For almost as long as humankind has harvested the Earth to produce crops, there has been beer. It’s one of the world's oldest prepared alcoholic drinks and, today, remains a stalwart of global beverage menus, whether you’re at a Michelin star restaurant or a food truck.
With so many industries revolving around the sale and service of beer—not to mention the fairly recent eruption of craft beers and breweries—a baseline education in this beverage has become increasingly useful for drinks enthusiasts and a serious asset for working professionals in beverages manufacturing, distribution, wholesale, hospitality, entertainment, and retail.
Irrespective of which camp you find yourself in—enthusiast, professional, or both—two qualifications that are guaranteed to give you a powerful bedrock of beer knowledge are the Wine & Spirit Education Fund’s (WSET) Level 1 and 2 Beer Awards. And since the flashcard app Brainscape maintains a comprehensive collection of study assets for the WSET’s many other wine and spirits certifications, we wasted little time in writing this WSET Beer study guide, as well as flashcards for both programs:
(In fact, Brainscape is the first-ever study app to provide an educational supplement for these certifications!)
In this guide, I’ll introduce you to these certifications and what to expect from their exams, before explaining FIVE exam tips that will help you crush the both courses with distinction!
What are the WSET L1 and 2 Awards in Beer and will they benefit me?
The WSET Level 1 Beer is a short, interactive course that provides a thorough introduction to the world of beer, equipping students with the knowledge and practical tasting skills to discern between a worldly range of beer styles. The content covers the following broad topics:
- The main ingredients used to make beer.
- The main production steps used to make beer.
- The principles of successful beer storage, service, and food pairing.
- The characteristics of a range of key beer styles (malt-driven, hop-driven, yeast-driven, and sour styles).
(Read more about the WSET Level 1 Award in Beer here.)
The WSET Level 2 Beer is the subsequent course that covers a greater depth and breadth of this content with a sweeping review of 60 beer styles, how they are produced, labeled, and their typical characteristics.
(Read more about the WSET Level 2 Award in Beer here.)
Will a WSET Beer qualification benefit me?
If you love beer yet feel frustrated by your lack of baseline knowledge, then yes! The WSET's Level 1 and 2 Beer Awards not only cover the essentials of what you really need to know about beer but the provider itself—the WSET—is also a globally recognized and respected leader in wine and spirits education. So if you work in beer manufacturing, distribution, or sales or in an adjacent industry like hospitality or bar-tending, having one or both of their beer certifications on your résumé will look particularly impressive!
The WSET Beer exams
At the end of the WSET Beer courses, you'll be required to pass a closed-book exam to achieve your certification.
Real talk: you'll need to study for them. A lot of the people who sign up for these courses have been out of school or college for many years and tend to think that they can rely on their experience or industry knowledge to pass the exams. You might squeak through the WSET Level 1 Beer exam with this strategy (provided you paid close attention to the course material) but you won't be so lucky on the substantially more detailed WSET Level 2 Beer exam.
There is a lot to learn. Please take my advice and study for it. 🙏🏼
The good news is that there's nothing overly demanding or difficult about these exams. They provide a straightforward assessment of your knowledge of the material and the multiple-choice format at least gives you a 25% chance of getting any question correct, even if you have no idea what the answer is.
5 Tips for passing the WSET Beer certification tests
Tip # 1: Don't underestimate the WSET Beer certification test!
Okay, so I just said that the exam is straightforward—and it is—but many people who enroll for the WSET Beer courses have been out of school for years and have either forgotten how to study or never really learned in the first place (and just kinda grazed through school by the skin of their teeth). Additionally, most WSET Beer students are already working a full-time job and don’t have all the time in the world to dedicate to their studies.
The combination of these factors sometimes drive students to make poor exam prep decisions, whether it’s not leaving themselves enough time to study or mistakenly thinking that they can just “wing” the beer certification tests. Like I said, you might squeak through on the WSET Level 1 exam but you won’t pass WSET Level 2 Beer (nevermind pass with distinction) unless you’ve given yourself the time you need to properly learn the material.
The exams are easy to pass... if you know your stuff.
Tip # 2: Make every minute of studying count with WSET Beer Level 1 and 2 flashcards.
Given that so many WSET Beer students are already working full-time jobs, the next important tip I have for you is to make every minute of studying count because you’ll probably only be able to devote 20 to 30 minutes to it every day, after work or during breaks.
For this reason, WSET Beer students LOVE studying with Brainscape's digital flashcards, which we made for both the Level 1 and Level 2 Beer Awards. They:
- Are easy to carry around with you anywhere you go (being an app on your device);
- Condense the entire WSET curriculum down into a neatly-organized collections of flashcards;
- Eliminate any confusion over what to study and where to start (simply hit the "study button" and the app will pick up where you left off); and
- Enable you to progress really quickly and efficiently through the course material, with a learning tactic called spaced repetition.
