Following their Australia-first initiative last year to put all their front of house staff through Cicerone’s level one Certified Beer Server course, four staff at The Local Taphouse in St Kilda have now become Certified Cicerones in the world’s leading beer training programme.

The Cicerone Certification Program certifies and educates beer professionals in order to elevate the beer experience for consumers. It has four levels: Certified Beer Server, Certified Cicerone, Advanced Cicerone and Master Cicerone, and has quickly become the standard beer certification for industry professionals internationally.

Cassie O’Neill, Mark Robinson, James Smith and Toby Martin all passed the challenging Certified Cicerone exam that required months of preparation and requires a deep and well-rounded knowledge of beer and beer service as well as competence in assessing beer quality and identity by taste.

L-R: James Smith, Cassie O’Neill, Toby Martin and Mark Robinson

O’Neill was absolutely thrilled when the team got the news. “It is vindication for all the long hours of study (mostly spent drinking beer!) and driven by the passion that we have for craft beer”.

Taphouse co-owner, Guy Greenstone explains that he and business partner, Steve Jeffares, couldn’t be prouder of the staff that sat the exam. “To now have four staff in just one of our venues achieve the immensely difficult Certified Cicerone accreditation is extraordinary by any measure. Our plans moving forward are to create ongoing opportunities for staff across all our venues to advance their beer education so we remain among the leading beer venues in the country.”

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