WSET Level 1 Award in Beer at Siren Brewery at Siren Brewery

The WSET Level 1 Award in Beer provides a great introduction to the world of beer. Learning through sight, smell, and taste, you'll become familiar with a range of beer styles and how they are made.

If you work with beer, you’ll be able to answer customer queries with confidence and provide helpful recommendations. If you’re learning for fun, you’ll feel inspired to explore new styles and know how to get the most out of every glass.

What's covered?

• The main ingredients used to make beer
  • Malt (malted grains) and other sugar sources, water, hops, yeast
• The main production steps used to make beer
  • Malting, brewing
• The principles of successful beer storage, service and food pairing
  • Beer storage and service: keeping beer fresh, glassware, pouring keg beer, opening and pouring bottled beer, service temperature
  • Common beer faults: staling, light strike (skunking), bacterial infection
  • Food and beer: Preferences, sensitivities, interactions, application and other considerations
• The characteristics of a range of key beer styles
  • Malt-driven styles: American or international pale lager, Munich helles, Blonde ale, Munich dunkel, Brown ale, Porter and stout, Barley wine
  • Hop-driven styles: Traditional Czech or German pilsner, Bitter, American pale ale, American IPA, Hazy IPA
  • Yeast driven styles: Weissbier, Dubbel, Tripel, Saison, Witbier
  • Sour styles: Berliner weisse, Geuze (gueuze)

Tasting Beer

WSET’s approach focuses on learning through tasting, so you can experience the influence of ingredients, processes, and other key factors on what’s in the glass.

You won’t be assessed on your tasting skills at Level 1, but tasting is an important part of the course. You'll learn the basics of how to taste and describe beer using the WSET Level 1 Systematic Approach to Tasting Beer.

Students studying in person will taste around 9 beers across a range of styles.

Assessment

Your learning will be assessed by a closed-book exam of 30 multiple-choice questions to be completed in 45 minutes. Exams will be available both online and in person.

WSET is committed to making our exams fair and accessible, and ensuring that no candidate is placed at a disadvantage. If you have any special requirements or need to request reasonable adjustments, please let us know.

This qualification is regulated by Ofqual.

Successful students will receive a WSET certificate and lapel pin.