008. Serving bottled beer

Serving bottled beer

The customer has chosen a beer that you carry in a bottle. Good beer service for bottled beer starts with storage and carries through to actually presenting the glass to the customer. In addition to storage and presentation, there are best practices for opening a bottle, and pouring the beer into a glass. All of it is important for excellent bottle service.

Pouring a wheat beer by Clemens V. Vogelsang on flickr

Pouring a wheat beer by Clemens V. Vogelsang on flickr (CC BY 2.0)

004. Serving alcohol

Serving alcohol

It is important to be a responsible beverage server to ensure everyone’s health and safety. We the servers, or our employer, could be held liable for the actions of our drunk customers. This section outlines what I learned in Responsible Beverage Server Training (RBS).

Utilizing my Responsible Beverage Server Training (RBS) for the Hollister Downtown Association beer garden at the Hollister Biker Rally, July 4, 2014.

Utilizing my Responsible Beverage Server Training (RBS) for the Hollister Downtown Association beer garden at the Hollister Biker Rally, July 4, 2014.

Let’s set Certified Cicerone® apart from wine sommelier

Beer is a highly specialized and diversified product, and trends change rapidly. A beer cicerone, specifically a Certified Cicerone® or a Master Cicerone®, is a highly skilled and knowledgeable professional. Yet they are often described in reference to wine sommeliers. I propose a new description for Cicerone, one that stands on its own, independent of other beverage professionals.

Banner for beer cicerone vs. wine sommelier.

Welcome to Beer Exam School!

Beer Exam School is the blog I will use to help me study for the Cicerone Certification Program, Certified Beer Server exam.

My name is Nathan Pierce. Since quitting my air quality planning job about a year ago due to, shall we say “irreconcilable differences” with management, I’ve been planning to start a brewery here in the Monterey area (California). To learn more about beer and to enhance my resume, I am going to take the exam for Certified Beer Server.