beer sommelier
Beer sommeliers understand and advise on styles, brewing and best pairing of beers with foods in locations such as restaurants, breweries and shops. They know all about their ingredients, the history of the beers, glassware and draught systems. They prepare beer tastings, consult companies and customers, evaluate beer products and write about this subject.
beer sommelier beer sommeliers understand and advise on styles, brewing and best pairing of beers with foods in locations such as restaurants, breweries and shops. They know all about their ingredients, the history of the beers, glassware and draught systems. The role shows moderate AI exposure (0.50 on a 0-1 scale) — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. The most in-demand skills for the role include biotechnology, beer downstream processing, variety of beers, fermentation processes of beverages, brewhouse processes.
Pay in the UK
UK: median £22,936 a year for Waiters and waitresses (ONS ASHE 2025, full-time)
Middle half of full-time jobs: £18,363 to £27,395 a year
UK jobs are grouped differently; this is the closest UK occupation group (ONS SOC 2020 9264). ONS rates this estimate precise. 2025 provisional figures; ONS revises them a year later. Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Open Government Licence)
Pay in India (occupation group)
Average monthly earnings of salaried employees in the occupation group “Service and sales workers” in India, from the Government of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (January–December 2025). It covers everyone in this group, not only beer sommelier, and it is not US pay converted to rupees.
Source: MoSPI (Government of India), Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2025, Table 51 — average wage/salary earnings of regular wage/salaried employees, NCO-2015 division 5. Official India data gives one average per occupation group: there are no official India figures for single careers, experience levels or cities. Read the report
Top skills
Frequently asked questions
What does beer sommelier do?
Beer sommeliers understand and advise on styles, brewing and best pairing of beers with foods in locations such as restaurants, breweries and shops. They know all about their ingredients, the history of the beers, glassware and draught systems. They prepare beer tastings, consult companies and customers, evaluate beer products and write about this subject.
What skills does beer sommelier need?
The most in-demand skills for this role include biotechnology, beer downstream processing, variety of beers, fermentation processes of beverages, brewhouse processes, ingredients for beer production. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.
Will AI replace beer sommelier?
Our AI-durability model gives beer sommelier a score of 0.50 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.