By Suzanne Chin-Loy
In the continuously shifting beer industry, the role of a beer sommelier or cicerone has emerged as a highly respected and sought-after profession. Becoming certified as a beer sommelier or cicerone is no easy feat and requires a deep understanding of beer styles, brewing processes and ingredients, history, glassware, beer service, and draft systems. A refined palate for beer tasting and the ability to expertly pair beers with food are also essential.
Beer Styles
“It’s important to grasp the historical components of each beer style,” says Roger Mittag, founder of Prud’homme Beer Certification. “Then, you can move on to why those beers have those particular flavours and aromatic profiles.”
Neil Witte, associate director of Exams at Cicerone Certification Program complements this statement. “There are a lot of parameters, such as bitterness level, colour, kind of viscosity, or mouthfeel of the beers,” he says. “It can be tricky because you know many beer styles have histories that go back centuries. There’s a lot of overlap between certain styles because somebody might have something similar in a different part of the world.”
Brewing Techniques and Ingredients
Several brewing techniques can influence a beer’s flavour, including milling, mashing, boiling, and fermentation. Jason Pratt, master cicerone and president of the Cicerone Certification Program in the U.S. says “adjustments can be as simple as changing the water chemistry or making significant alterations to the brewing process, which could add hours or even days to the process. For instance, dry hopping involves adding hops to the cold side of the brewing process, resulting in less bitterness and more hop flavours and aromas in the beer.”
As for ingredients, “Water is the largest volume ingredient, and the minerality can have massive effects on beer,” says Mittag. “Soft water has little to no minerality and is gentle but can leave the beer with a much longer aftertaste, while hard water delivers a crisper, more thirst-quenching experience.
Mittag continues, “Malted grains, such as barley, wheat, and rye create colour and flavour, while hops provide bitterness and aroma and are a natural preservative. Yeast is the engine that takes all other ingredients and creates alcohol and carbon dioxide by metabolizing sugar and oxygen.”
Glassware
Mittag explains that the shape and size of the glass significantly impacts the beer-drinking experience. Many brewers design their glasses to enhance the characteristics of their beers. Tall and narrow glasses are ideal for lagers as they help to concentrate aromatics at the top of the glass. These glasses also keep the drinker’s hand away from most of the beer, helping it stay colder for longer. On the other hand, fuller-bodied beers benefit from wider, open-mouthed glasses. These beers have more complex aromas and flavours, and the wider glass allows for a better appreciation of these qualities. The wider glass is also suitable for warming the beer, bringing out more flavours.
Beer Tasting
“[There’s] so much flavour perception in the aroma when beer tasting,” says Witte. “You can smell it with a short or a long sniff to appreciate the aroma before tasting the beer,” adding that swirling the glass can release carbonation that’ll help carry aromas up and out of the cup.
“Take a small sip, letting it cover your tongue,” Witte continues. “After swallowing, breathing out of your nose, also known as retro nasal, can enhance the flavour.”
Food Pairings
When pairing beer with food, Pratt, considers the intensity of the dish and the beer so that they complement each other without one overpowering the other. “I’ll also look for complementary flavours, things like sweet versus sour or bitter versus sweet, that make the fireworks in a food pairing.”
