I tripped at the Master level and who knows if I’ll try again one day… It’s like an arcade game… you always want to get to the next level. Here is how my journey to Cicerone started…!
My passion for beer is my morning caffeine. It takes me out of bed for a good start.
Lucky enough some of my previous bosses spotted that positive energy and gave me a chance to splash it around. I gave all kinds of training (or say…beer experiences) trying to always put a great deal of stories and fun facts. Com’on it’s all supposed to be fun.
It’s just natural that after so many years of zythology, animating beer and food pairing diners, reading books (the best one being referenced on this website) and experimenting with beer everywhere in the world I felt like it would be great to challenge my “Sommelier” knowledge with a proper certification. Never know …it may be handy one day! Also being back on the benches with other geeks and beer guru’s could only be fun. I wanted to be part of that. If you’ve seen the documentary Somm!, Hey Bartender or Barista …. Then you know what I mean (and if not, you must see these docs)
Cicerone is definitely the most recognized program. It’s a beer sommelier program, not a brewmaster program. It makes it nicely complementary, covering a bit of the brewing, malting and ingredient parts but focusing mostly on Beer styles, Glasswares, Beer and Food pairing, Tasting and Serving which usually don’t make it to Brewmaster programs.
Note that there are many (not plenty) other programs like Doemens Sommelier and the Brazilian Sommelier de Cervejas… I had no excuse not to do it! Not that I have a lot of spare time but I start with a solid background….I’m a brewmaster after all so all thing brewing and malting biochemistry, technology, food science should not be out of reach. Then I’ve been working in beer for 17 years giving me practical experience and finally all these years reading books and training people set me up for a great start.
So, no excuse. On top of this personal challenge it would give me a chance to meet people, gauge the program and define if I would recommend it (for who and for what)
I keep calling them level 1 to 4 which I’m not supposed to do. Each level has a very defined name and we’re supposed to keep it that way. So The CBS, Certified Beer Server is the entry exam. Multiple choice, online, nice and simple. Respect for all the 100000+ people who passed this exam. For a newbie it puts you definitely above the crowd and provide all the conversation starters to make you enjoy a beer with friends and give beer the respect it deserves. I don’t like the name that much though. You end up being a “CBS” (I’m tired of acronyms) or a “Certified Beer Server” which many of us are not… I’d prefer “Junior Cicerone” or anything like that. Note that this was initially designed to elevate bar staffs I believe so…historically it make sense (the program has been on for 10 years or so).
Level 2, I mean Certified Cicerone is definitely a step up. Exam in a classroom (or a pub in New Jersey in my case), 4-5h, multiple choice, essays, beer tasting and a practical exercise. Note that I’m not disclosing anything here, it’s all clear on their website so I mostly share my experience. I must say I had to spend quite some time locking beer style metrics in my brain. Beyond 40 remembering bitterness, alcohol, color ranges for 80+ beer styles is a solid pain. You won’t get away with medium-high… nope, you need the numbers. In fairness I don’t think this is the most useful part but I suppose it’s a bit of a filter to keep the most dedicated people. That was 3 months after my CBS. It was awesome. Think this was my first diploma since so many years.
I was so exited that I immediately put my name on the list for the next level Advanced Cicerone. At that time this exam was only organized twice a year which gave me 3-4 months to be ready and jump on a plane to San Diego. When every evening you pull 4-5 bottles of beer: an irish stout, an American stout, an English porter, a Baltic porter and a sweet stout…to hopefully and joyfully learn the subtle differences between each style… you need to have a very lovely family that trust you’re studying.
As you progress through the levels, the scope is somehow the same but the depth makes all the difference. More beers to know, more details to provide, more complex food pairing, faster reaction,…I used my daily 1 hour train commute to study more in depth Beer Sommelier expertise. By lack of time I actually ended up studying in every single place: dentist waiting room, plane, train, ….
The Advanced Cicerone exam is a full long and exhausting day classroom exam, with a fair amount of samples to taste, beer faults, beer styles and 2 short oral exams…These things are a bit like drugs, the more you’re into it, the more you need it. So when my Level 3 Advanced Cicerone diploma arrived at home, I had to celebrate with a beer and make the final decision. How about the Master.
The ultimate final step, once a year, the cream of the cream, with only 14 people qualified in the world, very select group (there are 17 by now). So I put my name in the hat and got confirmed for 4 months later. Maybe that was just all going too quick but I was in a “shop till you drop” mood.
The Master takes place in the Cicerone offices in Chicago. 2 days exam. If I recall correctly we had 4 tasting sessions, 6 oral exams and another 6h of written exam each day. I won’t disclose the content of course to leave a bit of mystery. 20 incredibly prepared and passionate people. A set of judges made of Brewmasters, Beer Writers, Educators, Chefs,…. That was a huge treat and I felt like a kid. After 2 days my left hand was shaking. Maybe it was all theses samples, also a bit the stress and for sure the 40+ pages of essays written in two days with a pen. The atmosphere was competitive, stimulating and energizing. I was grateful to be there, to be part of it.
Long story short, I didn’t make it. I missed 5 points to hit the 85% mark to become a Master Cicerone. But what an experience. One of the best moment came just after these 2 days exam. Believe it or not, I wanted a beer. A full glass of beer. Not a beer to analyze, not a beer to think, not a sample. I ended up at Forbidden Roots. Randy Mosher himself was there. He happened to be one the the judges for the exam. He saw me and gave me a warm congratulation, suggested some beers to try, including a brewed Manhattan. That was a peaceful and rewarding finish.
So what’s the bottom line? I learned a lot and felt again that beer knowledge has no limit. I met great people, was grilled by industry experts, taste thousands of beers, got better at zooming inside the very complexity of beer styles, managed to learn how to fix draft line problems (when there’s a problem and you’re the beer guy… you can’t just pass and say you don’t know how to fix foam…).
I missed a few things though and I wish the program will evolve in that direction. As much as the brewing science is a true science, made of thermodynamic, biochemistry, mechanic, microbiology…. The sommelier part is the magic. It’s the story that makes the beer taste better and more meaningful, it’s the advice for perfect choice and perfect understanding of consumer preference in each situation, with or without food. It’s a charming and magic connection to build between beer and people. I have missed that a lot. I don’t remember being asked anytime to talk about history of styles or to build a convincing story for a consumer. I believe these are soft skills that are critical for sommeliers. I wish there would be exercises where we’d talk to consumers, advise them and serve them beer. The last thing we need is to turn the sommelier magic into an intellectual and boring science.
Another part that I believe should be integrated in the program is the requirement to brew a beer like so many homebrewers do, visit breweries, hop fields, malthouses, beer festivals, Oktoberfest,…. This is probably more difficult to control and I like to believe most of the candidate are so passionate that they would anyway do this… but still you don’t want to be a desktop intellectual sommelier.
Thanks to everyone who was part of this. I enjoyed so much! (and congrats to Ryan who made it to the ultimate Master Cicerone dream team)
