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.