
What is beer connoisseurship?
Beer connoisseurs know the language of their favorite drink better than anyone else. They can tell you about malt content, hops used in the brewing process, alcohol percentage, beer slang, and more without skipping a beat. How does one become fluent in this language? How do you talk like a true beer aficionado?
What does it mean to be a connoisseur?
A connoisseur does not discriminate or let their personal feelings get in the way. Being cognizant of the immense complexity of beer and journeying on a never-ending quest for more knowledge is a key component of connoisseurship. However, sharing this knowledge and passion of beer with others is the essential component.
What is the difference between an ale and a lager?
For instance, ale would be one beer category that includes multiple beer styles with names such as India Pale Ale, porter, stout, brown, and much more. Lagers refer to a range of beer styles that include Pilsners and dark American beers.
What is a beer Cicerone?
But the close association with wine and a very formalized certification program for sommeliers led beer expert Ray Daniels to create a parallel certification for beer, and he chose cicerone as the name for accredited beer professionals in 2007.

What is a beer enthusiast called?
zythophile (plural zythophiles) (rare) A person who loves beer.
What is Cicerones?
Cicerone (/ˌtʃɪtʃəˈroʊni, ˌsɪsəˈ-/ CHITCH-ə-ROH-nee, SISS-) is an old term for a guide who conducts visitors and sightseers to museums, galleries, etc., and explains matters of archaeological, antiquarian, historic or artistic interest.
What is a beer steward?
The Beer Steward Certificate is the second-level program and is meant to help brewery marketing and salespeople, wholesalers, retail management, beer writers, and brewers. This program has, until now, required attendance at the Beer Steward Understanding Beer Flavor seminar.
What do you call a beer bartender?
A bartender (also known as a barkeep, barman, barmaid, or a mixologist) is a person who formulates and serves alcoholic or soft drink beverages behind the bar, usually in a licensed establishment.
What is a master beer taster called?
The word Cicerone (sis-uh-rohn) designates hospitality professionals with proven experience in selecting, acquiring and serving today's wide range of beers.
Who is a master Cicerone?
A Master Cicerone is the beer equivalent of the wine-centric Master Sommelier program. While more than 95,000 people have passed level one certification in the Cicerone program, only 19 have ever passed the two-day 20-hour long exam for the title of Master Cicerone, held only once a year in Chicago.
Why is it called Cicerone?
Cicerone comes from the name of the Roman statesman Cicero, known for his skills as an orator and rhetorician. Cicero's reputation for eloquence and learning led to the use of the Italian version of his name, Cicerone, to refer to sightseeing guides.
What is a liquor sommelier called?
You can become a beer sommelier — aka: Cicerone. Image by Canadian Business. By Shira Kogut on March 11, 2016. Sommeliers are your go-to professionals in the wine world. They are your experts when you want a good wine recommendation or to learn more about wine tasting, pairing and serving.
How do you get Cicerone?
To pass, and earn the title of Certified Cicerone, candidates need to score at least an 80% on the overall test, and at least a 70% on the tasting exam, no matter what the overall score is. Both written and tasting exams can be retaken separately.
What is the female version of bartender?
What is another word for female bartender?barmaidbarpersonhostesscocktail waitress
What does a black straw in a drink mean?
ago. Additional comment actions. A restaurant I worked it was: Black straws = alcoholic drink; clear straws = non-alcoholic drink.
How many Level 4 Cicerones are there?
19 Master CiceronesHow Many Level 4 Cicerones Are There? There are presently 19 Master Cicerones in the world.
Is the Cicerone test hard?
Now let's look at what study resources the CCP recommends for the second level of the program, Certified Cicerone. The CC exam is a seriously difficult in-person exam with written and tasting portions. Its passage rate is less than 40%, about 1 in 3. That's worse than the NY or CA State Bar Exams.
How much does it cost to become a Cicerone?
Candidates for this level of certification must be of legal drinking age. Exam Cost: $225 (USD) for written portion of exam; $175 for tasting & demonstration portion. $125 (USD) for retake tasting; $175 (USD) for retake written. Exam fees are non-refundable.
How do you pronounce Cicerones?
noun, plural cic·e·ro·nes, Italian cic·e·ro·ni [chee-che-raw-nee].
Beer Descriptors
The first thing you experience when getting a beer is how it looks. You see the beer glass in front of yourself and take in all its beauty - from color, clarity, carbonation, and cleanliness.
