The Master Cicerone exam is often referred to as “ the hardest beer test in the world.” Finnance is the only person in America to hold both the title of BJCP Grand Master and Master Cicerone.

The growth of the “cicerone” reflects the ever increasing complexity of American beer. In recent decades, the overall consumption of beer has lost market share to wine, spirits and alcopops ...

I had ponied-up my $345 for the Certified Cicerone ® exam, and would need to score at least 80% on the three-hour exam of short-answer and essay questions and a three-flight beer tasting.

So far, only seven people have achieved the top level of Master Cicerone. But about 900 have passed the regular exam, and an additional 27,000 have become Certified Beer Servers.

Combs, along with five other individuals, earned the master cicerone title this year. “I was in complete shock and disbelief,” he said. “Even now, it feels completely surreal.” ...

Beer certification programs existed before Ray Daniels’ Cicerone program, and beer certification programs have been created since, but none has changed the industry like Daniels’ brainchild ...

Cicerone was recruited in 1989 to launch the university’s Department of Earth System Science, a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary center to study the dynamics of air, land and sea.