Beers of Joy (2019) - full transcript

[music]

[Charles] First things first, you got to make sure that people

can admire your selection,
that you've got the right

beer in the correct glass
and you turn the labels

so everybody can see what you're up to, take the top off.

And then, pour with vigor.

[Charles] You're actually going
to release the carbondioxide

and to produce
a fine head of foam.

If this was a second rate drink, I don't know,

champagne, something like that, those bubbles will

just collapse, but they don't,
they survive because



you got protein and
you got the bitterness.

Before your very eyes,
those things are sticking

together and holding
the bubbles together.

And you get this
beautiful stable foam.

You got to see it
because it really

influences your
perception of the product.

Here you can smell the beer,
you can dangle your nostrils

in there to get a full
appreciation of the aroma.

Of course, the color
and whatever degree
of clarity you want.

I spent 40 years more working
on how to put a head on beer.

So why deny yourself
the sight of sheer beauty?

It's just a thing of beauty
this. Can I take a sip?

[music]

Beer is the magic elixir.



I think that it's
really a gift from God.

There's a story with every beer,
the flavors, the history,
the romance.

[Sean] This beverage
encapsulates our society.

The longer you stay
involved with beer,

the more you realize
there is to learn.

Design and art, technology,
culture, business.

Brewing is a technical art.
It's temporary.

It's not art that would
live in a gallery.

That's probably half the joy
that gets infused to these beers

is the fact that they love
making it and we love drinking.

How many people have had
a bad day and needed a beer?

How many people have celebrated
a good day with a beer?

Beer really represents
kind of the world as a whole.

A well-made beer, it taste
good, it makes you feel good.
What's better than that?

It's almost like that
missing piece, like when you got

your beer next to you, like
everything else is complete.

It's a fun easy drinking thing
that you can really
share with friends.

A lot of people don't have a lot
of things in common right now.

The coolest thing is that
we do have beer in common.

Anytime I sit down and I have
a beer in front of me,
I'm incredibly happy.

[music]

[background chatter]

What led me to want
to create the Cicerone Program

was pretty simple,
because of bad beer.

-Don't open the envelope,
but don't lose it.
-Thank you.

I realized there was a lot
of bad beer being served.

Bars and restaurants didn't know
how to take care of the beer

and certainly, the servers
didn't know anything
about the beer.

The word Cicerone
has been around in

the English language
for about 400 years.

It means a knowledgeable
and learned guide.

Can I take your name? Brent?
Fine, let's keep in touch.

[Ryan] There's four levels of
the Cicerone Program.

There's certified beer server,
certified Cicerone,

advanced Cicerone and
then master Cicerone.

I've been able to get
the first three out of the way

and I'm hoping to
become master Cicerone next.

Cicerone certification program
is the beer world's

equivalent of the sommelier
program in the wine world.

We test and certify beer experts
at a variety of levels
from servers,

bartenders, waitstaff
all the way up to

master brewers
and brewery presidents.

The Cicerone program to me
was the most competitive

and prestigious of all
the certifications out.

I knew from day one when
I saw it in research

their framework that I wanted
to reach the top of it.

If pass, you will join a small
cadre of Master Cicerones.

There are 13 in the world
which I would bet
all of you know that already.

The Master Cicerone house rate
is less than 1 in 10, the exam

itself is two full days,
12 oral exams, eight hours
of written exams.

It's about 10 hours a day,
so about 20 hours overall
of the total examination time.

Why become a Master Cicerone?
Probably a few reasons.

You know one just when it comes
to the beer the more
I learn about it

the more I really grow
to love it more and more.

There's definitely
the challenge aspect of it

knowing that only 13 other
people have been able to do it,

so you know what? I think
I'm gonna give it a go.

And then the third piece
is kind of the unknown.

You know, what happens if you
do become a Master Cicerone.

I kind of like that sense of
what's on the other side

that I'm not aware of.
So hopefully I would

be able to find out
what that looks like.

Beer brings joy... through...
I don't know, magic.

I'm not sure.
Uh... Can we get back to this?

[Joe]
My favorite thing about beer is
that it brings people together.

You can take people
from all over the world,
all walks of life

put them in a room and people
open up when they have beer.

It's also so versatile there's
over a hundred styles right now

and they're still documenting
all the different kinds.

You can go to
a place where they're

inventing new things
and trying new steps

and when you try that beer
you're getting

a taste and flavor
of that brewery.

-[woman indistinct]
-That's how you do it.

And when you bring it
together with friends and beer

and people, it's just really
a spectacular amazing thing.

It's a unique individual
expression of the brewer.

[music]

I'm Joe Vogelbacher, I'm the CEO
of Sugar Creek Brewing Company.

I'm an advanced Cicerone,
a dad of three
and I make beer for a living.

20 pounds.

I'm a licensed marine engineer.
I worked for five years

for Newport as
a nuclear test engineer.

I'm a veteran of the war
in Afghanistan, activated
neighbor reservist

and commander
of the US Navy Reserves.

[man] We are doing a video.

That liquor is of.
That 146, I turned it on
just to make sure you know.

I was one of 45 people
to achieve level three
or advanced Cicerone

and I feel really blessed
and fortunate to have

the opportunity to take
the Master Cicerone.

[Eric] Joe's current day to day
is just filled with

his third child,
he just went to Afghanistan.

I understand more
than most people

that Joe's actually a commander
in the Navy as well.

He was or is one or two
in charge of an entire

Reserve Base that
people don't talk about.

And then on top of that studying
for the Master Cicerone
and helping me

run the business
is enough to honestly

sink most battleships,
but not Joe's.

[guitar music]

It's a really big IPA.

Guys, so let's get a couple
of those to mess with them.

Two IPAs, a white ale.

That.

I don't think I've ever had
this one, Tropical IPA.

Let's see one other one.

How about two...

Modelo.

-So, I usually get stuff I like
and mix it up.
-[man] You need a bag for it?

Uh-uh, no, I should be fine
carrying it out, thank you.

I'm just gonna throw this
into my purse.

[indistinct] if it's okay.

I had never heard of
the Cicerone Program,
or Master Cicerone.

No, I mean, I had no idea
that there were people

that really knew
you know, the ins and outs.

I just thought everyone that
knew that stuff, was a brewer.

[Ryan] When you're taking on
a challenge that
a few hundred other people

have taken on
and only 13 have been
able to achieve, it's daunting.

But at the same time,
I kind of like the challenge,

and it pushes me to
just keep putting

in the time, keep working at it,

and, you know, hopefully
if I'm lucky I'll be 14 or 15.

[Ryan] Alright bud, I got to
load up some beer, okay?

[child] Why you got to
load up some beer?

'Cause I got to taste some beer.

Remember, I'm studying.

When I first met Ryan,
I never thought

he would be
in the beer industry.

Alright, beep beep.
Beer train coming through.

When we first got together,
he was actually
working at a day care.

Played on a playground,
made peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches every day,

so I kind of thought he'd
be really good if we

ever had kids,
if it turned serious.

Nothing that would turn
into a career in beer.

We're running out of
space quickly here.

One thing that takes up
quite a bit of real estate
is the Danimals.

I'm not gonna mess with that.
These kids eat these pretty much
four to five a day,

so I'll leave
the Danimals alone, and I have

the rest of the fridge to work
with, which as you can see,

is slowly
filling up quite a bit.

The tough part when
you're just home solo is,

this where Kate's huge,
is really,

you got to be doing it blind,
so, you know,

just knowing what's in here can
be a little bit of a challenge.

That's why I've gotten so much.
I can run through a bunch
of different exercises.

A lot of styles are covered, so
going into it, I'm not thinking,

"Well, hey, I only had
six different types
of beer in there.

It's got to be-- be six.
I know there's

dozens and dozens
styles in here.

[Kate] Most people,
even at work, I'll say that
he's a beer educator.

No one really thinks of
that's what I want to be
when I grow up.

The first thing out of their
mouth is usually like a chuckle.

Like, "That's the best job
in the world.

How do you get that?"

[Ryan] Charging up.

[child] Charging up.

Alright, go for it.

It's gonna be
a scary day when it's

time to get
that driver's license.

If Ryan doesn't pass
this time, then we'll

just figure it out when,
and see what happens.

We'll deal with it then
I guess once we hear.

I can have a beer
and have a Bible Study.

I can have a beer
and have fun with my friends.

I can have a beer
and watch a game.

Everything about it
is just relaxing

and you're gonna
have a good time.

Yum [chuckles].

[Tonya] Beer doesn't know
who brewed it.

Beer doesn't care who brewed it.

You can taste this beer
and have no idea if

a man or a woman brewed it,
so it's always

surprising to me when
people are surprised

that I do this, because
anyone can do this.

I'm Tonya Cornett, and I'm one
of the Innovation Brew Masters

for 10 Barrel Brewing Company
in Bend, Oregon.

Somebody asked my assistant if
I'm bossy, and he said,

"No. She's particular."

And I thought that was
the perfect way to describe me.

I like it when I have my hands
on the beer all the way
through the process.

That's why I'm not
a very good production brewer.

That's why I need to
have the job that I do.

[music]

Probably in the past five years,
I've developed a passion

for Berliner Weisse,
and specially,
German Berliner Weisse.

So, I've heard about this
brewery and it's in Germany
and I'm so excited.

I've had this beer one time.
I really don't know much about
the brewery, or the brewmaster,

but after having this beer,
and I've obsessed about it.

I think at this point
it's a quest.

I want to make
a traditional Berliner Weisse,

and I want it to be world-class.

I want it to just
blow everyone away.

[piano music]

It's certainly common in the US
for brewers to
do these pilgrimages.

Being able to get it here
in the United States
is of course nice,

but it's never the same as
being able to taste the beer
from the source.

Embarking on an endeavor this
big I knew it was going to be

important not only to have
a translator

but to be able to have
someone who also had
a German perspective.

-Hey Tonya.
-Ferdinand, it's so
great to meet you.

-Great to meet you too.
-I'm so excited to be here.

Good to have you here.
Welcome to Germany.

Welcome to Bavaria.

[Tonya] Ferdinand, also has
a brewing background.

