News Cicerone Program Hits 10,000 Mark

To celebrate issuing Certified Beer Server certificate number 10,000 the Cicerone Certification Program is offering special 10K promotions.

The move into 5-figures of beer servers comes just four years and 42 days after this first-level exam was first offered to the public in the early days of January 2008.

The special offers:

Certified Beer Server Exam: 1000 cents ($10) for 10 hours (normally $69.) A unique low-cost opportunity for anyone who ever wondered about their ability to pass but who did not want to smack down the dough to find out. This exam must be purchased and taken today (Feb. 15). Use this link.

Certified Beer Server Tutorial and Exam (with recorded lectures, study aids and self-assessment exams): $100 for 100 hours (Feb 15 through Feb 18. Regular price $149.) Buy during the promotional period and you will have 60 days to complete the program. Use this link.

Cicerone Brewing Process App: 99 cents for 101 hours (Feb 15 through Feb 18) This is good for both iPhone/iPad and Android systems. Normally priced at $5.99. For the iOS and Android apps, visit the app stores for those products and search for “Cicerone Brewing Process.”

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0 Comments on “Cicerone Program Hits 10,000 Mark”

  • LuskusDelph

    says:

    That’s good for them, I suppose. As for whether it’s really of any significance for the industry, I’m not so sure.

    Personally, I think the whole concept of the program is pretty pretentious. And the program definitely lost some cache when I read in their literature that (if I understand correctly) the Beer Judge Certification Program guidelines pretty much serve as their ‘bible’.

    Just my opinion of course (and a fair number of others judging by what I’ve heard and read).
    But I guess it’s all a harmless enough bit of fun 😉

  • william.heinric

    says:

    Until the time where each brewer can monitor every contact point his or her beer has with the consumer, I think it’s a positive program. As far as I’m concerned, the brewer is the best sales person for the brand, but an excited server with good knowledge of process and serving technique will do.

    This is a program that connects front line retailers to the beer industry as closely as possible, and I salute their work. As far as I can tell, this isn’t a crash course on brewing theory, and is more concerned with the consumer/server relationship than brewhouse practice. It’s focus is not as a theoretical brewing course, but there are more than a few “professional” brewers out there who should take a look at their product from the perspective of the end consumer.

    Is it a perfect program? Of course not. Are the people who enter the program self-selecting into a higher performing peer group? Probably. However, servers who are excited and educated about the products they serve are of a greater value to the industry than servers who are uneducated with respect to this subset of alcoholic beverages.

    All the best to Cicerone, and hopefully they will continue to promote the growth of our industry.

    Bill

  • callmetim

    says:

    I kind of agree with Lukas on this. I have a rant on our website that addresses this in a round about way. The premise is don’t turn beer into wine.

    I guess its good that people are trying to do somethign different.

    I’m just a crabby old man.:mad:

  • LuskusDelph

    says:

    callmetim wrote: I kind of agree with Lukas on this. I have a rant on our website that addresses this in a round about way. The premise is don’t turn beer into wine.
    I guess its good that people are trying to do somethign different.
    I’m just a crabby old man.:mad:

    I read the comments on your website/blog and agree with your observations 100%.
    I think the “turning beer into wine” comment is a good analogy. That’s really what turns me off about Cicerone, because that’s exactly what it seems the program is trying to do. As a very wise man once said, “…it’s only beer.”

    As far as the style guidelines influence I originally mentioned, I guess that aspect really isn’t so bad since common terminology is a vital aid in communicating thoughts about subjective things like flavor. I can only hope that those in the Cicerone program are reminded that those guidelines are not the ‘last word’ on beer styles and that they were, after all, originally written by and for homebrewers primarily and simply as an aid in competition judging.;)

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