Melissa Cole’s passion is life is getting people to learn as little, or as much, as they want about what she considers the finest social lubricant known to humankind - beer.
Respected the world over for her fine palate, she is invited to judge at competitions in New Zealand, the US and Brazil, as well as closer to home in the UK and across Europe.
Aware of the impact this can have on the future prosperity of breweries she has also spent years educating herself about how to properly assess beer, partly through achieving her Certified Cicerone© but also about the brewing process, by getting her hands dirty making collaboration beers with breweries across the globe, like Fuller's, Odell, St Austell, Thornbridge, Rooster's, Ilkley, Anspach & Hobday, New Holland and Brasserie de la Senne to name but a few.
Melissa’s other passion is food and she is recognised as probably the UK’s leading expert in pairing, and cooking with, beer having spent years dedicated to figuring out which beers work in which dishes and why (which she regularly calls ‘making a whole series of disgusting mistakes, so you don’t have to’).
September 2017 saw the launch of her second book, The Little Book of Craft Beer*, which keeps true to her passion for simple beer communication that neither baffles nor patronises the audience, as Melissa just wants people to enjoy beer as much as she does... which is a lot!
*Published by Hardie Grant, which is a company full of people who are a joy to work with.
Respected the world over for her fine palate, she is invited to judge at competitions in New Zealand, the US and Brazil, as well as closer to home in the UK and across Europe.
Aware of the impact this can have on the future prosperity of breweries she has also spent years educating herself about how to properly assess beer, partly through achieving her Certified Cicerone© but also about the brewing process, by getting her hands dirty making collaboration beers with breweries across the globe, like Fuller's, Odell, St Austell, Thornbridge, Rooster's, Ilkley, Anspach & Hobday, New Holland and Brasserie de la Senne to name but a few.
Melissa’s other passion is food and she is recognised as probably the UK’s leading expert in pairing, and cooking with, beer having spent years dedicated to figuring out which beers work in which dishes and why (which she regularly calls ‘making a whole series of disgusting mistakes, so you don’t have to’).
September 2017 saw the launch of her second book, The Little Book of Craft Beer*, which keeps true to her passion for simple beer communication that neither baffles nor patronises the audience, as Melissa just wants people to enjoy beer as much as she does... which is a lot!
*Published by Hardie Grant, which is a company full of people who are a joy to work with.