He knows a lot
about growing hops.

-Are you excited for
our great adventure?
-Yes.

Okay, let's do it. [laughs]

And he knows a lot about
brewing in America as well.

So, he can give me perspectives
that I think no one else can.

[piano music]

My name is Sean Zane Paxton, and
I'm known as the home-brew chef.

My specialty is really
cooking with beer.

I love beer and that's
kind of why I started.

I love home-brewing.
I collaborate with
different brewers

to make
commercial beers available.

I make a hot sauce
made with beer.

As well as I write about beer,
I talk about beer,

I help educate people
about beer in the kitchen.

And then as a chef,
I create inspiring dishes

using beer,
creating these moments

and memories through food
to really bring

the beer and the food
pairing together.

Chocolate is just 1 ingredient
into 30 to make a good Mole.

Everything has a place of
balance, of purpose along with
the Anderson Valley

Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout
that really adds
its creaminess with the oats.

It's roasty and chocolate and
coffee elements with the stout.

And that's where I think
our sauce is really special.

Theme feast is something
I love to do.

It's really creative for me to
go deep with not only the beer
styles

with the time, the cuisine,
the ingredients of that cuisine.

Creating something
that's new and unique.

With all my travels,
with all my research,

with all my cooking of all these
different meals and events.

I've searched the globe all
over, but the one thing that

I've really found, I don't even
really know about America.

The food and how that fit
into it to understand beer

and how that was
part of everyday life.

I really want to get
back to where we started.

Beer and other
fermented beverages are

right at the center
of human culture.

Starting out in Africa going
back millions of years,

they probably would have been
making a fermented beverage.

We have what's called the
Sorghum Beer Belt where
the Sahara is today

which would
have been much more fertile.

They had honey in the forest,
could be fermented.

People had a nomadic
existence back in

the region we call
the Fertile Crescent.

They wander around
driving goats and eating barley

and it didn't taste very good.
And they suddenly got it wet one
day and it started to sprout

and softened and it tasted like
bean sprouts and cucumbers.

We now know that yeast
would've made alcohol

and they put their finger
and taste it and they said,
"Wow, that's good."

They drank it and they fell
over and they thought,

"This is really good."
So they stopped that nomadic
existence and stayed put

while they grew grain
and did all this beer making.

Now, when we come out of Africa
100,000 years ago up through
the Middle East.

You have certain
choices to make here.

You can go east to China,
India and so forth.

Now, for Europe by the time
Ireland, let's say
gets wheat barley,

you know, it might be 3,000 BC.
I don't know the exact date.

So they start to
make beer up there.

[Elke] In those days people
drank beer because

beer was a lifesaver
when it comes to

the days in the Middle Ages
where disease

such as cholera were
very common.

[Sean] But now, more recently
Western Europeans made
their way to the New World.

We have the Mayflower
coming across.

And we know that they carried
a lot of beer on board.

[Charles] The record is really
quite clear, in 1620 the log
said that they landed at

Plymouth Rock because our
vittles were much spent
especially our beer.

So, generally, the history of
this great country is
directly linked to beer.

[music]

[children chatter]

Do you want to read it to me
or do you want me
to read it to you?

Master Cicerone features
a blend of oral examinations

and written examinations
to test knowledge.

Some people are more comfortable
writing, some people are

more comfortable being in
front of people and talking.

There isn't one single
section of the master that

universally kicks everybody
around, except for the tasting.

[laughs]

[Ryan] Kate just laid out
seven beers for me.

So one of the eight
tasting exercises on

the exam is gonna
be just like this.

So it's what they call
essentially style identification

good examples
of classic beer styles.

You know, give you seven of
them, and essentially
you have 15 minutes.

You go through, you taste,
evaluate each one

and you need to identify
what style of beer it is.

[Joe] Tasting is something that
requires all of your focus.

When you swirl the beer and
bring it up to your nose

and get that first smell, there
are so many things going on

it's like a symphony, and you
need to be able to pick out

that perfect note, and
that's what tasting is about.

So I actually have a cheat
sheet here that I've

been using for studying
up until this point.

It has all the styles
broken down in the region of

the world they come from
and there's around 100.

I usually look at this
in preparation

and say," kay, is
this a Belgian beer?

Is this a Irish beer
or Scottish beer?

Does it have flavors like
German malty beers do?"

You can get an idea based
on the water profile,

what part of the world it
comes from and then that

narrows it down and then
you can go into the style.

You know, from here on out, I'll
probably do at least one to two

of these a night and some
during the day as well.

I try and do
everything just as I'm
gonna have to do it in Chicago.

You have to be careful
letting your visual

appearance fool you
because it will.

What you have to do is
ignore trying to put

a name of the style
to it right up front.

If you do that, you're
gonna be in big trouble

and it's a very
hard habit to break.

At this point, I'll put
this style sheet away.

So I'm gonna set it for 15
minutes and we'll get into it.

[music]

Creamy mouth feel, light
ABV, low bitterness,

short aftertaste,
probably about 20 IBUs.

I'm very familiar with this
style, I think it's
a white beer.

Pretty much I'm always going
to start with an appearance.

Sometimes this room can
be a little tough at night
light wise

but its kind of reddish brown,

fairly opaque, tan,
creamy head, a lot of chocolate,

a lot of dark fruit
like fig, raisin.

Kind of like, vanilla,
chocolate, it's not

overly roasty,
definitely mouth forward.

It smells like a toasted
marshmallow like a S'mores.

Could be in the porter
space maybe brown now.

It's probably got too much
character for Schwarzbier.

Probably gonna be Porter.

4-VG, 4-vinyl guaiacol,
very fruity.

It's an ale for sure.
Bready like crazy.

Spicy hop, that's European hop.

11 minutes on the clock.

Nice golden color, light haze.

White to off-white head.

It's interesting, it's
kind of medicinal,
taste moderate bitterness.

See we'll come back to that one.

This beer is bottle
conditioned, I can tell.

It's got some stuff
floating in it.
It's probably yeast.

Light catty note, could be
American, but it's not one.

Overly screaming
American hops, beer four.

Nine and half to go.

Reminds me a lot of
number four or five.

Malty, biscuity, creamy,
caramel, a little bit lactic,
probably 25 IBU.

45 or about halfway there.

White to off white head,
pretty good retention, fruity,

a lot of citrus, lemon,
a little bit of catty hop.

Very muddy look,
unfiltered, possibly

American IPA,
ton of spice in this.

5:45 to go.

[music]

Alright. I don't want
to DMS again today.

I'm not sure.

Three and a half.

Slightly skunked, three
MBT which is a chemical

for skunk, 3-methyl,
2-butane, 1-thiol.

Not malty enough to be an
American amber, not dark enough.

Perfumey.

Cloudy. I'm going [indistinct].
Changing at the last second.

I don't want to put
the same stuff on twice

but I probably
got American pale again.

[phone ringing]

Ooh!

A lot of strong beers
in the lineup today.

A lot of Belgian beers.

They make or break you sometimes
the last second changes.

I'm gonna say it's not
for that one though,
we'll see what happens.

The one thing that's
worrying me most is

probably the tasting,
it's just daunting.

It's, you know, one that's
usually pretty difficult

to get a decent score on
and knowing that

you need an 85 overall
to pass the exam

you really don't have
a lot of wiggle room.

-How did you do tonight?
-Shitty.

The only one you could
technically say I got right was

the white, so one out of seven
is not great
at the end of the day.

Probably not as good as I need
to do or wanted to do but...

What did you think
that the first one was?

-Wheat beer. Boom.
-Nailed it. Got it.

I thought it was actually
Allagash, but I'll
take KOL GUARD.

KOL GUARD is acceptable.

What did you get
for number three?

I can't change my answer now,
so obviously I went with tripel.

-You went with a tripel? You
nailed it, it was not tripel.
-Alright.

-Alright.
-Boom. It can be stressful when
I get non-right

which happens occasionally
and sometimes I have really
good days and I get a lot right.

I thought this to me reminding
me of the time I was in Brussels

and this is a very popular beer
over there,
it's Leffe blonde, I think.

It's creamy in the mouthfeel,
it's a little bit DMSy.

It's really herbal, a little
bit syrupy of viscous, that's

what I thought it was, but
don't tell me it's a Saison.

It's literally Leffe, you
didn't just get it,
you actually got the brand.

-That's crazy,
that's pretty good.
-How about that? I'll take it.

This is the fun part of my
work day, at least now.

[piano music]

To go back to the breweries
that were open pre-prohibition,

all over sudden it's
a small playing field.

To walk in Anheuser Busch I kind
of have to have an open mind.

It's not necessarily
where I would normally go.

I can walk you through
and show you some

of my favorite pieces
in the collection.

One I've heard about
these archives,

and two to really understand
what was life like back then?

[Tracy] We got a lot of great
examples of how the company
made its way through

the prohibition time period
and some really fun
and interesting pieces

that will
illustrate early brewing.

Tracy was so helpful and
her knowledge is vast.

She is preserving the culture
where Anheuser Busch started,

where it was
and where it is today.

[Tracy] Have you ever had
a chance to take a look
at the Western Brewer?

No, but I've heard of them.

The Western Brewer
was a trade journal

that all brewers
would subscribe to.

This one is the earliest
Western Brewer from 1876.

And there's some examples
of various reports

that would be given to brewers.

They would need to know the
barley, malt and hop review.

Like where's the best barley
coming from and where's

the hops coming from,
what are the prices?

This is interesting
because the purity

of water versus beer
I think, because they never

really made that connection
of just boiling the water.

-Right.
-But making beer was okay.

Mhm, yes, it's really
interesting to see that that's

even a report that
comes out highlighted in

a beer magazine, right, to make
sure people know that beer

is a little more pure
than water at this point.

Tracy opened up all these other
questions to me outside of

what one brewery was doing
and also one time period,

when we can only really
go back 150 years.

What else was going on back then
and even before that time period

because what inspired it we know
from that point to today

but I really want to get back
to where we started.

I like the fact that you can't
get a digital version of this.

As far as having a beer and
interacting with somebody

this is like real things
in real life and real time.

It's beautiful.

