It’s my personal goal to pass the Certified Cicerone to achieve Level 2 in the Cicerone™ program. I don’t work in the beer industry, and probably won’t. I just enjoy learning about beer, and having a goal motivates me to keep up my study habits. As I studied German styles, I made this chart of German style SRM values in Excel as a study aid. Just sharing for general interest. If anyone out there is also studying for the Certified Cicerone exam, feel free to message me. Would be interesting to share study approaches, tips, exam fears (lol) and whatever else. I’m not into social media, so I have not connected with other Certified Cicerone candidates.
Can I ask why you only have low and high? I'm sure you've seen a typical SRM chart and know how many shades there are between light (low) and dark (high).
Each style has a range, and for Cicerone one must more or less know the numerical values. So I'm just trying to represent the range of each style. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your question, but not sure how you think you could display all the values within the range of a style? What would be the point of doing that?
I see, it's just the range that particular style can cover. I was just misunderstanding the purpose of the chart. As to how *I* could show the ranges, well -- I was a graphic artist for 30 years, I'm pretty good with graphics software. ;-) But now I see your chart doesn't need to be that complex.
Thanks. It's a challenge, but it's fun. I must confess that being a Belgian beer lover for so many years, I hadn't explored German styles much until a couple of years ago. Oh Lordy, what I had been missing! Better late than never though.
Which style guideline does the Cicerone Program ‘follow’? I was a bit surprised that for the Kolsch style the low value is listed as being 4 SRM. From the Brewers Association style guideline: “Color SRM (EBC) 3-6 (6-12 EBC)” From the BJCP style guideline: “SRM: 3.5 – 5” Cheers!
Cicerone uses BJCP. You have an eagle eye. Your comment made me realize that Excel was rounding - notice that there are no numbers to the right of the decimal points. I will fix that. Thank you!
Just a curiosity question. The Cicerone is intended for brewing industry applications (e.g., working at a brewery, working at the beer retailer, etc.) so why do they use style guidelines intended for homebrew competitions vs. a beer industry (e.g., Brewers Association) style guideline? Does the choice of BJCP make sense to you? Cheers!
Hmmm, can’t speak to why Cicerone uses BJCP, not Brewers Association. Can’t imagine there are significant differences in SRM values between them. A slight difference here and there, I imagine. I’m not sure that the fact that the BJCP guidelines were written for homebrew competitions means matters much when it comes to data points like SRM values. It seems to be more about style descriptions for judging purposes. The BJCP Guidelines say: The Style Guidelines were written primarily for homebrew competitions. Individual style descriptions are written primarily as an aid for judging, and we have in some cases sought to define clear lines between styles to better allow for nonoverlapping judging categories. We understand that some styles may overlap in the market, and some commercial examples may straddle boundaries. We have organized style categories for the purpose of organizing homebrew competitions, not for describing and communicating the styles of the world to a different audience. Thanks for your observations. You have a keen eye and are obviously very knowledgeable about beer topics.
Updated chart with the Kolsch fix. I'm also going to make charts for ABV and IBU, but won't post them here unless there is interest. upload pictures
