A beer scholar for all seasons: Ledyard’s Max Finnance conducts Hoposium series at the United Theatre

March 21, 2024 2:00 pm • Last Updated: March 21, 2024 9:43 am

By Rick Koster
Day Arts/Features writer

Cicerone and Master Beer Judge Max Finnance hosts Hoposium Friday in Westerly’s United Theatre. (submitted)

Max Finnance (submitted)

Like millions of dudes, Ledyard’s Max Finnance can finish mowing a summertime lawn and reward himself with a cheap, thirst-quenching domestic lager.

What’s unusual, though, is that Finnance is a Master Cicerone – the beer equivalent of a top-level sommelier – and also a Master Beer Judge. Both are accredited and not easily attained positions. Finnance is one of only 172 Master Beer Judges on Earth and one of only two dozen cicerones in the country. (“It’s pronounced like Cicero, the philosopher,” Finnance said.)

Oh, and Finnance is one of only two people in the world to have both those titles.

In other words, if anyone has the right to be a beer snob, it’s Finnance. But maybe his love of beer — and his extensive knowledge of All Things Beer — affords him the comfort and honesty to be totally appreciative of the brewer’s art on many levels.

“I grew up with more than my share of Coors Light,” Finnance laughed. “There’s a time and a place for all of it. If I’m at a barbecue and someone hands me a cold Bud, I’m gonna enjoy it. My wife Melody and I got married in a backyard wedding two years ago and we had plenty of Miller and Miller Lite. But, privately, at home? Yes, my tastes are a little more sophisticated.”

Friday, in Westerly’s United Theatre, Finnance hosts “A Journey Through Beer,” the first of four lecture/tasting events in a series the facility has curated called Hoposium.

Wide world of beer

“Hoposium offers a little bit of something for everyone interested in beer and learning more about it,” Finnance said. “Over the course of the series, we’ll progress from a basic level of understanding and get a little more educational as we go. On Friday, we’ll talk about the four main ingredients in beer, taste some samples, and get into aromatics and delicacy. What are bitter hops? What is a malty or yeasty beer? Why does one ingredient taste like bread and another like burnt coffee? Is it syrupy and sweet?”

The second session, scheduled for some time in May, is “The Science and Art of Beer” and will discuss the specifics of the brewing process. The third event, in July, “A World Tour of Beer,” explores many of the greatest and oldest breweries and traditions. The series closes Sept. 27 with “Oktoberfest and Festive Fall Brews.”

As his Cicerone and Master Beer Judge certifications might suggest, Finnance isn’t just a hobbyist. Teaching people about beer is in fact Finnance’s full-time job. Now 38, Finnance is senior manager of education and training for Artisanal Brewing Ventures, a North Carolina company that owns Victory Brewing Company, Southern Tier Brewing Company, Sixpoint Brewery and Bold Rock Ciders.

A circuitous route

It’s a fairly obscure position, and one that, for Finnance, anyway, did not come about as the result of a long-calculated degree plan. After growing up in Andover, Connecticut, Finance spent five years in the Navy as an electrician of submarines before getting his bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Connecticut.

One of the most valuable aspects of his college experience, though, was working as a bartender, an occupation he later had at the original Hanafin’s Irish Pub in New London and also their Glastonbury location. And while he appreciated the usual “access-to-beer” benefits, Finnance realized he’d become fascinated by the science and culture of beer and brewing.

“The more I learned about it, the more I wanted to know,” he said. Finnance attended beer festivals and toured breweries and, at a beer dinner in Glastonbury one night, he met a man who worked as a trainer and educator for the Green Flash Brewing Company in San Diego.

“I had no idea it was job,” Finnance laughed. “Only a few dozen breweries in the country have the position. But it sounded like something I’d like to do.”

He apprenticed, if you will, working as a brand ambassador for Captain Lawrence Brewing Company in Elmsford, N.Y., and then in sales for Sixpoint Brewing — which ultimately joined with Artisanal Brewing.

Lot of homework

To earn his Cicerone certification, he studied and read extensively in preparation for the two-day exam — with written, oral and tasting components including blind ingredient and style identification and style assessment as well as descriptive analysis.

“You have to know a pretty broad range of beers,” Finnance said. “They might place several panels of beer samples in front of you and you have to identify as many as 30 chemicals. You might be dealing with off-brand beers or even something like the skunky taste in a beer that’s been hit by sunlight. It’s not as extreme as wine maybe, but knowing the exact difference between a Czech or German pilsner or even domestic lagers is pretty tricky.”

At the layperson’s level, the difference between a Cicerone and a Master Beer Judge, Finnance said, is that the former is more customer oriented, and the latter is more brewer oriented.

“As you learn more and move along, the two overlap and it was good, I think, to work my way up in tandem because each helps the other out,” he said.

Finnance has judged beer competitions all over the world and said that those experiences obviously enhance his capabilities in the work he does for Artisanal Brewing.

Quenching the thirst for knowledge

“Every day is different,” Finnance said. “I run training events for marketing and sales teams or with our wholesalers. Sometimes they might be on a retail level or a high-end beer dinner. (The day of the interview) I’m in Maine and I travel through Rhode Island, Philly, Cleveland, Virginia, and sometimes local. It’s never boring.”

Finnance is also pleased to believe that, in general, beer drinkers have a more refined palette than he remembers from his days as a bartender.

“There’s definitely a spectrum of knowledge,” Finnance said. “There are some people who are always happy to drink macro lagers or craft beers without any curiosity about them as long as they tasted good. But more and more seem interested in learning more. But the average consumer is smarter than in the past. And I believe it’s because beer manufacturers are consciously trying to educate the consumers. To that end, I’m trying to do my best to help out.”

“Max is a very personable guy and is very well liked in the beer industry and beyond because his passion for beer is infectious,” said his friend Em Sauter, an Advanced Cicerone, cartoonist and beer judge, in an email. “Once Max starts talking about beer it’s hard to not be as excited as he is. The beer industry is truly better off with him in it.

And Finnance is far from being satisfied in terms of the knowledge he presents to beer enthusiasts and careerists. He said, “I’ve visited over 825 breweries, but there are so many classics I haven’t been to. There are close to 10,000 craft breweries just in the U.S., Belgium, England and Germany. So it looks like I’ve got plenty of work to do!”