Mave! Rory!

We do a little bit of malt
and hops sensory,
chew on them a little bit.

Just kind of take some notes
on two to three to four things
that are jumping out on me.

It's kind of a bread crust like
quality, dry, bitter,
some astringency

is coming in, it's kind of
lingering a little bit,
drying out your mouth.

-Daddy, it goes down and down
and all the way...
-That's right.

I think that it ends there
and that maybe it comes
all the way back up.

You're really starting
to see that

sweetness lighten up
a little bit here.

Sometimes it's kind of weird,
you know, the familiarity

when you smell or taste
something, it takes you back.

What kind of ice cream
did you get?

Birthday cake, how is it?

Good? It looks good.
It's all over your face.

Just kind of quickly reminded me
of a bowl of uh, raisin bran.

What is that?

I know I've had that before.

Oh-oh.

Don't throw your back out.

[Ryan] Good thing I eat
my apples and carrots.

It's definitely more toasted.

It's kind of got like a really
nice light chocolate
character to it.

[Kate] The pumpkin
that goes in beer?

It can be.

Some use just raw pumpkin.

Some use the purees.

Like the stuff we throw out?

Yes.

It can be. I don't know.

Honestly I'm not
a crazy pumpkin beer fan.

[children exclaiming]

That one's gonna be
quite a bit of fun to carve.

And I have some malt
tasting for you guys.

[rhythmic music]

Joe cares so much
about the little things,
that it's crazy sometimes.

Brent, you got a quick second
to give it a smell?

Sorry man. I know you're busy.

Joe can literally
walk into a place

and look at a couple of
the small things

and realize that there's
a problem before
there's really a problem.

Only problem is I can't
remember how to remember 15.

So what happens when you turn
15, you have a Quinceañeta,
Quinceañera.

So 15 is-- You associate
that with a sombrero.

Oh, so now the bee is wearing
a sombrero and maracas.

-Is that what you're saying?
-No.

[Bill] Joe is an incredibly
disciplined guy.

You know, he sets his goal as to
what he wants to do

in this exam. He wants the
exam not so as he can say,

"I'm a Master Cicerone."
He wants the exam because

the exam will give him the
skills to make better beer

at Sugar Creek.
He's making really
good beer at Sugar Creek.

That's not good enough for him.
He wants to make fantastic beer.

Alright, our three commercial
styles are, Vienna Lager.

-We start with Devil's Backbone.
-Boom.

-What's our Danish's name?
-Our Danish's name is Robert.

Robert who used to
work at Figaro.

-How do you spell it?
-F-I-G, Mountain.

-Danish.
-Exactly.

-Ale.
-Boom.

And then you forgot one thing.

The Danish is

riding the heavy seas.

-We've got Heavy Seas Cutlass.
-Aaah!

-Cutlass, I knew it.
-Yes.

And that will complete our
three commercial styles.

And then what's the final
piece of the puzzle.

It's the IBU, and that
should be our 18 van

with Mr. T there
and the 30 pound bomb.

Yes, we just got to make sure
we get to the stripe

in there, it goes a little
something like this.

[humming] 30 pound bomb.

So that's 18 to 30, and that
kind of concludes the pneumonic.

So the whole idea of this
is to remember something

that's normally mundane
in a visual way.

So if I asked you to remember
and visualize your nightstand

and what do you have
on your nightstand

And what does that look like,
you could picture it right away.

But if I asked you to remember
300 or 400 random
beer statistics

for the over 100 south of
the BJ CP, you'd
have a hard time.

So I'm really fortunate to
have Eric help me with this.

[phone ringing]

-Hello.
-Hey, how you doing?

-Good. It's Alex.
-Good. It's Uncle Joe.
How you doing?

-Good, alright. How you doing?
-Good. Is your mom around?

She's actually
sleeping right now.

Okay, I heard she wasn't
feeling good today.

Yes, she's really just worn
out for the last two days.

Yes, I was trying to meet
with you guys to kind of

talk about the mission, um,
the charity and everything.

I was hoping I could meet up
and-- and uh, you know

give you guys
some of the proceeds
and see how she was feeling.

My oldest sister Michelle Pratt
is battling right now

a terminal diagnosis, and
she has Cholangiocarcinoma.

That's bile duct cancer.

And she's like me,
she's a fighter and she's

always thought,
"Hey, I'm gonna beat it.

Even though there's
less than 1% chance."

I'm can tell her to give
you a call when she wakes up,

but she's-- she's probably gonna be kind of out of it today.

You might want to get
in contact with my dad.

It's no problem, man.
You know, I love you guys,

and you know, if you need
anything, give me a call, right?

-I appreciate man.
I love you too.
-Alright, talk to you later.

-Alright, bye.
-Bye.

[Eric] It's a very difficult
situation for Joe to

go take
the Master Cicerone exam,

but I have heard her say that
she would much rather

him be doing that
than worry about her.

Her whole big thing
has been normal.

"Let's make sure
everything is regular.

Let's make sure that everyone is
living a normal life
through this."

[oom-pah music]

Oh, it is strongest. No, this...

-Otherwise I'm drunk. [laughing]
-[crew] That's alright.

Be careful, a lot
of carbon dioxide.

Thank you.

That was perfect.

[exclaiming]

[Tonya] When I taste the beer in
Bavaria, I want to taste what

a thousand years of brewing
tastes like.

[Tonya] A timber
over 10 years old.

I want to know what a thousand
years of brewing tastes like.

A thousand years of tweaking
the same recipe
over and over and over.

To me, that's why I'm here.

[speaking German]

-That's uh, my friend
Tonya from America.
-It's nice to meet you.

She's a brewer
and we are both here to learn

-more about how to
make beer in Germany.
-Yes, and the history.

Can you tell us
the history of this place?

Doing almost a thousand year
beer here in this place.

This is amazing.

[Tonya] Walking into Weltenburg,
that cave was amazing.

It was dark, it wasn't damp, but
it was, you know, kind of
low lit, it was cool,

and it was just the
perfect temperate to age beer.

-[Tonya] How old is this beer?
-[guide] The recipe of this beer
is almost a thousand years old.

Are there still brew logs?

They don't have the original
recipes here because the
brewery burned down nine times,

and you saw it outside
with a little island here.

So they have always
problems with high water

and because we are
so close to the Donau.

That was the first thing
I thought of, was flooding.

I didn't realize there
were fires as well.

-Yes.
-That's an amazing history.

[Tonya] Weihenstephan is the
oldest brewery in the world.

They have records dating
back over a thousand years.

So for me,
it was exciting to go there.

I've been drinking it
for years, and there

are diehard Weihenstephan
fans out there.

Hello, nice to meet you.

-Hi, I'm Tonya.
-Tobias.

[speaking German]

I'm the brewmaster, I want to
show you around if you want.

-Great, yes, absolutely.
-Absolutely. Thanks.

Okay, thank you.

Wow, this is great.

-This is our museum.
-Nice.

-Want to start with the beer?
-Yes.
-Sure.

One of the things that
Weihenstephan is known for
is their wheat beer.

This is our famous beer,

but you have to
start with that,
then try all the others.

I noticed when you
poured it, you swirled

the bottom, and then roused
the yeast and poured it in.

What's the tradition
behind that?

This is a top fermented beer.

This is a special yeast
we have propagated on our own,

it's a Weihenstephan
yeast strain.

And the yeast is
inside the beer.

As you can see it's not
filtered, it's a cloudy beer.

And there's some yeast in the
bottle and I want to have

everything in the glass, so it
looks better and tastes better.

So we have all the flavors,
all the good flavors,
out of the yeast in the glass.

[Tonya] Tobias was very open to
different beer styles.

I think he is a person
who is very interested in
the American market.

Even though he personally
can't brew a lot of the styles

that we do, he was at least
interested in what's going on.

When I was a student at Siebel,
part of my schooling was
in Germany at Doemens.

My favorite brewery that
we visited was Andechs.

I literally left
clothes in my hotel

and brought back
a case of Doppelbock.

It was amazing.
I was so sad when it was gone.

This is a beer that
I have tried to emulate
more than a few times.

I think that my attempts
have been good,

but certainly, you know,
it's hard to replicate
a beer like that.

It's perfection.

-Nice to meet you. Hello.
-I'm Tonya.

My name is Alexander.

I'm the brewmaster here

in the Monastery
Brewery, Andechs.

May I show you the brewery.

Thank you.

[Tonya] As we are walking
through the brewery

Alexander is really
warming up to me.

I think at first I
thought maybe he was going

to be a little rigid
and not very forthcoming.

And it was
completely the opposite.

Here is very important, we have
almost 60-90 hour to boil.

The reason is that you want
to get out the proteins,

the de-adulteration because of
course brewing with
the purity law.

So that's the reason why
we cook very long.

The next special thing
is we're only using

the hops from the Hallertau,
and only aroma hops.

We don't use any bitter hops,
only aroma hops.

Do you use them in the--
the bitter spots like at

the beginning of the boil or
all the hops are at the end.

No, no, no, we're starting
right in the

cooking begin, in the
middle and in the end.

So I think that's a very
classic ay to do it
in Germany and Bavaria.

Yeah, you have three additions,
at the beginning, in the
middle, at the end.

It's like we brewed
100 years ago,
the only difference is now with

the new technique,
but the recipes are

still the old recipe
of the monks.

So that's very important for us.

[Tonya] The more we talked,
the more he wanted to talk.

And we had really good technical
discussions about the beer.

I was asking
all kinds of questions.

He didn't care who I was,

he just realized that I was
excited about beer

and had the depth of knowledge
to understand
what he could give me.

The malt prevail
is so beautiful.

The foam is like cream
and the paste in the beginning

it's like a little bit
like chocolate as well.

And of course malt is
high alcohol, so we need

to really--
the nice balance between

the bitterness of the hop
and the alcohol

and the sugar, of course
culminate in the back.

It's a very good beer.

The color, like Bernstein.

[Tonya] I will always remember
the brewers tasting
right off the tank.

I mean, that is one of those
moments that is way up there
in the bucket list, for sure.

