Tag Archives: cicerone certification program

2015 #MNCleanPint Campaign

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If you went to a restaurant and your food was served to you on a dirty plate, would you eat it? Whether you know it or not, you are being served beer in dirty glassware all the time. Well, maybe not actually dirty, but not as clean as it should be.

Introducing the concept of “beer clean.” A beer clean glass is one that is totally free of any residual cleaning products, oils, food residue, and lipstick; anything that will impact on the quality of the beer poured into it. Water will sheet on the inside of a beer clean glass instead of forming droplets. The sides of a beer clean glass will be free of bubbles when filled with beer. Where bubbles cling, there is soil. A beer clean glass will allow the formation of a firm and fluffy head and result in rings of “Belgian lace” with each sip of beer.

Unfortunately, many establishments don’t clean their glassware properly. Detergents and oils destroy beer foam and leave nucleation points for CO2 that will cause beer to lose its fizz more quickly.

This common problem was the inspiration for the MNCleanPint campaign. The idea is to reward those places that serve beer in a properly cleaned glass. For all off this month, if you drink a beer that leaves that lovely lace down the side of the glass take a picture of it, tweet it out with the hashtag #MNCleanPint. Be sure to mention where you are. The bar or restaurant that gets the most mentions wins the title of “Cleanest Pint in Minnesota.”

There are plenty of prizes for those who tweet as well, such as Cicerone training and tests, a $100 bar tab, and a home kegerator kit. These will be awarded during a celebration at the winning establishment! We will also be giving away beer glassware and all kinds of other prizes throughout the month so post frequently.

This year’s kickoff event happens tonight from 4 to 6 pm at Northbound Smokehouse Brewpub, last year’s winner. There will be lots of prizes and other free stuff. Be there!

The MNCleanPint campaign is hosted by J.J. Taylor Distributing Company of MN, Inc. in partnership with the Cicerone Certification Program, Micromatic, The Better Beer Society, MNBeer.com, Minnesota Beer Activists, and A Perfect Pint.

Ray Daniels of the Cicerone Certification Program at the 2013 GABF

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Every year at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) I do interviews with local and not-so-local brewers and beer industry celebs. This year’s assortment includes chats with Mike Hoops and Pete Rifakes from Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery, a gaggle of guys from Summit Brewing Company, and Marika Josephson from Scratch Brewing, a new and very exciting brewery in Southern Illinois. I talked with Mob Craft Beer, a new “Heartland” brewery that didn’t make it into my upcoming beer guide. I got a very special interview with old friend and former employee Bob Galligan who moved to Austin, Texas a couple of years ago to be an actor, but ended up as head brewer at Hops & Grain. These and others will be showing up here in the coming days and weeks, with a shout-0ut of thanks to my great friend Tom Graybael who did the shooting.

I start the series with an interview with Ray Daniels, author of beer and brewing books as well as the founder of the Cicerone Certification Program. I first interviewed Daniels at the 2010 GABF. The Cicerone program was just getting its feet under it at the time. It has been grown with leaps and bounds in the intervening years, becoming the standard for beer-knowledge certification. In this interview Daniels talks about that growth and about education programs that have been put in place to serve those who desire certification. He drops some news about the newest training products that the program offers and projects where the program might go in the future.

Ray Daniels, Lead Cicerone at the 2010 GABF

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It was bad service of good beer that motivated Ray Daniels to start the Cicerone Certification Program a couple of years ago. In the first year of the program 17 people passed the Certified Cicerone exam. I was one of them, and the first in Minnesota. Now there are over 100 Certified Cicerones throughout the country. I think there are now five in Minnesota.

The goal of the program is to provide beer service training and credentialing to people in the beer industry. There are three levels of certification. The Certified Beer Server level is intended for front of house staff like servers and bartender. The Certified Cicerone Level is geared toward those with greater involvement with beer, including distributor sales reps, foodservice beer specialists and retail beer buyers. The Master Cicerone level is, according to the website, “for those who demonstrate the highest level of expertise with regard to beer.”

I interviewed Ray at the Great American Beer Festival in September. Here’s the interview:

Check out other videos on the Perfect Pint You Tube Channel.