Six new ways to become a wine, beer or spirits expert in 2020

Take a deep dive into American beer

The Cicerone Certification Programme, which provides a wide range of courses for those who want to get to grips with beer appreciation, recently introduced an American Beer Styles coursebook and specialist exam to its Road to Cicerone education series.

These courses educate beer professionals looking to set themselves apart in the industry, taking into account beer history, brewing methods, service, and styles, in a textbook laid out over 16 chapters. The accompanying online specialist exam consists of 72 Certified Cicerone-level questions, while the learning activities themselves involve side-by-side beer tasting comparisons, building up your hop aroma memory, malt comparisons, and exploring how various fermentation styles can affect the flavour of your beer.

Launched in 2008 by brewer and author Ray Daniels, the Cicerone Certification aims to educate those working in all aspects of the beer industry, whether brewers or servers or writers, focusing on topics such as keeping and serving beer, beer styles, evaluation, key beer ingredients and brewing processes, and food pairings. There are four levels to the Cicerone programme

While the Cicerone programme originated in the US, it launched two courses; Certified Beer Server and Certified Cicerone® exam syllabi, in the UK in 2018.