Throughout the past couple
of days I think I've gotten

a true sense of tradition
and how that plays out

in the beers, and really
seeing that theme

carry through and talking
to the brewmasters.

-They are so proud of
the reinheitsgebot.
-Right.

-And...
-I love it too.

We don't have anything
like that in the US.

We have so many varieties
of hops, so many

varieties of barley, so
many varieties of malt.

I think it's the best law
we have here.

We have a major challenge
here now losing almost three
people in our staff.

Having to replace them
and I'm gonna be

prepping for the master exam,
taking Dr. Simpson's course.

The next two weeks are some of
the busiest of the whole year.

That's when we sell our
most beer in October.

Now we're in crunch time at
Sugar Creek and I'm leaving

to go give this exam a shot,
so the pressure on me
couldn't be bigger.

If you're forming a team,
then you want to make it
the toughest team possible.

You want Eric in there as the
quarterback, he's that good.

Every now and then
you get things like

what a new brewer does
like a drive off.

then you get the guys
around and talk.

He's a great leader.

He can step in when I step out.

We had a couple brewers
[indistinct] back on

the tank, and it literally
shoots beer foam
50 feet in the air.

He has a never quit attitude,
he's one of the most

persistent, diehard
individuals you'll ever meet.

I can't fucking help it,
so I kind of just sit there
and videotape it [indistinct].

I try to walk around to
every individual every day

and say hello to them and
ask them how their day was.

These guys hate it, man.
I always come back here

in the middle of them
doing something important.

Brewers they're in a box
every day, they brew beer, this
is the world that they know.

Whereas I'm driving
all over two - three states

and they have to remember
that what they are doing here is

affecting people's lives
600 miles away, you know.

I 100% believe that
if the Brewers got out

a little bit more and
actually saw a random

stranger drink their
beer in a totally

foreign place every day
they would be fine.

They would literally
realize, "Wait a minute,

I'm having a fucking
hard time right now.

I ran out of coffee,
but someone is going

to drink my beer in
the Netherlands today.

And it could possibly make
their day better."

That is why people should be
in the beer business.

[Bill ] The thing about
the tasting is, it's not
often appreciated

but tasting is a sport
and professional beer tasting
is a form of athletics

in the sense of using your mind
and your body, so your body

has to be in top condition,
but we're using your senses.

Your sense of smell and your
brain has to be
in top condition.

What usually feels
first is the brain,
just like any sport

when the pitcher stands up
to pitch and they just lose
the mental sight

now that's the biggest danger.
I think a lot of people
who sit exams like that,

they're prepared,
they can take it on, the task

but then they essentially
go to pieces on the day.

I'm hoping that people
we've trained over

the last few months are
not gonna go to pieces.

What mainly do you appreciate
one direction is we've

done a say in which we
have mostly defective beer.

[Eric] You have experts on
quality from Sierra Nevada,

from Brooklyn Brewery,
from Mad Tree, from Guinness,

from Banks Brewing,
you know, Wicked Weed,

we have all of these
world-renowned brewers.

Sitting with them and tasting
beer in a blind setting and
getting stacked up.

I mean Bill takes your score and
puts it right on the board
for everybody to see.

[Bill] We develop flavors to use
to teach people to taste beer.

We've done more than
350 different flavors

and as we develop them
I get to try them out.

So I get lots of practice.

Just when you think
you found the very last flavor,

just go across the [indistinct].

Just be doubly sure
they're not there.

In case there's anything lacking
in there you haven't found yet.

Compared to most other senses
and the sense of smell is

really highly discriminatory
and extremely sensitive.

Now, any individual never
gets a chance to try out

hundreds of thousands
of different flavors.

They often-- Even a very
highly trained specialist might

learn only a few 100 or maybe
1000 or more flavor compounds.

But if they could live
long enough, if they could

live until they are 300,
they could do a lot more.

Grainy, malty, biscuity,
sweet, bitter, [indistinct],

acetaldehyde, ethyl acetate,

ethyl hexanoate,
isoamyl acetate,

leathery, peppery,
sour and green pepper.

There's a big genetic component

relating to the sense of smell

and the fact that all
of us have certain

blindnesses, blind spots
to specific flavors.

We don't have the genetic
capability to detect them.

It's a little like color
blindness for flavors.

What really matters
is your genetics,

the genetic makeup and
components that let you

manage to concentrate
and keep your peace of mind
when all the pressure is on you.

That's the most critical part
and that's about
the genetics of being

a sports man or a sports lady
rather than the genetics
of tasting.

While you're looking for
that rotten vegetable,

there's an elephant
in the glass here.

Can't no one smell the
elephant in the glass?

This here has a huge aroma.

Pick up your control glass,
by the way, your control glass
was 5A2.

Have a smell at it.
Did you get much
banana flavor in 5A2?

-Boiled banana.
-Yes, Plantain.

So half a year, the
elephant is here, but

the other half of year,
the elephant's a ghost.

You'll never find it.

How am I stacking up
out of 120 samples

over the course of four days?
I got 119 right
in a blind environment.

So I came out with
a 99.2 average and I was
first in the class.

[Megan] It's really important
for us that Brian
pass this exam.

The knowledge he's able to
spread out in the world is great

for, not only us, but for
the beer industry in general.

[Max] Unfortunately,
we have to crack a lot

of eggs and make
a really small omelet.

It's about 32 ounces
or a quarter beer,
we'll probably sip maybe

12 ounces off of this and then
the rest will go down the drain.

So... A lot of fallen soldiers
to taste a little beer.

One of the biggest things
we find with tasting is

people will scratch out, you
know, four or five of them,
switch their answers

and then you get the results

and the four or five that
scratched out
were the right ones.

Si it comes down to
trusting your instincts

and that little person in your
head that says, "This is right."

Once that other person in
the side of your head says,
"This is wrong."

Then all these other flavors,
these aromas come
out of the room

and you start
just making things up.

We always use a beer
that is something

that no one's ever tried before.

Three parts Budweiser
to one part Bass.

So you have no idea what the
base beer is, you just are
looking for the flavor.

Each one of these capsules
is a flavor standard
they'll have a two...

threshold is a little
bit above threshold

flavor note, or taste, or aroma.

That's how we
practice tasting, so...

It's good to know your
sensitivities because then

you can flip a coin sometimes
and be like,

"Well, there's two left.
I can't smell it.

I'm just gonna flip a coin
and you're either gonna

get it right." It's
50/50 verses 1 out of 35.

It's like roulette odds.

Alright, panel two.

Panel one
was the training wheels.

Panel two, dad's taken them off.

-I like the training wheels.
-[crosstalk] Come on.

-Has uh, to me
a beety quality to it.
-A what?

Beety, like sugar,
earthy quality which

you know if it happens to
come up next to [indistinct],

it can be confusing,
so you have to step back

and figure out which sample
you're getting that retcho on.

It's giving you a leathery.

Yes, they both kind of have
like a soily, dirty
quality to it.

Sounds like a really
weird, uhm structure.

[Ryan] When Max and I taste,
it's nice because

you're speaking
a very similar language.

It's kind of funny
if I go out and I'm just
with friends and family.

The way I talk about a beer.

Relate taste to other
people is gonna be very

different than what I would
do with Max and vice versa.

It's pretty cool, it's pretty
unique, but you need to be

able to get to that added
layer of depth for this exam.

I mean, the taste.

-[Ryan] Dirt, damp soil,
sugarbeets, petrichor...
-Petrichor?

-Smell that.
-Let me know what that is.

I had no idea what it was.
I saw it as a flavor
for these few weeks ago.

It's essentially like the smell
after a, like a fresh rain.

Like after it hasn't rained for
a little bit and you
get a lot of rain.

That smell. That's petrichor.

P-E-T-R-I-C-H-O-R.

First time I ever saw it was
a few weeks ago, and I got it.

Let's go to Mr. Google.

I love beer because... Let me
think about that actually.

I love beer because it's proof
that God loves us and
wants us to be happy.

[laughs]

It's Benjamin Franklin.

[Frank] Here we are at
Williamsburg.

This is a style of
cooking that I'm not

familiar with and
I'm really excited to learn.

Keep in mind, you're in t
he colonial capital
of Virginia 200 years ago.

All the land between here and
Charlottesville, by this time

period, has been cleared and cut
with guys with axes and oxen.

Got you.

No chainsaws, none of that.

Frank Clark is a food historian.

He specializes in historical
cooking, understanding
the colonial

and pre-colonial times and also
brewing and brewing science.

Things were just so
radically different.

We didn't have thermometers for
brewing and temperature rises.

I've seen an 18th-century
brewing manual which describes

yeast as being composed of equal
portions of fire and earth.

-[laughter]
-Yes, their scientific
knowledge of yeast

is pretty low
at this point in time.

This is before Pasteur.

So even some of the basics
aren't really understood.

[Sean] Walk me through
the brewing.

Barley and malt,
I'm sure that came

over on the ships,
but what about hops?

The hops are native here too.

So, we already had
hops in Virginia.

And then what we find is that
we're starting to
cross-feed those with

-the English varieties of hops.
-Okay.

So, you're starting to see the
creation of American hops

and very early on, as early as
the 1820s, the English

start describing them as catty.

The one thing I think is
interesting that we forget

in today's modern cooking
is the use of the fire.

Because how much flavor
and smoke that's happening
in this hearth

that you can't get from
just a normal burner,
electric or otherwise.

The control of that heat
is something that is--

-is very important to learn
as a cook 200 years ago.
-Yes.

'Cause notice what we're losing.
We're not holding this pan
over the fire.

-No.
-Two things would happen.

I'd burn myself
and I'd burn my food.

I can control the heat here

by the amount of these
embers that I'm using.

[Sean] These cooking recipes
aren't just

the recipe itself,
it's the technique.
Oh, I can't wait to try this.

It's that knowledge
of understanding how
to work a kitchen without

a burner, but a huge giant
hearth and the fire you create.

How would we say, you know,
to get a beer with this?

Well, if we were gonna go out
drinking in the 18th century,

we would say,
"We're gonna bung our eye."
"I bunged my eye."

That's indicating that you
probably drink
a little too much.

-Too much.
-If you're just starting to
drink,

you might be on the road
to Jerusalem.