This comprehensive collection of expert-made and vetted WSET Level 1 Beer and WSET Level 2 Beer flashcards cover the curriculum taught by the official WSET Level 1 and 2 Beer textbooks. (And since the WSET can—and frequently does—pull questions from anywhere in the textbook, no matter how obscure that material may be, it’s a good idea to use a study tool that has already done the hard work of simplifying and organizing everything you need to know.)
So if you’re short on time to study for the exam, you can learn all the necessary material in HALF the time it would otherwise take you simply by studying these flashcards for 20-30 minutes a day (or whatever free time you can spare).
Tip # 3: Take a WSET Level 1 (or Level 2) Beer practice exam under timed conditions so you know what to expect.
Practicing old past papers and questions is a really smart thing to do before an exam. You’ll get an idea of what to expect, what content is tested, and how the questions are asked. This latter point is especially important because the WSET is a British organization and so its instructions and phrasing might deviate from what American students may anticipate. (More on this in the next tip.)
A quick online search for “WSET [Level 1 or Level 2] Beer practice questions” will turn up a lot of resources and YouTube videos that creators have put together. If you have the time, it doesn’t hurt to take a swing at these but the most effective practice you’ll get is by answering actual exam questions from past papers.
Importantly, when you take a practice exam, set a timer for 45 minutes in the case of the Level 1 Beer exam) and 60 minutes for the Level 2 Beer exam, since that's how much time you'll be given during the real exam day. Completing these under timed conditions will give you a useful “heads-up” on what real exam conditions feel like. If you struggle to complete the exam in the allotted time, then you know to work on your timing.
Here are some other useful test-taking strategies if it’s been awhile since you’ve seen the inside of an exam room!
Tip # 4: Read the questions carefully: they may not be asking you what you expect!
One of the most common pitfalls of the WSET Level 1 and 2 Beer exams is that the WSET—being a British-based organization—operates as though everyone has had a British-style education and learning experience. This is not exactly how Americans learn in school, and what we find to be the repeat missteps is the wording of questions.
The Brits ask questions in a way that sometimes twists the information around a little, or forces you to consider source material from multiple areas of the content. In essence, they want you to think about how you have to respond, which makes it a little harder than perhaps one may expect.
So my advice here is to carefully read and understand the entire question, leaving your assumptions, past experience, and wishful thinking at the door.
This might sound obvious, and it’s not as much of a problem in the WSET Level 1 and 2 Beer certification tests as it is for the WSET Level 3 Beer, but we see a lot of students that do not take the time to read the question correctly and as a result, provide incomplete or even incorrect answers.
Tip # 5: Treat the WSET Beer as a serious opportunity
Some students who have been enrolled in the WSET Level 1 and 2 beer courses by their employers (for employee training and development) don’t take the exams as seriously as they should. But just because it might not be a personal choice—with your own money at stake—doesn’t mean you shouldn’t leverage this opportunity to accelerate your knowledge and career.
If you put in the work and study smart (with your WSET Level 1 or WSET Level 2 Beer flashcards), you will pass with distinction and that will look hella good on your résumé, not to mention the fact that it’ll give you the knowledge and confidence to operate at a much higher level within your industry.
WSET Beer study guide summary
From the Sumerians and Babylonians, who considered beer sacred, to the ancient Egyptians, whose pantheon of gods included Tenenit, the Goddess of beer, this boozy beverage has been a mainstay of human history and culture for literally thousands of years. Today, it’s as popular as ever with a spectrum of industries erupting from its fertile soils.
The WSET Level 1 and 2 Beer qualifications offer a solid education in beer making, styles, storage, service, and food pairing, which is a powerful asset to have, whether you’re a drinks enthusiast or a professional in the beverages manufacturing, distribution, sales, or service industries.
If you follow the study tips laid out in this WSET Beer study guide, you'll give yourself the best possible chance of not only passing the beer certification test but absolutely crushing it with distinction:
- Tip # 1: Don't underestimate the beer certification test! Give yourself enough time to prepare for it.
- Tip # 2: Make every minute of studying count by using efficient study methods, like Brainscape’s smart, adaptive WSET Beer Level 1 and Level 2 flashcards.
- Tip # 3: Take past practice exams or questions under timed conditions so you know what to expect.
- Tip # 4: Read the beer certification test questions carefully: they may not be asking you what you expect!
- Tip # 5: Treat the WSET Beer courses as serious opportunities to further your knowledge and your career. This is not just another employee training course to “check the box” with and move on.
If you do all of the above, you can and you will rise to the challenge of the WSET Beer qualifications!
