Beer geekier

Photo: Matthew Taplinger

“If I spent as much time drinking beer as I do writing about and talking about beer, I’d have a very serious problem,” says Ray Daniels. The local beer god’s Designing Great Beers is cited as gospel by homebrewers and pros alike, the North American Guild of Beer Writers named him “Beer Writer of the Year,” and he’s an instructor at the local Seibel Institute brewing school. The man knows beer like the Cubs know losing.

And now he’s got his sights set on, as the old joke goes, our favorite beer…the next one. As director of the Cicerone Certification Program (essentially a beer-sommelier program), Daniels aims to arm beer-slingers with extensive beer knowledge. Visitors to cicerone.org can pony up $49 to take an online test to attain the title of Certified Beer Server—sample questions include persnickety details like “How much beer is contained in a standard ½ barrel U.S. keg?” (15.5 gallons) and “Hops contribute to what aspects of beer taste?” (aroma, flavor and bitterness). But a more grueling exam, the Certified Cicerone, will take place for the first time this week during the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego. For $295, attendees will endure two hours of fill-in-the-blank questions, followed by a tasting exam and a demonstration portion. After holding Certified status for six months, students may move on to the Master’s Cicerone test. Here, students go through a full day of essay and oral examinations.

Two Colorado breweries, New Belgium and Odell, have enlisted his services to put their on-site serving staffs through the course, and it’s only a matter of time before Certified Cicerone and Master’s exams are held in Chicago. “The rest of the world thinks that anybody who has ever been to a college kegger knows how to serve beer,” Daniels says. “But there’s a lot out there to learn.”

For more on wine sommelier programs, read Cork in the road.