Process: Yeast & Fermentation

After the wort is boiled, cooled, and aerated, yeast is added, or pitched, into the sugary solution to begin the wort's transformation into beer.

Process: Boiling, Whirlpool, Chilling, Aeration

After lautering (the separation of wort from the spent grain), the wort is heated to a rolling boil. 

Process: Milling, Mashing, Lautering

The first phase of brewing beer is the extraction of sugar from malted barley. This sugar is what yeast will consume to produce alcohol. 

Ingredients: Yeast

Yeast is a single celled fungus that takes sugars extracted from grain and transforms them into alcohol and carbon dioxide in a process called fermentation.

That's a pretty general overview of what yeast does, and to become a Certified Cicerone, you'll need to understand fermentation in slightly, but only slightly, more detail. 

Ingredients: Hops

Hops provide a bitter counterpoint to barley malt's sweetness, as well as adding unique aromas and flavors to beer.

BJCP Beer Style Guideline Changes

Virginia Thomas, Business Manager for the Cicerone Certification Program recently tweeted about upcoming changes to the Cicerone Certification Syllabus.

She wrote:

The Cicerone® Certification Program uses the BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) style guidelines as a reference for all information related to beer styles. The BJCP has recently released the 2015 version of the guidelines, with a number of revisions to the 2008 guidelines. Once the 2015 guidelines have been thoroughly reviewed by our staff, we will begin to incorporate them into our syllabi and then our testing materials. However, we will wait at least 90 days from the publishing of updated syllabi before we begin testing on the new guidelines. In the meantime, we will continue using the 2008 guidelines in all of our testing material. If you plan on taking any Cicerone exams in 2015, you will be tested on the 2008 guidelines. Stay posted or check out our newsletter for future announcements related to the implementation of the new guidelines. 

Here are some related links:

2008 BJCP Guidelines
2015 BJCP Guidelines
What you need to know about the revised BJCP Guidelines
Certified Cicerone Exam Schedule
Cicerone Program Support Center

Ingredients: Grain (3 of 3)

While many styles of beer are made using only water, malted barley, hops, and yeast, some beer styles use grains other than malted barley. 

Anything other than malted barley that is incorporated into beer brewing is called an adjunct.

Ingredients: Grain (2 of 3)

Malting is the process that takes barley kernels, creates enzymes that break down the kernel's starch reserves, and converts those starches into sugar.

Ingredients: Grain (1 of 3)

Grain is to beer as grapes are to wine.

All beer is made from grain, and the majority of that grain is malted barley.

Ingredients: Water

"Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely,"and go on till you come to the end: then stop."
 
- from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland

While many people successfully use the syllabus supplied by the Cicerone Certification Program to prepare for the certification exam, I feel that the official syllabus is not organized in a way that helps one learn the material.

I've reorganized the elements of professional beer knowledge into a cohesive sequence which tells the story of beer from grain to glass to gullet. I think that this sequence better lends itself to self study and staff training.
 
Instead of beginning with the keeping and serving of beer, I will begin at the beginning... 

Cicerone Reference Library

Here are some indispensable resources for preparing to take the Certified Cicerone exam:

thoughts on the exam

Several people have written about their experiences taking the Certified Cicerone exam. I found that reading these accounts helped me become mentally prepared for test taking.

Here are links to some of my favorites:
 

Practical Demonstration

Part of the Certified Cicerone exam involves a practical demonstration of a skill involved in keeping and serving beer. This section accounts for about 4% of your total score.

Dealing with test anxiety

Exam scoring

Be patient. It will take several weeks for you to receive the results of your Cicerone certification exam. Your test is graded multiple times in order to ensure fairness and accuracy.

There are five knowledge areas covered by the exam, and they carry different weights in exam scoring.

Tasting Exam (Fit for service)

A Master Sommelier once gave me some of the best advice that I've ever gotten about tasting wine, and I think it applies equally well to tasting beer. He told me:

Tasting Exam (style differentiation)

For the style differentiation portion of the tasting exam, you will be given a sample of beer and two beer style names. You will be asked which style the sample is most representative of. There are four samples in this portion of the test.

Start preparing for this section of the test by reading the BJCP Beer Style Comparison.

Tasting Exam (off flavors)

The tasting portion of the Certified Cicerone exam has three sections:

1) Off flavor identification
2) Style differentiation
3) Fit for service determination

There are 12 questions, and you must get a minimum of 70% correct in order to pass. Of the tasting questions, the four off flavor questions and the four style differentiation questions account for half of your score. The Fit for Service section accounts for the other half.

The tasting portion of the exam generates about 16-17% of your final score.

This post covers the off-flavors section of the tasting exam.
 

Sample Exam: Essay Questions

This is an unofficial answer key. I've supplied what I think are correct answers to the sample Certified Cicerone Exam supplied on the Cicerone.org website. 

