2018 has been a big year for Ray Daniels.

Cicerone, the certification program designed for those that sell and serve beer, is celebrating its 10th anniversary with nearly 100,000 people having passed through its ranks.

The course covers a number of areas, namely: 1) Keeping and Serving Beer, 2) Beer Styles, 3) Beer Flavour and Evaluation, 4) Beer Ingredients and Brewing Processes, and 5) Pairing Beer with Food.

“We set out with one big goal and that was to serve the entire industry from bar staff at your favourite pub to head brewers and presidents of major brewing businesses. And we’ve been lucky to accomplish that,” Daniels tells us.

He adds: “In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a lot of places were pouring beer ruined by poor handling. Additionally, they often knew nothing about the beers themselves.

“I wanted to motivate servers and retailers to ‘up their game’ by learning more about proper beer service as well as beer styles so that they could talk to their customers about their offerings.”

Daniels opted to establish a set of certifications based on what beer professionals should know when working in various jobs.

To help people assess what they needed to know, he published a lengthy syllabus for each exam that detailed all of the topics that would be tested and made them freely available online.

And as it has grown, the program, which initially consisted of three levels (Certified Beer Server, Certified Cicerone, and Master Cicerone®), was expanded in 2016 to include a fourth, known as Advanced Cicerone®, which was inserted between the Certified and Master levels.

But Daniels, who is speaking at the Brewers Congress next month, is not stopping there.

A focus on international markets such as Asia, Australia and Latin America is key, but his goal remain the same. Improving quality across the industry.

“Getting your beer right is essential. I always tell my students that making beer is easy, it is simple as pie. Making good beer, however, is harder. And doing that consistently so it’s worthy of sharing with someone else without any off flavours is a difficult task,” he explains.

Daniels adds: “Then look at how you can do that constantly in a bottle or can, cask or keg and have it shipped off to parts unknown and arrived in good shape. That’s where the real challenge lies.

“But there is so much quality and talent in this industry, and it keeps on improving. And that’s only a good thing.”