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.