I've cited sources and provided links for more in depth study, and I hope that this will aid you in preparing for the exam. 

Please use the comments section to leave questions and/or differences in opinion.  

This answer key uses the following abbreviations:

TB         Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher

BJCP       Beer Judge Certification Program Style Guidelines

Cicerone Certification Program 

Certified Cicerone Exam
April 2008 

Essay Questions 

Sample Exam: Beer and Food Pairing

This is an unofficial answer key for the sample Certified Cicerone Exam supplied on the Cicerone.org website.

I've supplied what I think are correct answers. I've cited sources and provided links for more in depth study, and I hope that this will aid you in preparing for the exam.

Please use the comments section below to leave questions and/or differences in opinion.

When citing sources, this answer key uses the following abbreviations:

TB         Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher

Cicerone Certification Program
Certified Cicerone Exam
April 2008

Beer and Food Pairing 

Sample Exam: Ingredients

This is an unofficial answer key for the sample Certified Cicerone Exam supplied on the Cicerone.org website.

I've supplied what I think are correct answers. I've cited sources and provided links for more in depth study, and I hope that this will aid you in preparing for the exam.

Please use the comments section below to leave questions and/or differences in opinion.

When citing sources, this answer key uses the following abbreviations:

TB         Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher

CBC       The Complete Beer Course by Joshua Bernstein

HTB       How To Brew by John Palmer

Cicerone Certification Program
Certified Cicerone Exam
April 2008

IV. Ingredients:  
 

Sample Exam: Beer Flavor and Evaluation

This is an unofficial answer key. I've supplied what I think are correct answers to the sample Certified Cicerone Exam supplied on the Cicerone.org website. 

I've cited sources and provided links for more in depth study, and I hope that this will aid you in preparing for the exam. 

Please use the comments section to leave questions and/or differences in opinion.  

This answer key uses the following abbreviations: 

TB         Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher 
CBC       The Complete Beer Course by Joshua Bernstein 

Cicerone Certification Program 

Certified Cicerone Exam
April 2008

III. Beer Flavor and Evaluation:
 

Sample exam: Beer Styles (2 of 2)

This is an unofficial answer key. I've supplied what I think are correct answers to the sample Certified Cicerone Exam supplied on the Cicerone.org website. 

I've cited sources and provided links for more in depth study, and I hope that this will aid you in preparing for the exam. 

Please use the comments section to leave questions and/or differences in opinion.  

This answer key uses the following abbreviations:

TB         Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher

BJCP       Beer Judge Certification Program Style Guidelines

Cicerone Certification Program 
Certified Cicerone Exam
April 2008
(continued)

Sample exam: Beer Styles (1 of 2)

This is an unofficial answer key. I've supplied what I think are correct answers to the sample Certified Cicerone Exam supplied on the Cicerone.org website. 

I've cited sources and provided links for more in depth study, and I hope that this will aid you in preparing for the exam. 

Please use the comments section to leave questions and/or differences in opinion.  

This answer key uses the following abbreviations:

TB         Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher

BJCP       Beer Judge Certification Program Style Guidelines

 Cicerone Certification Program 

Certified Cicerone Exam
April 2008

(continued)

Sample Exam: Beer Glassware

This is an unofficial answer key. I've supplied what I think are correct answers to the April 2008 Certified Cicerone Exam, and I've cited sources and provided links for more in depth study.

Cicerone Certification Program
Certified Cicerone Exam
April 2008 
(continued)

Beer Glassware
For each of the beer styles listed below, indicate the letter the pictured glass you think would be most appropriate for serving that style in. (More than one glass may be suitable for some styles.) Please note the volume indication for each glass. 
 
(The emphasis is mine. This is an unofficial answer key. If you think that any answer is incorrect, please leave a comment below.)

Sample Exam: Keeping and Serving Beer (2 of 2)

This is an unofficial answer key. I've supplied what I think are correct answers to the April 2008 Certified Cicerone Exam, and I've cited sources and provided links for more in depth study.

Please leave questions in the comments section below.

When citing sources, this answer key uses the following abbreviations:

TB         Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher

BJCP     Beer Judge Certification Program Style Guidelines

DQM      Brewer's Association's Draft Quality Manual

Cicerone Certification Program
Certified Cicerone Exam
April 2008 
(continued)

Sample Exam: Keeping and Serving Beer (1 of 2)

This is an unofficial answer key for the sample Certified Cicerone Exam supplied on the Cicerone.org website.

I've supplied what I think are correct answers. I've cited sources and provided links for more in depth study, and I hope that this will aid you in preparing for the exam.

Please use the comments section below to leave questions and/or differences in opinion.

When citing sources, this answer key uses the following abbreviations:

TB         Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher

BJCP     Beer Judge Certification Program Style Guidelines

DQM      Brewer's Association Draft Quality Manual

Cicerone Certification Program
Certified Cicerone Exam
April 2008