BrewDog and Certified Cicerone

At BrewDog, we are committing ourselves 100% to the craft beer cause. As such, we are passionate about doing everything we can to learn as much about craft beer as is humanly possible in order to spread the message far and wide. In order to help us on this quest for craft beer conscientiousness, we encourage BrewDog bar staff to take the level 1 Cicerone Certified Beer Server exam. Cicerone is the most well known and respected beer sommelier qualification on the planet. On top of that, this year we wanted to go the extra mile and offered our scamps the opportunity to take the second level Cicerone exam for Certified Cicerone. A much heftier challenge, but one that some of our resident beer geeks were well and truly ready for!

In April the founder of Cicerone, Ray Daniels, flew over to the UK and held the first ever Certified Cicerone exams to be undertaken in this country. Giving our staff the opportunity to learn the intricacies of beer for an exam is a great way to really ramp up the level of expertise within BrewDog. It makes our team stronger, massively increases their confidence, adds huge potential for our development as a business and brewery, and arms us with a wealth of knowledge to help educate the rest of the team. We also offer a pay rise with every level of Cicerone passed.

Cicerone Certification Program offers independent assessment and certification on:

            •          Beer Storage, Sales and Service

            •          Beer Styles and Culture

            •          Beer Tasting and Flavors

            •          Brewing Ingredients and Processes

            •          Pairing Beer with Food

It was no walk in the park. The Certified Cicerone exam consists of a number of areas including tasting, written and oral exams. Confidence was shaky across the board but everyone dedicated countless hours to study and revision to prepare for the exam, which we’re very proud of and we appreciate all of their efforts…which paid off! Overall, 8 members of the BrewDog team passed and now hold the Certified Cicerone qualification! Well done to all our clever beer geeks who did so well – we’re super stoked for you!

We will be bringing Ray back over periodically to enable more members of our team to take the exam, and some of the pups who passed level 2 will now go on to study for the third level, Master Cicerone, of which there are only 6 in the world!

On top of the Cicerone project being an awesome achievement for us as a company, training up our people and allowing them regular opportunities for personal development is intrinsic to enabling us to grow BrewDog and mobilise the craft beer revolution. This made Cicerone a key focus for us this year. We have also recently appointed Zarah as HR Manager to further support our pups and make sure we give them as much of a platform to mould and shape their careers as craft beer commanders as possible.

Well done to everyone who sat the exam and congratulations to our newly qualified Certified Cicerone scamps!

To find out more about the Cicerone, check out cicerone.org