Having been born and raised in Namibia, my earliest memories of beer is having a sip of my dad’s Windhoek Draught. However, it was only during my MSc Food Science at Stellenbosch University, that I was first truly introduced to the exciting world of beer. I joined the Maties Intervarsitybrew team in 2022, and was fortunate enough to attend the Intervarsitybrew competition for 2 years in a row. The experience of Intervarsitybrew, and the beer/brewing community in general, inspired me to pursue a career in beer. I joined Buffels Brew in Rustenburg as a brewer while I was in the last 3 months of completing my MSc. During my time with Buffels Brew, I had the opportunity of developing a new beer, which was launched as the Magalies Lager in February 2024. During a tour of the processing facilities at SAB Hop farm in George, their recent investment in a near-infrared spectrophotometer for hop quality analysis sparked a conversation about NIR spectroscopy, which formed a large part of my MSc project. As a result, I was approached to join their lab team to assist with the NIR and HPLC analysis. I had the privilege of joining SAB Hop Farms in June this year as a contracted quality lab technician. I proud to be a part of the amazing team that brings top quality hops to brewer’s worldwide and I’m excited to see where the rest of my beer journey takes me.