If you've had too to drink
you probably been to Jericho.

So if you see a friend
on the street 200 years ago
and he says,

"I've been to Jericho"
you know he had a really
good time last night.

[laughter]

I'm taking away a sense
of history and knowledge

from colonial Williamsburg,
yet I'm still intrigued

because this is pretty
modern when you really

start to look at how
things were really done.

Being in a home that has
brick and stone,

and while historical,
these building materials were

really part of a larger,
faster experience

that was not really
what I'm looking for.

I need to understand
more what it was like

in the wilderness of really
where we started.

[Ryan] I have a little bit
of a study group. A few guys.

James and Gavin have both
taken the exam before, so I'm

able to tap into a little
bit of their experience.

Joe's a first-time test taker
just like me.

We're going in blind and
we'll see what happens.

The preparation that
has gone into this

is more than I
prepared for anything.

Whether it's studying for exams
you know,

in school and college,
or preparing to perform,
you know,

in front of thousands
of people as a musician.

What you do to prepare
yourself for those situations.

This by far the most difficult
thing that I've ever had
to prepare for.

I find Maris Otter to
be a lot more nutty

typically than your
regular base pale ale too.

It has a character that's
really hard to emulate.

It has more-- just more
nuttiness. You know,

like you can go and try to mix
it with special grains and you

get bready, but the nutty
flavor is always missing.

I think Maris Otter
brings that to the table.

Joe is definitely very
focused, very determined.

He seems to always have
a story for something

as well, which kind of maybe
brings things in context.

[Ray] When you're learning stuff
and it can be very technical,

or maybe you're trying to
memorize numbers or something,

having, you know, some sort of
context can really help
to bring it back

to real life and what is it
that we're trying to do here.

It's not just
memorize a of numbers.

It is difficult exam.

I have taken it one time
previously and no one passed it.

And I've heard that that was
one the most difficult ones.

I'll just leave it at that
since I didn't pass it either.

Alright guys.
Where do you want to go, Joe?

-Where do you want to take this?
-I don't know, man.

Let's go Biere de Garde.
I'll see if I can
remember the stats.

-Alright.
-Color for 6 to 19.

Bitterness is 18 to 28.

ABV is 6 to 8.5.

Sound right?

Beer for guarding or
beer for keeping, right?

Typically, a
cellar-bottle-conditioned ale.

And it's a cousin of the Saison.

It comes from
the northern region of France,

similar to--
close to Wallonia in Belgium.

Stored, typically, stronger,
more hoppy, to help it keep.

It could have
any sort of range of

ingredients but typically
more malt forward.

You know, thinking about the
real possibility that my sister
could pass away

while I'm up here just
trying to pass a beer exam,
it's gut-wrenching.

I really have faith that,
if it got to that,

I'd get a phone call
and I could, you know, put this

aside for the year, and head
home and, uh, be with my sister,

but I haven't
gotten that phone call.

Unless I get word in
another way, I'm gonna

you know, keep pressing forward
and do what I have to do.

We're very outdoorsy people.

We like to have you know
like a beer or two in our bags

as we're like going
dirt biking, you know.

And it's just a great thing to
have like on a ski hill.

It's super refreshing.

Or if you like, make it to
like the summit of somewhere,

it's just a great thing to have.

It's not like
lugging around a bottle of wine.

[Tonya] Bamberg is super quaint,
cobblestone streets,

and people on bicycles,
and people walking their dogs,
and children playing.

It's super relaxing.

When you do live in a smaller
town, they all have that
kind of familiar ring.

Everything was alive
and everyone was
having such a nice day.

[music]

I was able to contact
Weyermann Malting.

I use this malt all the time.

I got to meet Franziska
which is the daughter

of the Weyermann's who
I've met many times.

-Hi guys. Franziska.
-Tonya, nice to meet you.

-It's nice to meet you.
-Hi, Ferdinand,
nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you, too.
-Welcome to the Weyermann World.

-Are you ready for a tour?
-Yes.

-Alright. Let's go.
-Thank you.

[Tonya] Weyermann Malting has
great quality malt.

I've used them for
so long that I love

the way my beers turn out
when I use them.

[Franzizka] In this building,
actually, we get
all our grains in.

And they will be cleaned
in a six-step process.

As you can see, all
the buildings are very nice.
They fit together.

They've been built by my great
grandfather's brother-in-law.

It's supposed to look
like a city in itself.

It's a little bit like Willy
Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

And so we get our grains in
here and then they will

be transported up here,
into the malt house.

[Tonya] Any kind of food
that you're making
or any kind of dish

that you're making,
you want to know how all of
your ingredients are processed.

Going to Weyermann Malting,
you get to see
the grain as it comes in

as a seed, and then how it's
germinated, and then
how it's malted.

Now, you're in the heart
of the malt house.

I'm gonna show you
our germination box,

the third step in the process,
where the malt is germinated so
we can make good beer out of it.

[Tonya] Oh, it's so hot.

[Franzizka] Yes, it's like going
to a tropic island.

[Tonya] The hot room was so hot,
like you could barely breath.

It was
like one step above a sauna.

The humidity is
sitting on my skin.

I'm finding it hard to breath.

It's just incredibly hot and
all I could think about was
"get me out of here".

Basically, you're
starting the process that

-we finish, as brewers,
in the mash tub?
-Yes, that is correct.

-You activate the enzymes
in here and then--
-Yes.

And then we manipulate them
later on to continue

breaking down the starches
into simple sugars
that the yeast eat later on.

Yes, we kind of set them free
and you activate them

with the right temperature
and the right pH-level.

[Tonya] With Franziska,
there was a really nice
understanding of

what's going on in the American
beer scene that I loved.

[Franzizka] This is a chocolate,
orange dark lager.

-So it's outside of
the Reinheitsgebot.
-Okay. [chuckles]

We like to experiment
just because we want

to educate people who
like to drink beer.

-So we're coming closer.
-[laughter]

It's not just a Pilsner, but
you can also do something,

a little bit more funky,
a little bit more interesting.

[Tonya] How are you able to make
this, since we are in an area

where the breweries brew
under the Reinheitsgebot?

So in Germany, if you
want to call your beer

a beer, it has to just
have the four ingredients.

But if you will add
something like chocolate

or orange,
you cannot call it beer.

You just have to call it
a refreshing beverage

made out of malt with alcohol,
which is beer but--

Right, at this point it's
just about the labeling.

This is so nice,
it tastes like candy.

Yes, it is made with
orange zest and then

we added chocolate
during the maturation.

Really, really nice.

-Thank you so much for today.
-Thank you very much.

And I hope you have a great
onward journey towards Berlin.

-To my Berliner Weisse.
-[chuckles]

-Cheers.
-Cheers.

Look at this place here.

Bamberg, there are so
many different breweries

and they're known for
their smoked beer.

So, if you serve a smoked
beer in Munich, they will

not drink it because
it's a regional beer, you know.

What developed in
a certain area is kind of

what the brewers and what
the public think of as beer.

Even though I'm sure,
a rauchbier is technically under

the Reinheitsgebot,
but maybe not as accepted
in Munich as here.

Like the Bock beer to
Munich and the smoked beer
to Bamberg and Berliner Weisse.

-To Berlin.
-There is this guy in
Potsdam his name is

Jurgen Solkowski
from Meierei brewery.

I think he makes the best
Berliner Weisse I know so far.

-Do you know him?
-I've heard of the brewery,
I don't know him.

A friend brought me a beer from
his brewery and it kind of
set me on

the idea that I wanted to make
this beer in a traditional way.

And I'm bound and determined
to figure it out.

At least if I can drink his beer
fresh at the source,
I'll be happy.

Okay, let's go to Potsdam
and continue our adventure.

-What do you think?
-Oh, yes, definitely.

Great, cheers.

So I could go to a library,
but to really get into more

than just the text, I really
wanted to meet somebody

who would not only
understand what I'm trying to

do here but also has kind of
a practical sense of it all.

And as I'm researching,
here's this guy Jon Hansen.

I mean, what is beer soup and
why don't we still have it?
So, let's look at this recipe.

He's got the period clothing,
he's got the lifestyle,
and he really

seems to have
a great understanding of
what it is to be 18th century.

He's really
doing something unique

and different and I really
have to kind of meet this guy.

-Hey, Sean.
-How you doing, Jon?

-I am doing well.
-Great.

-Welcome.
-Nice to meet you.

Yeah. Let's head up
to the kitchen.

Here we go, let's step
back into the 18th century.

Here we go.

So we're doing
that 1796 spruce beer.

It's a super simple recipe,
especially for brewing,.

We're gonna start to boil
some hops and these are actually

supposed to boil
a half hour or 20 minutes.

-This is high in vitamin C,
correct?
-High in vitamin C

and that's the reason why
they were using this.

This is really a medicinal brew
to keep people from
getting scurvy.

-So how do we cook this up?
-We're gonna fill it up, get it
on and get this boiling up

and really get a feel for what
the spruce essence is like
ever cooking them.

It's very surreal to me
to see how we're making

this beer that was
an everyday beverage.

Congress sets forth for
the revolutionary war soldiers,

spruce beer is
one of the major things.

They're supposed to get
a quart of spruce beer
a day per soldier.

If they can't get spruce beer,
then they are

issued molasses
so they can make their own.

[Sean] This was a beverage that
everybody knew how to make.

Today, we don't do that.

We're so removed from it and
it's great to be reminded of

how much brewing really was
survival in the colonial days.

Now, they would normally
would have boiled this
for three hours,

but I think you can get the hint
right away what's going on
with this.

Oh, wow, that is so different
than what I've expected.

It almost has like a lemony
like citrus undertones.

-It's not like pine at all.
-I was so surprised when
I started doing this.

The last ingredients is
the emptins, the yeast.

Understanding what this is and
how it was used, not just even

in brewing but also
it seems like
some other products as well.

Right, everything like
bread, anything that's

yeast-risen, that's
what's being used.

-Hopped bread.
-Yes, hopped bread.

Now that's an interesting idea.

When they would bottle it,
would they add some

more sugar and basically
they're like carbonated?

