she has contributed to several other beer books and guides. A experienced as a beer judge both locally and internationally, Lisa was the first woman to be inducted into the Oregon Beer Hall of Fame. She owns Belmont Station beer store and bar in Portland, Oregon.

Marty Nachel

USA

Marty Nachel is the author of “Beer for Dummies” and “Homebrewing for Dummies,” a beer educator at the College of DuPage Business of Craft Beer Program, and a BJCP Certified International Beer Judge.

Ethan Cox

USA

Ethan Cox, co-founder/co-owner of Community Beer Works, is Buffalo’s expert on craft beer and brewing. He is a qualified beer judge (BJCP Certified) with extensive judging experience including the GABF; a beer and food pairing expert (Certified Cicerone); and an area beer historian, author of Buffalo Beer: A History of Brewing In The Nickel City (2015), who has conducted dozens of beer pairing dinners, beer vs. wine pairing dinners, and beer education events and talks. Ethan currently working in consulting (Twin Petrels Seltzer & Social) and as a teacher at Villa Maria College. He lives in Buffalo with his wife and two children.

Willard Brooks

USA

Willard Brooks is a fifth generation Buffalonian from a family with German roots, which for him means that good old fashioned beer is part of life and culture. After living twenty years in San Francisco, a year in Germany, and making numerous trips to the Netherlands, he has been
exposed to some of the best food, wine, and beer scenes in the world. As a fermenter of beer, a writer, and an organizer of craft beer events, he has also been steeped in the culture of beer in western New York and southern Ontario, although he maintains an abiding and ever-deepening affection for classic European beer styles. He speaks English, German, and Dutch.

Joe Wiebe

Canada

Joe Wiebe is the “Thirsty Writer,” the author of Craft Beer Revolution: The Insider’s Guide to B.C. Breweries, the definitive guidebook to British Columbia’s burgeoning craft beer industry. Joe writes regular columns for the Growler, Northwest Brewing News, Vancouver View, UrbanDiner.ca, and the BC Craft Beer News, as well as beer-soaked stories in British Columbia magazine, BCBusiness, WestWorld, Beer West, Taps, Publican, NUVO, Taste, Alive and Boulevard. Joe is a co-founder and co-producer of Victoria Beer Week and the BC Ale Trail project. He produced the Victoria Beer Map, and is the beer columnist for CBC Radio’s All Points West and BC Almanac programs. He acts as a beer judge for the Okanagan Fest of Ale and the BC Beer Awards.

thirstywriter.com

Sandy Cockerham

USA

Sandy Cockerham started homebrewing in the late ’80s, after hearing her Dad talk about brewing beer with his brother many years before.  Later, she decided to explore beer judging, sitting for the BJCP exam in 2007, and currently holds the rank of Grand Master 9. 

She has judged at well over 250 competitions in the last 16 years and enjoys traveling and judging homebrew and commercial competitions all over the world.  She currently serves on the AHA Governing Committee and is co-chair of Competition Sub-Committee.  Sandy is the BJCP MidWest Representative and BJCP Vice-President.

Isabelle Netto

Canada

Dave Cole

Canada

Dave Cole has been a BJCP beer judge since 2016 and is currently the BJCP North Region Assistant Rep, running the Prairie Beer Awards.  He has judged at many competitions through the years, including the Great American beer Festival and American Homebrewers Association.  His favourite categories to judge are Historical and Experimental, and he is currently trying to get Canadian Spruce Beer recognized as an official beer style in the guidelines.  When not judging, he is an accountant specializing in non-compliant personal and corporate taxes, and road trips with his wife Bobbie to various music festivals.

Yuyu Kim

Canada

Yuyu Kim is a Korean brewer who settled in Canada in 2016. He likes both beer and wine so graduated from both the Brewmaster and Brewery Operation Management and Winery & Viticulture programs at Niagara College. He’s a professional brewer at Prairie Dog Brewing Co. in Calgary, Alberta, and both a Certified Cicerone and Certified BJCP beer judge. He has recently passed his Advanced Cicerone in one attempt and is awaiting the written exam result.

