Beer Learning and Language with Scott Fielder and Chris Crowe
My friends Scott Fielder & Chris Crowe have spent the past few years publicly documenting their quest to pass the Master Cicerone exam. In late 2025, Scott became just the 29th Master Cicerone in the world. Chris, his best friend and partner in this process, came close to doing the same, and is more determined than ever to pass the exam in 2026.
I sat down with Scott and Chris recently to talk about how their pursuit of knowledge through these certifications has impacted their experience and enjoyment of beer. We also talk about the vulnerability of sharing their exam preparation as publicly as they have, and how we can provide consumers with useful information without gatekeeping and using exclusionary descriptive language.
You can follow Scott & Chris here:
The Beer Enthusiasts Instagram
The Beer Enthusiasts Youtube channel
Here you can find the past episodes mentioned in today's conversation:
Episode 1: Personal Flavor Vocabularies
Episode 16: Cultural Beer Language with Dr. J
Episode 39: Everybody Is Welcome—Celebrating Beer with Em Sauter
Interview timeline (approximate):
4:40 - Introduction and how they got more invested in tasting beer at a deeper level
10:20 - Documenting their exam preparation publicly
11:25 - How studying has impacted their experience and enjoyment of tasting beer
28:15 - Eliminating gatekeeping in beer without eliminating education
46:10 - Tasting two single origin bars from Dandelion Chocolate
1:10:50 - #drinkmoredoppelbock
Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.
Sign up for host David Nilsen's beer newsletter for regular beer musings, and the Bean to Barstool newsletter for pairings, collaborations, and maker profiles.
The music for this episode is by my dear friend, indie folk musician Anna ps. You can find out more about Anna’s music in the show notes or at their website annapsmusic.com, where you can also get in touch to book them to play at your brewery or other establishment.
Guests:
Chris Crowe is an Advanced Cicerone®, Director of Sales at the award-winning Radiant Beer Co., and resident beer nerd at the world-renowned Windsor Homebrew Supply. Chris co-hosts The Beer Enthusiasts with Master Cicerone® Scott Fielder, where they have published over 75 episodes of educational beer content between Instagram Live and YouTube. Chris founded At Your Service, a series of service-forward pop-ups focused on historical, cultural, and reimagined methods of serving beer with Scott and Advanced Cicerone® Charlie Perez. Chris wants to encourage you to #drinkmoredoppelbock and assures you that there is little to no resistance to doing so.
Scott Fielder hails from Long Beach, CA. He is the Quality and Education Lead at The Bruery in Placentia, CA, a beer educator with The Beer Scholar, Certified BJCP Judge, GABF judge, and a Master Cicerone. He is also a partner in the Beer pop up concept At Your Service with Advanced Cicerones Chris Crowe and Charlie Perez, as well as the co-host of The Beer Enthusiasts YouTube channel.