Yes, put in it
a teaspoon of molasses.

-As a priming sugar?
-As a priming sugar and when...

...those yeast back up, then--

Then wire those corks on to
the stoneware bottles.

-Oh, stoneware bottles.
-Even talk about using
stoneware because

the glass bottles wouldn't be
able to take the pressure.

[liquid pouring]

-Cheers.
-Cheers.

It's got some sprucyness
to it, doesn't it?

Wow. Not really sweet.

It's a dry finish
and what I also like

-about it is it's not
a refined product.
-No.

It's not like what we know today
as far as a soda
or a light small beer.

This would be really interesting
in the feast I'm working on.

Yes.

[Sean] There's so much more
history that I really
need to learn.

Where we came from and where
we're going, there's a lot

of unanswered questions for me
that I need to get into.

[Joe] So in the study with
Bryan has been-- You know he's
done a very good job

of kind of bringing
this together and one thing

I've noticed is
he's very deliberate,

very thoughtful, and
very well polished.

Um, this would
be ordinary bitter.

[Ryan] Okay, so ordinary bitter.

ABV, we're gonna go 32 to 38.

The SRM is gonna be 8 to 14
and the IBUs will be 25 to 35.

Bingo.

From an ingredient's
perspective, probably

a pale ale, malt base,
probably some caramel malt,

maybe some chocolate malt,
maybe a little small

amounts of dark roasted malt,
mostly for color.

A good chance you might
have some sugar add junks,

some wheat starch,
flake maze in there.

English hops are going
to be most traditional.

EKG, Vogel, clean to slightly
carried full English ale yeast.

Commonly served on cask.

It's mostly
ingredients and process.

I'd say from a flavor profile,
it's gonna pour

kind of a nice orange-ish amber
to like copper color.

Generally, pretty clear.
If it's served on casks,
this would bright.

It should be polished.
It should have a nice kind of
tan to off white foam.

Medium-light CO2.
Same thing, lower CO2
if it's served on cask.

Bitterness is, say moderate
to likely pronounced.

Finishes pretty clean.
Maybe a little bit of
lingering bitterness,

a very slight astringency from
some dark roasted malts.

Bonus points. Great job.

-It just hit me right now.
Like the-- the anxiety.
-The anxiety.

-It's happening?
-It just hit me right now.

Did it? Talking about it.
Talking about it in
less than 24 hours.

They got a strong beer here.
It might have something
to do with this.

-Yes, you got a strong beer.
-You want to polish them off?

Give it a go.
I'm glad to get out of
there today because there's

only a few hours left
until the exam's coming up,

so it's kind of
getting to a different

environment and where you
can really concentrate.

When you're in the room with
some other guys that really are
good,

you know, the tendency can be
to lose your focus
or train of thought

and it's about-- and this is
all about mindfulness.

I'm just-- I'm just mad at
myself in general because I knew

that I should have spent more
time by myself getting in

the flow and instead, I did
group study and I've never been

good at that, so it's a-- But
now, it's no time to get mad.

Just try to rest
and do what we do.

[music]

[Sean] I've always
loved history.

I want to get deeper
into where we came from.

What was it like when we first
walked onto this continent

and really, what were we cooking
at that particular time
and period?

[knocks on the door]

-Hello?
-Hello. Good morning.

-Welcome in.
-Hello. My name is Sean.
How are you?

-Is this your custom?
-Yes, it is.

I will make curtsy to you.
Pleasure to meet you.

-My name is
mistress Barbra Standish.
-Hello, Barbra.

Good day. I'm Elizabeth Warren.
How are you today?

Nice to meet you. I'm Sean.
This kitchen is beautiful.

-[polite laughter]
-Thank you.
That's very kind of you.

-Is there any way I might
be able to help you?
-Yes, please.

-Absolutely.
-What can I do?

We need to get those
muscles into this pot,

-but we need to make sure
that they close.
-Definitely.

Now, ordinarily, I would
cook these in water,

but we have some beer.

This malt, I ran
water through twice.

And so it is what we call an
ordinary beer or small beer.

A small beer.
Well, it is a little
strange meeting somebody who

I know is not necessarily
from a time period.

Shall we use this
in our truncheon?

[Sean] I do respect
what they do and what they

bring to the table
from the tradition standpoint,

from a language standpoint,

and also from
a lifestyle standpoint.

The last thing it needs
is some salt.

-OK.
-Well, wait.

-Oh.
-That is bad manners.

Bad manners?
Yes. So help me understand.

I'll help you. So, this here is
called a salt cellar and it is

for everyone to use
when we're at the table.

So bad manners to put
your fingers in it
or your meat in it.

So I will take my knife here
and put a little in for you.

Without these interpreters,
we would lose these

nuances of everyday life
back in the day.

Thank you so much for your
generosity, your techniques,

your wisdom, as well as
the use of your kitchen.

Thank you for your assistance.

-Oh, indeed.
-Cheers.

Pleasure to meet you, master.

[Sean] Walking around
this town is inspiring

to me
in a lot of different ways.

I've seen characters
tending their gardens.

I'm seeing other people with
whittling and making a spoon.

I'm seeing this other person
tending the fire.

You know, this is where I think
I could really get to understand

how they were cooking and
living in this time period.

So they are
the leaves of the hops.

Probably be very helpful for you
if you wanted a little of it.

-Yes, I'd love to try.
-Yeah.

I can take that
from you if like.

Thank you.

Aye.

Very hot.

Wow.

I feel better already.

Ah, very good.

I'm glad to hear it.

[Sean] This is
what I'm looking for.

This is really where I
feel like I'm getting to

the nuts and bolts of where
we came from as a society.

[music]

It's my real study buddy,
right here.

Game time.

[Joe] I don't think
any last second cramming

is gonna
do any difference, but--

Alright.

[humming]

[singing]

[Joe] I didn't
bring my keys, crap.

[Ryan] You need me to grab them?
It's right here.

[singing]

[Joe] Thanks for taking me in.
I appreciate it.

I know you're not much
of a morning person.

That's true. That's alright.

This is not an everyday
experience, right?

I was thinking about
riding the bike,

and that would have
been invigorating.

Maybe I'll do that tomorrow
and I'll see how it goes.

[Ryan] The best for last.

[rustling]

I'll get you.

I had a note from Randy Moser.

I think he's gonna be there
today as one of the proctors,
but he was talking about

just how important it is
to be mindful
during the exam, so...

I think that
some sort of meditation

is gonna have to
be in my training routine
that you just have to really

let go and let
that brain talk to you.

Then it'll come in and
tell you what's going on.

[Joe] A little bit of nerves.

A little bit of
excitement, I guess,

just to kind of get in there
and see where I'm at.

I'm pretty well
prepared, to be honest.

Uh, you know, I think it's just
one of those things where

they can literally
throw anything at you.

So, you never know until
you get in there

and see what's in front of you.

I put a ton of time in,
so I feel prepared.

[Ray] This is
a very difficult test.

I would guess
the hardest tests that

any of you have
taken in your lives.

Nobody's a London cab driver,
are you?

[students laugh]

Apparently that's the
hardest test in the world.

Average retakes is 10 on the
London cab exam before you pass.

So unless you're a London
cab driver, or somebody

in your family is or
one of your friends

or one of your co-workers is,
this is probably

the hardest tests that
they have ever done.

[Max] I would compare taking the
test to pitching in baseball.

Now you have to throw
a complete game.

You might be able to
give up two triples,

maybe one home run,
but that's it.

The rest has to be
lights out and that's one

of the difficulties of
the exam is you give up

too much in one area
and you're digging

yourself out of the hole
the rest of the way.

[Ryan] So as the door closes,
the clock starts ticking.

You're pretty much at the
beginning of a two-day gauntlet.

[rhythmic music]

[Tonya] As we kind of come
to a close on the Bavaria part

of the trip,
we're headed to Berlin.

I can finally start to get
a sense of, I'm gonna get to

the Berliner Weisse
and hopefully get to
visit the Meierei Brewery.

I was lucky enough to meet
Jurgen, the owner
of the Meierei Brewery.

I didn't know if he was going
to be super staunch and not

really want to meet an American
brewer, but he was great.

He had so much pride
and so much enthusiasm
and he was just the best.

Normally, these days
you see closed fermenters.

What does he feel like
the open fermentation

brings to these styles of beers?

[speaking German]

He really loves brewing beer
in the traditional style.

So open fermenters, they were
working since more than 500
years, why not, you know?

[Sean] Working with different
brewers is really exciting.

It's like working
with different chefs.

-Hey!
-Sean, how are you?

-Nice to meet you.
-Nice to meet you.

-Ryan.
-Ryan, right on.

-Nice to meet you.
-Let's go talk some beer.

Definitely.
Each person has
their own techniques,

their own flavor profiles.
Maybe a little bit of
that cranberry honey maybe

-or something along those lines.
-The sweetness and the tartness
may actually help balance

-each other a little bit.
-In creating this
historical recipe

with Mayflower Brewing Company,

they understand
the regionality that would

encapsulate
the flavors even further.

[Sean] Cooking with fire,
most likely, these beers
had some fire involved.

There's one malt from lighting
the oak smoked wheat malt.

A ton of oak around here,
so that was what was burning.

So, we can drink now?

Here it goes.

[chuckles] Nice.

-Cheers.
-Cheers.

I get a slight bit
of nuttiness almost

like a amaretto
and it's not as sour.

It's interesting how it
fills out the flavor.

This is I think closer to
the one that I do in that

it's simple and this one
has a depth of character.

-[ Is more complex.
-Yes.

So this is what I'm
looking for is that depth.

[Sean] We got some fun
flavors today, huh?

Absolutely some spelt,
some chocolate ryes,

some interesting
things going on.

Trying to go with that
English brown, southern brown,

1620's, and feel like
I'm home grilling. [chuckles]

-Absolutely.
-Steaming off.

Back in the day they
weren't measuring.

-No.
-They had no temperature.

They didn't even know
what temperature was.

It was hot
or it was cold, you know?

No, I don't know
about you, but I always

like to kind of
taste it at this point.

-Let's see what we got.
-The chef had been, you know.