Sergio Pazos

Canada

Sergio Pazos Costa began homebrewing in 2015, after which he progressed through the positions of head brewer at Cerveceria Nuevo Mundo in Peru and owner and head brewer at Korak Brewing, also in Peru. He is both a certified BJCP judge and a Cicerone Certified Beer Server, and has provided support to the BJCP in the translation of exams from English to Spanish. He currently works as a Beer Line Cleaning and Maintenance Technician in Toronto.

Marcelo Tarifa Coelho

Canada

Marcelo Tarifa Coelho was born and raised in Brazil, moving to Canada in 2022 to enroll at Niagara College in the Beverage Business Management program, where he graduated this past April. He has worked in the beverage industry since 2016 has a particular passion for sensory analysis and beer judging. In his short time in Canada, he has already judged in such competitions as the US Open Beer Championship and its cider equivalent.

Richard Preiss

Canada

Richard Preiss is a brewing scientist and fermentation expert. He co-owns Escarpment Laboratories, Canada’s premier yeast supplier and has helped many brewers fix problems and improve their processes. Richard’s focus is on translating research and data into better solutions and yeast strains for brewers.

Philip Kochanke

Canada

Philip Kochanke has been brewing professionally since 2010 and serves as Brewmaster at Ottawa’s longest-running production brewery, Kichesippi Beer. Following a brewing apprenticeship at a large regional German brewery, Philip received the title of Braumeister from
Doemens Academy in Munich in 2016. He combines his deep passion for the brewing process with a love of high quality traditional beer.

Nicole Jay

Canada

Kevin Freer

Canada

Matt Tweedy

Canada

Brad Barta

Canada

Brad Barta is the Pilot Plant Manager for Niagara College’s Food and Beverage Innovation Center. He was the lead brewer at Niagara College’s Teaching Brewery for six years prior to assuming his new position, as well being a part time instructor for the Brewmaster program. He
has taught courses on packaging, brewing equipment, the history of brewing, and two levels of sensory evaluation. Additionally, he is a graduate of the Niagara College’s Brewmaster Program and a previous winner of national beer and brewing awards.

Dane Glyn-Williams

Canada

Dane Glyn-Williams is an Advanced Cicerone, Certified BJCP Judge and Prud’homme Master Beer Sommelier based out of Toronto, Ontario. Dane has worked in the beer industry for the past six years and is currently part of the ownership team at Rouge River Brewing Company.

Victor North

Canada

Victor North is a National-ranked BJCP judge who has worked in the beer industry for over a decade. Originally employed as a brewer, he has been in a support role for the Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management Program at Niagara College since 2014.

Ian Morrison

Canada

Jordan St. John

Canada

Jordan St. John is a Certified Beer Judge and Certified Cicerone who has been the Head of the Beer Certificate program at Toronto’s George Brown College for half a decade. Author of five books on beer including the Heritage Toronto award nominated Lost Breweries of Toronto, and
two editions of The Ontario Craft Beer Guide, he is a frequent presence on radio and television programs nationally covering the subjects of Craft Beer and alcohol excise in Canada. He is the editor of The Growler Ontario and a contributor to LCBO Food and Drink.

Mark Horsley

Canada

Mark Horsley is the brewer and owner of Barrel Heart Brewing & Blending, a new brewery focused on barrel-aged saison using Ontario ingredients. He is also a professor in the Niagara College Brewmaster program with focus on sensory analysis.

Chelsea Tessier

Canada

Chelsea Tessier graduated with a BSc in Honours Science from the University of Waterloo, after which she worked for a decade in microbiology ecotoxicology in Edmonton. Chelsea has been a certified BJCP judge since 2018 and was the president of the Edmonton Homebrewers Guild for three years before stepping down to open her own brewery in 2023, Polyrhythm Brewing, which despite having been open for only five months, received a Judges Selection from the Alberta Beverage Awards that same year. Chelsea has judged the Alberta Beer Awards five times, the BC Beer Awards, the Prairie Beer Awards, and numerous homebrew competitions.