Certified Cicerone

[Padraic]

Would anybody be interested in sitting the certified cicerone exam later this year?

I posted on twitter about this and got some good feedback from people working in the industry. I was hoping to get some crossover between studying for the bjcp exam and this one. Everyone would get a more rounded tasting experience and be in a position to sit both exams, the proposal is to get an exam run here in Dublin, and to tack on some of the learning with the bjcp idea I floated earlier.

To me it's a no brainer, for around the same work (study wise) you could have two qualifications in beer tasting.

BJCP sign-up thread: http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1362491451

So the down side $$$$$
BJCP entrance exam costs $10 (online)
BJCP Tasting Exam costs $50 + beer costs (I think)
Certified Cicerone Exam $345

So please everyone let me know your thoughts. The prices above are for US based exams so I don't have exact costs but they should be fairly indicitive.

I don't know of a better beer tasting qualification than Certified Cireone. But I am open to any other tasting qualifications that you know about.

[Padraic]

Forgot the links:

https://cicerone.org/

http://www.bjcp.org/index.php

[Padraic]

Are you comparing BJCP costs? You're not saying you need to do BJCP first?

No both are fully seperate, so there will be a BJCP cost $60 min and a cicerone cost $345 (I think)

This post is to gauge interest in Cicerone. I was just putting in the BJCP costs in for anyone considering both. I intend to study both!

[Shane Phelan]

I like the idea of the Cicerone qualification as once you get it you are done.

Although do you have to get the "Certified Beer Server" qualification first?

[Saruman (Reuben Gray)]

The website does indicate you have to do the beer server first.

[Saruman (Reuben Gray)]

Prerequisites - Must have passed the Certified Beer Server exam. Candidates for this level of certification must be 21 years of age.

[Padraic]

Prerequisites - Must have passed the Certified Beer Server exam. Candidates for this level of certification must be 21 years of age.

I missed that when I was skimming through it earlier, that's another $70 I think!

Not a cheap qualification but a worthwhile one for people in the trade!

[Greg2013]

Newbie question ( do i ever have any other kind), what do both of these qualify you to do exactly? Will either of these get you into a brewery job?

[Padraic]

Newbie question ( do i ever have any other kind), what do both of these qualify you to do exactly? Will either of these get you into a brewery job?

In short, no. However if you are as qualified as the next person in every other way these would definitely give you a small advantage!

That said if you were going for a sales job for a brewery I believe that Cicerone is the best qualification available at the moment. This is where my personal interest lies, if I am qualified to tell the customer that this beer is good and goes well with x y and z on their menu.

This would also be very useful if you were working in the trade, as a bartender or waiter.

The only argument I can see against this qualification is that it might be overkill for most people.

[Saruman (Reuben Gray)]

It would also be a good qualification, and probably a necessary one if you were to set up as a professional beer host.

Some of us already do beer talks and tastings but we are not qualified in any way other than experience and an avid interest. We also don't usually get paid for the most part.

If I was to do that sort of thing as a career, something that's plausible given the rising interest in craft beer, then it would be a good thing to have. It would be a very difficult thing to make a living off though, full time at least because we lack the population to keep that sort of thing going.

One way I can think of to make a real go of that sort of thing would be to include the breweries. Set up as a sort of marketing spokesperson where the breweries hire you to hold sponsored tastings of their products but even that would be tough as few would have the budget for that sort of thing and work would still be too sparse to do full time.
You know who it might suit though, someone like Dempsey! He makes his own hours and could fit in a side career waffling on about beer to punters 

[irish_goat]

I'd be interested but would need to know a more definitive price. Not sure if I could justify a few hundred quid on it. 

[Saruman (Reuben Gray)]

Maybe Goeff will pay for it.  Might be good bragging rights for B&C to have a certified beer cicerone. Might have to agree to a minimum term of employment or something.

[irish_goat]

I wouldn't even be nearly that optimistic. 

There is chat about me getting a staff discount on this though. http://www.beeracademy.co.uk/courses/foundation-course/

But I think it has to sell out first.

[Padraic]

Irish Goat - The price for this test would be $345 and another $70 for the beer server exam.

Saruman - Great point about the beer hosting, it would be a good little side earner for you! This might even be something that you could use to fund the price of the exam, or at lease recoup the cost of the exam!

[Padraic]

So am i taking it that there isn't much interest in this certification here? I think I'd like to cover the material during the course anyway. I know a few people from the trade would be interested in doing the certified cicerone course so I could try to get some of them on board as well!

My idea is that they might take an interest in the bjcp and we can continue having a very high quality of judge for next years competition.