These Fuggles man,
I got to tell you,

that is just
an old school magic.

I know they do smell great.
No one uses them either.

-Everybody was--
-Everyone brew it.

You think that
everyone was doing it.

Everybody is doing it. It was
just part of the daily ritual.

[Jay] Alright, gentlemen,
just for the gravity 115,
so not so bad.

-Awesome.
What a great brew day guys.
-It was fun.

-We appreciate having you.
-Thank you so much guys.
See you in a few weeks..

-Yes, we're looking
forward to trying it.
-Have a good one. Cheers.

[Tonya] This is the version that
we currently brew at 10 barrel.

It is kettle soured and we
ferment it with Kolsch yeast.

[speaking German]

It's more than sour, but
he's saying it's fantastic.

I think that I was closer
than I initially expected.

This was the third sour
that I created

with a little bit of cucumber.

Very nice smell.

Do you like it?

I like it.

If I only could smell it
all the time.

-[laughter]
-I'll send you more.

-Thanks for
coming back down, Sean.
-Thanks, Jay.

We're pretty excited
to try this beer.

You're excited? I'm excited.
I based the whole
entire dinner around it.

-So which one we got here?
-[Jay] This is the first batch
we did, the main beer.

Give it a try here.

[music]

May this be bitter and long
lasting just like your
experience with this test.

[laughter]

[all] Cheers.

[James] With an exam as intense
as this, you can prepare for as

much as you want but you can
never be fully prepared for it.

I don't know, I think
I felt a little better

coming out of day one
than I did today, uhm...

I think just some of
the mistakes I made
were more noticeable.

-It was a roller coaster.
-It was definitely harder

than when I took it
the previous time.

-[Joe] I think you got it, man.
-I don't know, we'll see.

I think you got it.
No, I think yo got it.

Last year, I knew going out
that I definitely didn't
pass last year.

This year I'm--
I still don't think I passed,

but I definitely
don't know for sure.

I can leave it at that.
I was just talking to my wife.

I got my little one on
the phone and talk to them.

I'm anxious to get back and
seeing them, so she knows

I'm gonna decompress a little
bit, have a few beers tonight,

get a good night's rest,
get on a plane and head back
home tomorrow.

I can't wait to see my family.
It's usually, probably, at least
a month and a half to two months

for the results.
I'm not gonna worry about it.

You know, it's one of
those things when I get

the phone call to talk
and see how I did.
We'll have that conversation.

Right now, I'm just
looking forward to getting home,

seeing Kate, the kids, friends.

Probably have a few beers
that I don't have to really

think too much about, just
enjoy and see where we go.

[music]

[Joe] After I got out of
the Master Cicerone exam,

uhm, I got out of the test
on Friday evening,

I got on a plane Saturday
morning, and I got in

Saturday afternoon or
late Saturday night.

I went right over there
and saw my sister.

She had really
gotten a lot worse.

Then over the course of the
next couple of days, I spent

as much time as I could with
her and with her family.

And then Wednesday,
surrounded by her loved ones,
she passed away.

I was lucky enough to be there
and I was by her side

pretty much the whole time
up until the end.

I don't even know
if all my partners

understand this,
but I wouldn't be here

if it wasn't for
my sister's journey

and her fight of
that horrific cancer.

I wanted to come to Charlotte
and to be close to her, and do

something that would allow me to
participate in her family life

and have a more nurturing
environment for my family,

and get my kids together with
my niece and nephew,
have the cousins play.

And looking back on it now,
having had those years to birth

Sugar Creek, and then be close
to my sister,

and be there for moral support,
there's no doubt that

without my sister, Michelle,

none of this would be possible,
or would have been possible.

[soft music]

[Sean] My goal with this whole
feast is bringing everybody

together that I've learned
from through this journey.

It's my gift to them for
all they've given to me.

Well, we'll see what
he's got prepared for us.

Yes, I know.
I'm excited about this.

-It smells like beer. [laughs]
-Yes.

Oh, so nice.

I'm so excited to see all
these people from my journey

at the table all together
for this one feast.

[background chatter]

[calm music]

For every beer dinner I do,
I walk into a new kitchen.

Since I don't have
a restaurant or I don't have
a catering facility

that puts out
the same food every single
time, I have to adapt

and work with
the conditions that I'm in.

Okay.

This particular kitchen
is really a home. It's one room.

There was no living room
and dining room, and bedroom.

It was one single room.

To use this as
a place to cook for

especially this dinner,
it's a challenge.

I don't have any of the normal
modern day conveniences.

Even countertops and space.

It definitely makes me
stop and realize how much

I take for granted
the stuff I use today.

All the pre-planning, you can
plan, you can never quite
measure up

to 85 degree temperature,
and something around there
for humidity. [chuckles]

[Tracy] Do you know if Sean
ever cooked in a kitchen
like this before?

Yes, he came to my kitchen,
as a matter of fact
down in Virginia.

-Really?
-And got to cook there, so...

-It's pretty dangerous.
-Yes, indeed.

Especially for you ladies,
with the long gowns,

going over these piles of coals,

you can catch your gown
on fire if you're not careful.

It can be dangerous.

And it's bloody hot.

[Sean] I worked in so many
different kitchens.

And this is a completely
different experience

than I'm used to on any level.

It is so hot.

The humidity, the temperature.

I'm stoking the fire, I need it
to be even hotter in here
because I need more flame.

Mm-hm... [chuckles]

Some are cooked
and some are burnt.

As I'm cooking these genix
I'm having to adapt.

My goal was to have them all be
individual, silver dollar size

little pancake or whole cakes
which is really what a genix is.

These cast iron skillets,
they're all different sizes
and they're all

different thicknesses. So now
I'm having to rotate the pan,

and even having to
finick with each of

these little details of
this one recipe, and it's
slowing me down.

The "what happens in the
test kitchen" versus reality.

What I thought would be
easy to pull off is now

actually proving to be
a lot more difficult.

This is not working, okay.

Knowing that I was
hoping to be serving

the third course
and I'm just serving

the first course,
I'm having to rethink

the execution elements
of this dinner.

[romantic music]

[Tonya] Italy isn't typically
known for beer,

but I have heard that there
is a great beer scene.

For me, it's really
interesting to see

how the wine industry
and the beer industry are
maybe affected by each other

and see how
that translates in beer.

I tend to obsess about something
and had an idea for
like two years.

I do that all the time.

For a long time,
I've wanted to kind of take
Berliner Weisse to the next step

and push
that champagne quality by

carbonating it in
the champagne method.

I've looked on YouTube,
I've done research on
how to carbonate this way

and haven't been able to
completely bite off
the whole thing.

I wanted to
see it in action first.

-Leo!
-Tonya, how are you?

It's so good to see you again.

Welcome to Borgorose.

Welcome to Birra del Borgo.

You want to see our beer room?

We're going around understanding
a little bit what we do.

-Absolutely,
I brought my notebook.
-Yeah, sure, let's go.

[Leo] Nowadays, in Italy,
it's becoming really popular

the use of the clay amphors
for making wine.

So we started looking
to use them for getting much
more complexity to the beer,

starting from the fermentation,
not just on the aging.

By combining the wine world
and the beer world,

Leonardo is really taking
the culture that they have

and then combining it
into a brand new product
that's pretty revolutionary.

[Leo] For the first time I made
enough ?? my mind was booming

because it was like
something totally different.

It was deep, complex, long
and there was this kind of

minerality, this kind of thing
that wasn't around.

This is great
because you're introducing

the terroir of the land
into the beer.

Yes, that's right.
That was the original idea.

One of the reasons
why I came here was to

learn the champenoise
method of carbonation.

Can we start at
the beginning of the process
and you walk me through it?

Basically, the champenoise
method is based on three
different small step, which is,

the first step is obviously
the bottle conditioning.

Second step is remuage
and the third step, which
is the degorgement process.

When you bottle your beer,
we do in general like

not less than 14, 15 months
contact with the yeast.

Then, what we do, we
put into the pupitre.

which obviously, you keep
the bottle in this way.

This turning, we divide
the section in eight.

So basically, like
one fourth is this way.

So basically, I think it's
this way and I turn this way.

This is the rotation that I do.

-Just a tiny turn.
-A tiny turn.

When you bottle conditioning,
you have a lot of yeast,

and the yeast helping is
going down to the cork.

So this is the main process.

So you don't want it clinging
to the side of the bottle,

-you want it to
settle down into the neck.
-Right.

It sounds really easy
like, "Oh, I'm carbonating
a beer." But it's not.

Its more technical.

This is the first step,
the most complicated one,

which is the degorgement. It
means that we need to disgorge.

Open and the yeast
should be pop out.

Basically, you need to
turn it very slowly

-and trying to do this way.
-Oh, wow.

And then its-- Now, you see
that all the yeast pop up,

all the things came out
and basically, now,

you can have the liqueur
d'expédition which is the liquid

that is needed for
refilling what you lose.

So you have to have
a really large cork

-to be able to handle
this type of pressure.
-Yes. Okay.

We have the cork inside.
And now, we put the cage.

-And the beer is ready.
-Fantastic. Success!

[Tonya] I think it's really
merging to different industries.

The end result will
be something that you

can't achieve
any other way but time.

At the end, the magic of using
the champenoise method is--

is just to get
a really, really unique
and characteristic bubble.

At the end, I feel
one of the things that

always add a drink when
you drink champagne

or spumante which is
a nice sourness, nice acidity,

very refreshing,
so not aggressive.

At the same time,
a very interesting bubble.

A thin bubble, very delicate.
You see the foam
is disappearing in a second

because it's much more like
the wine side, which is
leading the-- the liquid

at the end and it's interesting.

-[glasses clinking]
-Cheers. Thanks for coming.
-Cheers.

It's not something you can do
on the fly, it's something that

takes a while and there's also
gonna be a lot of thought put

into the beer that ends up going
into these bottles because it's

gonna be a year before it comes
out, and it has to be good.

Everything has to be on point.

-[Ryan Gwozdz] So we did
a brown ale.
-Was it a hard one to do?

No, it was
pretty straightforward.

The difference was we used
a lot of ingredients

we normally don't use.

