I always want to learn! And what is more fun than learning about beer? Well, as the first teacher in the program said: “It doesn’t necessarily get more fun when you start noticing all that is wrong about the beer you’re drinking…”. To me, though, that actually is very interesting, and I don’t think I’ll enjoy my imbibement any less. Not yet, anyway!
In the Netherlands we have a bunch of online, simple, few hour courses that are supposed to give you the basics of beer knowledge. That was not was I was looking for, so I ended up with the largest, well-recognized, “Foundation for Beer Education in the Netherlands” (in Dutch: “Stichting Bieropleidingen Nederland”, or StiBON). They have several programs. One for brewing at the Dutch MBO level and several small one-off workshops etc., but I picked the program consisting of three levels that make you climb the ladder from Beer Ambassador 1 and 2 to Diplom Biersommelier with the Kiesbye Academy given at the Bierkulturhaus in Obertrum (Austria). The program is available in both Dutch and English. Don’t get me wrong: I only got through all the lessons for level 1 and the exam is awaiting me later this month. If I pass, with high enough marks, level 2 will open up!
Why did I do this? Why should more people follow the course? What did we discuss? Read on to find out!
A shared beer always tastes better
The brilliant physicist Richard Feynman already explained beautifully how understanding something better makes you appreciate the beauty of it even more in this video (note: not beer related).
It is no different with beer.
Appreciating the beauty of a beer works quite well from the comfort of my couch. I can sit down, take my time, and appreciate the aromas and flavor sitting in my glass. I can even pay enough attention to notice it change over time, as my beer catches light, air and heat. Lovely. I do have some friends who enjoy a beer, and sharing beers does indeed make it even more of a delight. Joining a group of 10 to 15 fellow beer nerds, though, who are willing to spend good money and sit together in the back room of a brewpub to deepen their knowledge at a serious level, is next level beer sharing. Friendships, and even a small network in the world of beer, grow quickly.
Knowledge demands quality
Do I think people should only do this for fun? Well, mostly. I do nevertheless alaso think that it would be good if more people know more about beer. Especially those who work in the hospitality industry should have the basics down, to the level of this first course in the program. Places that are all about beer (craft beer bars, brewery tasting rooms, organized beer tastings, you name it) should really have their personell up to speed about the product they sell (because let’s be honest, it’s more than just selling a drink!) and should not even doubt for a second to properly train their full workforce.
If enough customers, hence a fair fraction of consumers of these products, have a decent basic knowledge level, that will force the traders to also up their skills, be it retailers or the catering industry. I would evangelize courses like these (or even just the few hour online programs, although I do have my opinions about most of these) in the hope to get the general knowledge level just a tad higher. That would be great for consumers and producers alike. Does everbyody need to be a sommelier, cicerone or certified beer judge? Of course not, but at least show that you know the basics, and be honest when you don’t.
My hope is that in a few years, I won’t hear any mispronounced beer styles (for the Dutch: “ipaatje”, ew!), misconceptions about common styles (“this is yellow, a tripel should be darker than a double!”, wut?), beer served far from its ideal temperature (who can properly appreciate a barley wine at below 5 degrees?) or non-sense stories (“high quality beer is clear”) anymore, anywhere. And you’d think that handling, storing and serving beer is the core business of your local brewpub, but I bet you: many severely assault your favorite beverage before pouring it into your (hopefully clean!) glass. Let’s demand better than this:
It’s all about flavor
So what did we discuss in the program? Given that the goal was to cover the basics, but all of the basics, all six sessions had a theme. It is a program geared towards flavor, so every single evening there was a tasting, discussing flavor of various styles and how it relates to raw ingredients and the production process.
The very first thing you then obviously need to discuss is proper, objective, descriptive tasting. Setting emotions, preference and such subjective aspects of experiencing a drink aside isn’t trivial, but being systematic about what you do and sense helps a lot. Does that take out the fun? Not in the slightest. You are free to get all emotional after the analysis, don’t worry. Episode 1 is completely dedicated to the theory and practice of tasting. Perfect intro for all the other sessions. Talking about all sessions: they come with theory and six different new beers to taste. Six beers. Every. Single. Time. Awesomeness.
The tasting being the connecting thread throughout all sessions, there are a lot of topics to be covered. History, beer styles and modern trends give some cultural background, while the legal bits, social hygiene, beer handling, storage and serving are all focused on how to get beer from the brew kettles into your glass. What an alcoholic substance can do to your health and well-being gets proper attention as well, and the tasting comes in small enough quantities that driving afterwards should be fine. Of course, there is also plenty of attention for the raw materials and how they affect flavor, color and froth.
The lesson on the brewing process is an excursion! A local brewery will host the session, so the process can be seen from up close. In that one we also tasted semi-finished products from the fermentation tanks alongside the beer they were supposed to become, an imperial porter that was barrel aged in two different red wine barrels, and two beers from the same wort, just fermented by different yeast strains. The difference blew my mind.
Before the session on beer food pairings, dinner would not have been a necessity. The evening was chock-full of flavor, flavor combinations (mostly good, some bad) and how to think about, design and evaluate combinations of beer with food. Full tables, full stomachs. Although discussing the theory earlier with some food and saving the other food pairings for later sessions would not be a bad idea, I think this was a great round up of the program.
What else is out there?
Is this the only program? That would be rather inconvenient, given that this program is only available in the Netherlands. There are a variety of big, recognized, global programs that can teach you similar things. Perhaps the most famous is the Cicerone Certification Program (“Certified Cicerone” or “Advanced Cicerone” are frequently seen qualifications of beer professionals). It is somewhat easier to do this in the US than elsewhere, but if you’re patient, your time will come. The program is not too dissimilar in content, except that the StiBON is focused on the Dutch market and regulations, and the levels are not one-to-one.
The Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP, well known for their style guide) is a program that is geared towards training beer judges for beer competitions. It has an exam and based on exam results and “experience points” you can work your way up through various levels.
I’m pretty usre there’s plenty else, but these are the ones I frequently encounter. Certifications like these are rather serious. I always have to giggle a bit when a social media profile tells me the person “studied at X”, where X is a 10 hour online course. If you take beer serious, you should take beer education serious too. It’s fine if you don’t follow any of these programs, but don’t pretend you did something serious, when you only just fell for some smart cheap marketing trick.
For now, fingers crossed for the exam in a few weeks. If results and planning (aka “personal life”) allow, I’m certainly interested in going for level 2. Wish me luck!
Tasting Craft Beer 
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