As brewing becomes increasingly popular, more opportunities are opening up for serious educational endeavors. There are actually courses and certifications now to make you a true scholar of fine beer. Don’t get us wrong, messing with hops on the weekend and enjoying a couple beers is perfectly fine with us, but we understand that the beer-nerds are obsessing about how sweet it is to get a degree in beer.
Who wouldn’t want to be a Cicerone? (Like a sommelier, but for beer.) Also worth noting, don’t feel like this is limited to brewers; it’s also perfect for bartenders and servers so that they can educate their clientele on the variations of beer available.
Online Beer Courses
If you’re interested in learning more, but either don’t have time, or there’s simply not one near you, consider an online course. Online courses give you access to some awesome information without leaving the comfort of your own home (and you can have a beer while you learn.)
• Cicerone Certified Beer Server. This is for people looking to get their Cicerone certification and the program has three stages: Certified Beer Server, Cicerone, and Master Cicerone.
• Better Beer Scores. This site offers more than a dozen Beer Judge Certification Programs like Exam Prep, Craft Beer Appreciation and Home brewing programs. They host informative webinars at affordable prices.
Schools For Beer Lovers
If you’re more of a hands-on kind of person, we understand. You want to be right there and learn from the best. There are places that have beer classes – just do a good Google search and you should be able to find something. Imagine how sweet it would be to say that you went back to school to get a Masters in Beer.
We think it’s awesome that so many institutions are acknowledging the fact that brewing and loving beer isn’t just a hobby. You can actually make a living off of it. We’d use our beer degree to save the world, one pint at a time. What would you do with it?