Never brewed with spelt before.

Is it gonna be good?

-We'll see.
-[laughter]

Here we are.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, welcome. I'm excited to
not only do this feast,

but also bring
all of you together today.

I would encourage you all
to grab your jug
and we should have a toast.

-So cheers.
-[Elizabeth] Cheers!

This is our first course.

Cheers.

Elizabeth Warren,
would you mind doing grace?

Oh, I am honored
that you should ask me.

So assume
your posture of prayer.

Great God, Jehovah,
we thank you for

the bounty that thou has
put on the table before us,

and for the bounty
of kindness that

you have put
on the table around us.

For this and all things
you give us, we thank you. Amen.

[music]

My goal for this dinner is
to start mid-afternoon,

but now with these different
variables and especially
this heat, it's pushing me back.

I think these are gonna
take, what, about 45 minutes,
you think to cook?

I've never done that in
the fire, so I'm not sure.

-I am the same with her.
I've never done it before.
-We'll just rotate them, okay?

-Yes, and things
take longer with fire.
-That's what I mean.

Yes, that's what I want to--
Just pop them on.

[Sean] The humidity
and just the constant heat

-and this outfit definitely
changes everything.
-[background chatter]

[Sean] Right now I have to
really start thinking
about the fire.

I have this leg of venison
that's simmering in this
beer that I created.

[Elisabeth] I almost want to
pull it away from the stones
a little bit, you know.

I don't know if that's
gonna-- [laughs]

It's so big, it's just as
dangerous to move it right now.

[Sean] I need the coals to start
browning off the duck breast

and while this is going,
I probably should

throw in an extra pot
just to get the beer ready

for the muscles
that I want to throw that on.

No, no, yeah, just--
I mean, I know you guys--

-I just don't want the house
to burn down. That's all.
-No, no, no.

-I know you're looking at it
differently than I am.
-It's alright.

Between the three of us, I have
eyes that work without glasses.

No, I can see.
It's just everything's blurry.

Right now I'm a little stressed.

I'm having to
rethink things because

the heat and the humidity
is just too much.

Oh, oh, that's boiling.
It's gonna boil over.

Alright, so... You're gonna
hold here. I'll hold here.

-We'll bring it right down here?
-Yes, ready?

One, two, three.

-Handle away from the fire.
Alright.
-Okay.

-Good. Oh, that smells
wondrous good.
-You're a godsend.

Troubles are instead of
adjusting your flame,
you adjust the height.

Right now I'm not okay.
This is a lot more
difficult than I expected.

[guitar music]

[Joe] Should we get some
Sugar Creek glasses

for water and ale
that we're gonna drink?

Hell, yes. We're drinking it
one way or another.

Yes. Fuck, yes,
we're drinking it.

Do you want to drink them out
of Belgian glasses or ours?

-I think ours.
-Alright.

It's a good idea, man.

Ray Daniels, the founder
of the Cicerone Program

has scheduled a call
with me at 9:00 a.m.

What he's gonna do is
go over the top line results

of the exam with me,
"Hey, how did I do overall?"

Have you thought about, you
know, if it does happen, how you

would like to be announced
when you walk on stages?

[laughs]

Master Cicerone Vogelbacher.

It sounds like jedi-ish
to be honest with you.

If I did pass, then I would
change my LinkedIn profile

immediately and put Joe
Vogelbacher, Master Cicerone.

[laughs] You like that?

-[laughs] I don't even have a
LinkedIn profile, I don't think.
-No.

It's impossible to
be a true maverick

unless you're a little bit off.

See, then we can charge $70 for

a cheese and beer pairing
at Sugar Creek.

-[phone ringing]
-That's Ray.

Good morning, sir.

[Ray] Good morning, Joe.
How are you?

Good. Right on time.

Good. Glad to
be able to connect,

talk about your
Master Cicerone exam scores.

How did you feel about the exam? How did you feel like it went?

You know, I live and
breathe beer,

so I lean on that a little bit,

but I would've liked

to have a little bit more

formal study time.

Right. Uhm, uh...

Yes, so overall score was 75.

-Okay.
-So not in
the passing range, uh...

But certainly a very
respectable showing.

You know, the kind of score we
look at and say,

"Okay, that person's got
a shot at making this happen."

Yeah, uh, 81 was
your overall tasting score.

-Okay.
-Uh, and that is up there
with the highest performers

-uh, on the tasting front.
-That's great to know.

Is it possible to pass with
an 81 in the tasting and get

higher scores elsewhere and
have it averaged out to an 85?

Yeah, yeah,
no, definitely, definitely..

Okay, that's good to know
because I mean, it's something

that you just have to
stay on top of, I think.
I'm sure you know that but--

You're absolutely right. You cannot be complacent about that.

You know if you come back to
take the exam again,
You know, you can't think,

"Oh, I got the tasting wired."
You're going to have to
go through that,

you know, same training,
conditioning. It's like
running a marathon.

You can't say, "Alright,
I ran a marathon one time,
so I can wait two years

and go run another one
without any training."

You're gonna have to
do that process again.

What a great analogy.
Yes, absolutely.

The written section
actually was your
lowest score of the three,

uhm, with a 71, and your
oral was in the middle at 78.

Uh, uh... So those were
the three key parts.

Okay, yeah overall
I think it was awesome.

I mean, I felt challenged

and invigorated by
the whole process.

So I'm fortunate
to be able to talk to you.

I was really honored that you
call every candidate personally,

and I'm looking forward to
getting your highest
score ever, next year.

-That's my commitment.
-[laughs] Well,
that would be great.

We'd certainly be excited to
see that, and we'd love
to see you back.

[guitar music]

[Joe] I'm just gonna get
right back to work, again.
That's what I do.

You know, you wake up the next
day, you put your pants back on,

the same way you always do,
and you hit the books harder.

Alright, sir,
you have a great day.
-Bye, Joe. Take care.

-Yeah, bye-bye.
-Bye.

I am going to hit it so hard
that next year, if I take it

again, I might be one of the
highest scores they ever have.

Well, you know, we were
gonna crack this thing

-when you pass, we might
as well just crack it now.
-Hell, yes.

[Eric] Because in the end, man,
it's all about drinking beer
and smiling and stuff like that.

You know?

[phone rings]

I got Chicago right here.

Hello, this is Ryan.

Hey, Ryan. It's Ray.

[music]

[Sean] My plan really was
to have this dinner

wrapped up
before the sun goes down.

But the sun is
still ticking away,

and I need to get
all this stuff done.

How am I gonna finish
this dinner in the dark?

Well, these are nice and tender.
Soaking up all the flavor of
the venison, all that stock.

Yes, that's all ready.
Butternut squash is
all roasted by the fire

and the smoke and
all that flavor.

Let's get some serving potters.

[Sean] Every beer dinner
that I do, I learn something.

This particular dinner,
I learned to get back to basics.

This kitchen takes
every sense that we have

to keep in line with
the fire, what's cooking.

This is a lot harder than I
think a lot of people realize.

[Sean] Here is the feast that
has been inspired by all of you,

that you shared the history
and the romance, as well

as the knowledge of where we
came from and this, I really

feel like is what we
would've had back in the day.

This journey has thought me
a lot of different things.

Where we came from, how hard
it must've really been.

Bringing these people together
that might not normally
interact with each other,

and sharing all this knowledge

that we've gotten to
to this point.

Well, I couldn't have done this
without all of your help,

your experience, your knowledge,

and I just really want to
say thank you.

-So, cheers.
-[all] Cheers. Thank you.

I hope you enjoy.

[Ryan] Hey, good morning, Ray.
How are you?

Hey, Ryan. Great.
How about yourself?

You know, I tell people because
everybody ask what happens

if you pass or you don't?

You know, to me, this is
by no means a finale.

Uh, you know, I think we all
have the same goal

of just bringing people together
over some good beer,
so that's where I'm at.

-Sure, alright.
Well, let's go to your scores.
-Okay, great.

-Uh, overall score on
the written section was 83.
-Okay.

Uh, so yeah, there might have
been a couple of unknown
unknowns in there.

-Yeah. -Uh, but the orals, your overall score on the orals was 91.

-Okay. Great.
-So, uh...

It doesn't get any better than that, at least not on this exam.

Uh, top of the class
in that category.

Uh, tasting, overall
tasting score was 88.

Uh, and that is the high mark
of the class for sure

uh, on this tasting exam.
So great job there.

In fact, I don't know
if anybody's ever got

that high a score on
the master tasting exam.

Oh, really? Wow.

We'll have go back and see.

I'll take that with me
regardless of where we end up.

So, 83, 91, 88 on
the individual sections.

And... that means
the overall final score was

an 86, and that means
you did in fact pass.

So congratulations,
you're a Master Cicerone.

Wow. Thank you, Ray.

That's awesome news.

I knew it was going
to be close, honestly.

Uh, 85 is a pretty tough score.

Congratulations and good work.

And welcome to
the Master Cicerone group.

And we'll look forward to work
with you in the future.

Awesome. Thanks, Ray.
Have a great day, great weekend
and have a good holiday.

-Alright. Will do, Ryan.
Take care, bye.
-Bye.

[Ryan] What did I learn
in the process of
taking the Master Cicerone exam?

-[Kate] What did you get?
-86!

I would say that I learned
I actually know
very little about beer.

-I was sitting on the stairs.
-Hi, honey.

You don't know what a Master
Cicerone is, so don't worry.

It's incredible just how
vast of a world, uhm, beer is.

And although I've learned a lot,
I've pretty much barely

scratched the surface and
I mean that 100% truthfully.

-Alright.
-Thank you.

-That's awesome.
-Yeah. It's over.

-It's got to feel good.
-Onto what's next.

[Ryan] To me, beer is something
that brings people together
in a lot of different ways.

It kind of depends on the
person's relationship to beer.

Some people, it's just
the flavor itself.

Some people, it's the person
across from the table or next

to them at the bar that they're
enjoying those beers with.

But no doubt, usually, if you're
sitting over a pint of beer,

you're hopefully
in a pretty good spot.

[all singing]

[all singing]

[all singing]

[all singing]

[cheering]

♪