Advanced Cicerone study guide
Advanced Cicerone · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
Advanced Cicerone is the third of four certification levels offered by the Cicerone Certification Program, introduced in 2015 to recognize individuals who have advanced their beer knowledge to an expert level. It is aimed at working beer professionals - brewers, beverage directors, distributors, educators and consultants - who need distinctive expertise in beer, strong sensory skills, and mastery of flavor vocabulary for both technical and consumer audiences. The Advanced Cicerone study guide has 5 sections and about 2,400 words.
01Keeping and Serving Beer: Storage, Draft Systems and the Perfect Pour
The Advanced Cicerone exam treats this domain as an operations discipline: you must connect gas laws, temperature and line resistance to what lands in the glass, and diagnose a bad pour from its foam. Expect questions on storage life, draft balance, gas blends, glassware hygiene and serving temperature by style.
540 words, about 3 min02Beer Styles: Parameters, Lineages and Style Discrimination
This domain rewards granular discrimination. The exam does not ask you to recite categories; it gives you a set of numbers and a sensory sketch and asks which style fits, or names two near-neighbours and asks what separates them.
480 words, about 2 min03Beer Flavor and Evaluation: Compounds, Faults and the Scoresheet
This domain tests whether you can name what you smell, decide whether it belongs in the style, and write it up in the language of a scoresheet. Advanced-level questions link a compound to its descriptor, its cause and the process fix - not just 'this is off'.
447 words, about 2 min04Beer Ingredients and Brewing Processes: Malt, Water, Hops and Yeast
Advanced-level questions here are causal: a change in ingredient or process produces a specific, predictable change in the finished beer. Expect mash temperature effects on fermentability, water chemistry and mash pH, hop isomerisation and dry-hopping behaviour, and yeast management.
488 words, about 2 min05Pairing Beer with Food: Intensity, Cut and Contrast
The Advanced Cicerone exam tests pairing as a set of mechanical rules, not a list of cliches. Each question asks you to justify a match using intensity, carbonation, bitterness, sweetness, acidity, alcohol and specific flavour compounds - and to explain why the obvious pairing fails.
445 words, about 2 min