People
Beer connoisseurs can identify the aroma of different beers by their smell. They take time before drinking any kind of beer and compare it with what they tasted in their mouth, where texture, coloration, as well as head all come into play for determining quality levels.
Measurements
Alcohol by volume is a measurement of how much ethanol (alcohol) there is in beer. Beer bottles, cans, and kegs all have their own specific ABV values which are used to determine what percentage that particular beverage contains compared with other similar-sized containers.
Brewing Tools and Beer Products
An airlock is a piece of homebrewing equipment that is used to maintain an anaerobic environment inside your fermentation vessel. It prevents bacteria and oxygen from getting into your vessels and allows carbon dioxide to be released outside.
Processes
In a beer-making process, attenuation refers to how much sugar is converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide during the fermentation process. A higher attenuation means more conversion has occurred.
Slang Terms
This beer terminology refers to that one beer you couldn't finish the night before and you regret opening it just because someone suggested it.
What are the two types of beer?
To simplify matters for you, beer can be split into two categories- ale and lager. Once you understand the difference between these two beer types, you can continue your education by pinpointing particular beer styles.
What is the flavor of lager beer?
A majority of lager beers types exude a medium to a pale color, have a medium to high level hop flavor, as well as high carbonation content.
What Are Most Popular Beer Types?
When discussing popular beer types, ales are hands down the oldest type simply because historians have found that it has existed for over 5000 years. The main distinction ales have over any other beer type is that you brew it with top-fermenting yeast at cellar temperature.
Why is lager called lager?
The etymology of the word lager is indeed a German word "lagern" which means "to store." It earned this name because you have to store lagers for several months at a time in temperatures that are near freezing. The longer you age lagers, the more refreshing and smooth it'll taste.
What does an ales taste like?
In regards to flavor, ales have a full-bodied taste that has bits of spice or fruit along with a hoppy finish. The process of top-fermenting along with the increased presence of hops in the wort ensures the ales distinctive taste.
How to tell if it's an Amber Ale?
Take a whiff of an Amber beer, and you'll be hit with a subtle presence of caramel and malt. If the beer has an intense fruity aroma as well as a reddish tint to it, that is a sign that it is an Amber Ale.
How to identify malt beer?
You can readily identify a malt beer based on its color since this beer type can have dark brown to copper hues.
What is a beer sommelier?
A beer sommelier, also called a cicerone, is a trained professional, working in the hospitality and alcoholic beverage industry, who specializes in the service and knowledge of beer. The knowledge required for certification includes an understanding of styles, brewing, ingredients, history of beer and brewing, glassware, beer service, ...
What is a Cicerone certification?
One of the largest certifications is the "Cicerone" program, which is a registered trademark of the Craft Beer Institute. However, the term has seen usage in a generic sense as well.
What to call a local beer expert?
What To Call Your Local Beer Expert. If someone who helps you select a wine is a sommelier, someone who helps you pick a beer is a... A wine expert who helps you choose a bottle to go with dinner at a restaurant is called a sommelier.
What does "cicerone" mean?
Cicerone has been used in English since the 18th century, meaning both “a guide who conducts sightseers” and “mentor” or “tutor.” Noah Webster included it in his dictionary in 1828:
How to pronounce Cicerone?
The new “beer expert” sense of cicerone is usually pronounced [&sih-suh-ROHN &], but traditionally the English word is pronounced either sih-suh-ROH-nee or (more like the Italian) chee-chuh-ROH-nee .
Where did the name Cicerone come from?
Cicerone comes from the name of the Roman statesman Cicero, known for his skills as an orator and rhetorician. Cicero's reputation for eloquence and learning led to the use of the Italian version of his name, Cicerone, to refer to sightseeing guides. The name Cicero itself derives from cicer, the Latin word for chickpea.
What is Gose beer?
The Gose style, which has experienced a modern resurgence due to its drinkability and thirst-quenching elements, is an unfiltered sour beer style that is often cloudy and ha zy in appearance .
What is the color of unfiltered beer?
Crystal clear pilsners and lagers won the beauty contest in the early days of American craft brewing, as the striking image of a light yellow, champagne- like pils is still perhaps the most evocative beer image to the masses. But at what cost?
Why is IPA called New England?
Unfiltered Hazy IPAs are often called New England IPAs because they were pioneered in that region, starting with The Alchemist and Lawson’s Finest Liquids with its hazy Sip of Sunshine IPA. Photo Courtesy Lawson's Finest Liquids.
