What, in the beer world, would be the equivalent of wine’s sommelier? Is there any system set in place to become an officially recognized beer expert, lending your extensive knowledge of fermented grain beverages to the general public?

There is, and Cicerone is its name. Well, that’s the certification program started by Ray Daniels, as well as the name of the “beer sommelier”. On May 2nd, the organization announced its first five to pass the exam to become Certified Cicerones. They are as follows:

Rob Gerrity - Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
Scott Kerkmans - Four Points by Sheraton
Ron Kloth - Papago Brewing Company
Andrew Waer - Unaffiliated
Neil Witte - Boulevard Brewing Company

Congratulations to these individuals on passing that grueling exam. Now the Chief Beer Officer at Four Points is also a Certified Cicerone, so that should lend some credibility to his operations over there.

Looking at the Cicerone website in the past, and even taking a sample quiz to test some of my beer knowledge, I came across the certification levels, which include the price list. It’s $50 to become a bonafide Beer Server, $295 to be a Certified Cicerone, and $495 to become a Master Cicerone.

As far as I can tell, the syllabus is made available to the hopeful inductee, and they have to seek out as much of this knowledge as possible to become certified. Then, and only then, do you pay the handsome fee in an attempt to be official in the eyes of the program.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. While a certified beer expert seems like it’d be a classy step up, I don’t know about the program itself. Doesn’t sound like there’s a whole lot of available training offered by the Cicerone program, not to mention paying good money to have an organization certify you. How can you be sure your $495 doesn’t go to waste on an exam that has unqualified standards?

As it stands, I don’t think many people are clamoring to have a Cicerone offer them food pairing advice or select a suitable beer for them from the restaurant’s beer list. Frankly, not many places have enough of a beer list to warrant such an expert (or a menu to match), and the ones that do have both are a scant few in only the country’s largest cities.

Part of the effort to certify people as Cicerones, according to its website, appears to be granting credibility to the beer world and its denizens of varying expertise. With that comes a price tag, and the end result may not be something that the beer world wants or needs.