Blind Master Cicerone Beer Style Panel Practice Run

A small but exciting part of the Master Cicerone exam is the beer style panel. Blind tasting is REALLY HARD. On the Certified Cicerone exam you get two answer options for each beer, a fifty-fifty shot. On the Advanced Cicerone exam you get four options for each beer. It usually comes down to two similar ones. On the Master Cicerone exam you get more samples and no answer options at all.

For an MC level panel you have 15 minutes to sniff, sip and figure out what seven beers are. Each sample is a good representation of one of the 100-plus styles in the BJCP Style Guidelines. Any of them are fair game. You get about three ounces of each. Scott Fielder sent me this set of seven, so I had no idea what was coming.

I have done these MC style practice runs maybe half a dozen times. I have often nailed only one to three samples with the exact right answer. I am usually in the ballpark on most of the rest. You do get partial credit for being close. But I am often way off on one or two. Keep that in mind before talking trash in the comments.

My calls and why I made them

In the video I explain each answer before the reveal. Number one had a medium-low amount of roast, very little yeast character and a medium-low level of American hops. Nothing jumped out, so I guessed American Porter. Number two was unfortunately pretty oxidized. All I got was simple graininess with a little corny character, so I went with American Blonde Ale. Number three jumped out as a Saison. Peppery phenols, super spritzy, super citrusy, a little wheat. Number four was clearly Belgian to me. It was pale for a Belgian Dubbel, but you never let appearance guide you, so Dubbel it was. Number five was smoky as hell. I did not even put it in my mouth, because I did not want to blow out my palate with beers still to go. Rauchbier. Number six confused me. Tons of doughy wheat character but also a little sulfur, which made me think lager. Everything else pointed to American Wheat, so that is what I wrote. Number seven had a low level of roast, a sweet balance and no obvious oat flavor. Sweet Stout.

The reveal

Number one was Trumer Pils, a German Pilsner. I actually got sulfur from it and thought lager, but I did not want to second-guess myself. That is the lesson of this whole exercise. Number two was Kona Big Wave, an American Blonde. One right. Number three was Tank 7, a Saison. Two right. Number four was a Dunkelweizen, not a Dubbel. I did not get banana jumping out at me. The style never crossed my mind. That is the annoying part of blind tasting. If you go down the checklist you will sometimes land on the answer, but if a style never enters your head you cannot pick it. Number five was the Rauchbier. On the real Master exam I doubt they would hand you a freebie like that. Number six was the Pils, not an American Wheat, so my sulfur instinct was right and I ignored it. Number seven was an Oatmeal Stout. I had Sweet Stout, which is close. Funny thing, I had tasted that same beer a couple of days earlier with the Advanced Cicerone coaching crew on Zoom and swore I could smell the oats. Now that I know what it is, of course I can smell them. Palates are suggestible.

The score

Call it four and a half out of seven, or five of seven if you give me the Sweet Stout for Oatmeal Stout. That is one of the better blind panels I have done. I really only missed two badly. Both misses came from talking myself out of what my nose was telling me. Trust the sulfur.

Watch the video above for the full run. If you enjoy this format, let me know and I will do more of them. If the Advanced Cicerone exam is your target, the Advanced Cicerone course runs blind panels like this every week in the Beer Scholar community on Skool. Thanks again to Scott Fielder for sending the beers.

Cheers! –Chris