Why are wild ales cloudy?
Though IPAs are clearly the standard bearer for unfiltered beers in the modern craft beer scene, many sour and wild ales often feature a certain haziness due to the presence of wild yeast or from bottle-conditioning after packaging. The Gose style, which has experienced a modern resurgence due to its drinkability and thirst-quenching elements, is an unfiltered sour beer style that is often cloudy and hazy in appearance. A number of popular sour and wild ales (such as Prairie Artisan Ales Funky Gold Simcoe, Orpheus Brewing’s Serpent Bite and De Proef and Trillium’s Bouket) have gained ground due to another process that benefits from the popularity of hazy beers: dry hopping.
What is the difference between filtered and unfiltered beer?
Perhaps the singular word that expresses the greatest difference between filtered and unfiltered beers is “soft.” Nowhere is that softness more apparent in unfiltered beers than the strikingly different approaches taken to American IPAs in recent years.
What is the most notable style parameter for American IPAs and Double IPAs throughout their history?
The single most notable style parameter for American IPAs and Double IPAs throughout their history has been that lip-smacking snap of bitterness that occurs due to an immense IBU quotient as well as an often hearty malt bill to balance out the heavily hopped style.
What is the flavor of Grevensteiner?
Grevensteiner pours with a very minimal foam stand and has a soft, malty mouthfeel eschewing bitterness in favor of a “complex flavor that is first dominated by caramel with a slight undertone of honey, roasted almonds, and fresh fruity flavors of green apple,” according to the brewery.
What does "hoppy" mean in beer?
The word is popular in the U.S. It refers to beer that has carbonated bubbles and a hoppy flavor.
How many people drink beer?
According to statistics, more than 86% of adults have drunk beer at a certain point in life. Most drinking happens in groups when with friends or relatives. Beer has been able to bring people together and initiate relationships for centuries.
When did Fosters Lager start marketing?
Fosters Lager essentially did this marketing in Australia, where the word is popular. The marketing campaign took place in the 1980s. They also introduced Amber Fluid and Amber Liquid.

Beer Types / Styles
Beer Descriptors
- The first thing you experience when getting a beer is how it looks. You see the beer glassin front of yourself and take in all its beauty - from color, clarity, carbonation, and cleanliness. This is one of the reasons why using an appropriate glass for different styles of brewsis essential. The aroma of the beer is always a mainstay when it comes to drinking. After you take in the appearance, yo…
Beer Ingredients / Additives
- In the brewing industry, adjunct refers to any addition that supplements the main ingredient used in a particular beer. Some of the most common examples of adjuncts include corn, rye, rice, and oats. Esters refers to the sweet, fruity flavors that a brew develops during fermentation. They can vary in flavors and aroma between pears or bananas. They're usually found at very high concent…
People
- Beer connoisseurs can identify the aroma of different beers by their smell. They take time before drinking any kind of beer and compare it with what they tasted in their mouth, where texture, coloration, as well as head all come into play for determining quality levels. A brewmaster is in charge of making sure that all aspects and processes related...
Measurements
- Alcohol by volume is a measurement of how much ethanol (alcohol) there is in beer. Beer bottles, cans, and kegs all have their own specific ABV values which are used to determine what percentage that particular beverage contains compared with other similar-sized containers. Fermentable sugars in beer can affect the alcohol content. These byproducts of fermentation cre…
Brewing Tools and Beer Products
- An airlock is a piece of homebrewing equipment that is used to maintain an anaerobic environment inside your fermentation vessel. It prevents bacteria and oxygen from getting into your vessels and allows carbon dioxide to be released outside. A bung is quite similar to an airlock in terms of purpose. It's also a device that allows natural carbon dioxide buildup from the …
Processes
- In a beer-making process, attenuation refers to how much sugar is converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide during the fermentation process. A higher attenuation means more conversion has occurred. Bottle conditioning is a process where sugar is added to the beer in its bottle which the yeast will ferment. This starts the second fermentation process. As it ferments, carbon dioxide wi…
Slang Terms
- This beer terminology refers to that one beer you couldn't finish the night before and you regret opening it just because someone suggested it. This means bringing a variety of beers to quaff and enjoying by yourself or with friends and family. Over-carbonation is what causes bottle bombs. They explode before you can even open them, leading to beer waste and mess. This is what cra…