LEvel 1 Certification

Master the sensory science and the AWS Flavor Data Board behind every credible tasting note. A standalone module, no certification required, just serious flavor training.

Learn the federal Standards of Identity that define bourbon, rye, and Tennessee whiskey, then practice deducing what's in the bottle before you ever pour a glass.

Learn Balance, Counterbalance, and Explosion, the three principles behind every great whiskey-and-food pairing, and build real menus around six benchmark bourbons.

Compare bourbon's new-charred-oak rules to Scotch, Irish, Japanese, and Canadian whisky, and learn to identify five Scottish regions by taste alone.

Learn the biology and chemistry of the four ingredients, water, grain, yeast, and wood, that decide a whiskey's flavor before it ever sees a still.

Learn how column and pot stills separate heads, hearts, and tails, and how char, seasoning, and warehouse placement transform new make into aged whiskey.

Learn how secondary barrels, alternative woods, filtration, and proofing shape a whiskey's final character, and what actually happens to it once it's sealed in glass.

Trace American whiskey from Colonial-era rum and the Whiskey Rebellion through the Taft Decision of 1909, the ruling that defined straight whiskey as we know it.

Trace American drinking culture from 17th-century British punch to Prohibition-era cocktail parties, and learn the real (and mythologized) history behind two iconic whiskey cocktails.

Learn how temperance, wartime tax policy, and the 18th Amendment shut down more than 2,000 distilleries...and how just six survived to keep bourbon alive.