Perfect Beer Talks #6 Beer 101: A Master Cicerone’s Guide

Perfect Beer Talks is getting better and better every episode! After talking about How to Define Perfect Draft Beer? with Master Cicerone Neil Witte, we have another foremost beer expert, Master Cicerone Ryan Daley, as our guest. Our CEO Can and Ryan talked about Beer 101: A Master Cicerone’s Guide in the 6th episode of Perfect Beer Talks.

Beer experts who successfully complete two or more levels of the Cicerone Certification Program are called Cicerone (Read More). Ryan is one of the 20 people in the whole world who hold the title “Master Cicerone”, meaning he completed all four levels of the program. He works as a Senior Educator in Brewers Collective today, and after 17 years of work in the industry from marketing to sales, brewery, and education, he is one of the best sources about Beer 101. 

Worth of Mention Points from Can and Ryan

Educating people about beer

“I love seeing other people get on this same journey that I have been on throughout my time in the industry because every time they go to crack a beer or order a pint of beer, they are going to be thinking a little bit more about ‘What went into it?’, ‘What am I tasting?’. And the overall experience is going to be that much better.”

-Master Cicerone Ryan Daley

Although he is skilled in many different fields, Ryan’s favorite is the education part. Being a beer expert is a long journey, and every step of this journey adds something different to the expert. Ryan enjoys informing people the most since their overall level of appreciation goes up as they learn more about beer. 

 

Lagers are the thing

“It is just a beer style that has got a lot going on for it. It looks good, it has got this brilliant level of clarity, bright gold color, you get a lot of malt character, you get some hops character, some fermentation character, the bitterness is being pronounced without getting overly aggressive, it has got a lighter body.”

-Master Cicerone Ryan Daley

 

Everyone has a different taste in beer, but lagers seem to win the popularity contest! 

Contrary to popular opinion, lager is not a beer style but is a whole family of beer styles. As a bottom-fermented style, meaning fermented at lower temperatures, lagers take longer to ferment than ales. After fermentation, lager beers can be stored for longer and at lower temperatures in a process called lagering, and have a lighter, crispier, smoother taste with high carbonation and gold color. 

So why are lagers so popular? 

According to Ryan, lagers have a safe, delicious, softer taste and other characteristics such as optimal clarity and color which make them the most popular beer style. 

 

How to pair beer with food?

“It is such a personal experience. I tell people to explore and play around, but generally, if I’m eating and drinking, I love things that I can just get my hands on both.”

-Master Cicerone Ryan Daley

Draft beer is the freshest form of beer when served right, and the most delicious with the right food pairing

Pairing different food with different beer styles is a fun, tasty way to increase your level of enjoyment while drinking an ice-cold pint of beer. 

As Ryan stated in our webinar, beer and food pairing is quite personal, so you get to decide what food you like with your favorite beer! 

Here are some of Ryan’s favorite pairings


  • Spicy fish tacos and a blond ale with tropical hints. The sweet notes of the malt will beautifully balance out the spiciness of tacos. 
  • Blue cheese and barrel-aged stout. The saltiness of the cheese brings out the sweetness of the beer, tasting almost fudge-like. 

 

To get more information about beer and food pairings, you can check our articles Top 10 Summer Beer Pairings and Perfect Pairs: Beer and Snacks on our blog! 

 

How to Customize Beer Taste? 

 

“If you have a few different beer styles, you can kind of mix and match, and try to come up with things that are unique to what you like.”

-Master Cicerone Ryan Daley

 

Although there is great variety in the beer industry today, we still like to get things more customized. Crafting personalized beer for each consumer might be possible in the future with technological advancements but for now, you can combine two different styles of beer and create your own taste. For example, Ryan suggests that if you combine American IPA with unfiltered American wheat ale, you would end up getting hazy ale! 

But if you want to drink perfect beer without all this hassle, you can visit our Pubinno Selections Map to find the perfect spot. 

 

The Future of Draft Beer 

Draft beer has been the choice of consumers for years, and the future of draft beer is getting better with the newest technologies. As more people learn about what good draft beer is through certification programs and educators such as Ryan Daley, retailers and bar owners will put more effort into their draft systems and hygiene. 

 

Smart Tap is very useful. Managing the flow rate and minimizing waste is big, especially for those people pouring beer. Being able to pour the right amount of beer with the right color or foam every time is a good thing for everybody.”

-Master Cicerone Ryan Daley

 

Pubinno’s innovative and cutting-edge technologies are continuing to shape the future of draft beer. Our latest product, Smart Clean is the internet of things solution for draft line cleaning, where every step of the process can be automated and enhanced. Perfect draft beer is hard to get, but Pubinno achieves perfection through understanding the industry’s needs and combining technology with design. 

 

“Probably the biggest opportunity for draft beer is just ensuring a more complete coverage of well-maintained, well-cleaned draft systems because that is what ultimately gets the right beer in the glass the brewer intended.” 

-Master Cicerone Ryan Daley

 

Thanks a lot to Ryan Daley and Can Algul for this amazing episode where we learned more about lager beers, beer pairings, and the future of draft beer. If you would like to learn more about Pubinno and draft beer, you can visit our blog. We cannot wait to see you in our next episode! 

Cheers!