What TIPS certification covers, what it costs, how long it lasts, and how California, Montana, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin treat it.

Responsibility.org's alcohol awareness training for employees, now on Learn Brands. Self-paced, 30 to 40 minutes, certificate included. From $10 per seat.

Pennsylvania uses RAMP for two things: training for servers and sellers, and certification for the business. Who needs each, the six-month rule, and renewal.

Texas doesn't require servers to be TABC certified, but Safe Harbor does. Who needs it, the 30-day window, renewal, the opioid course, and SB 650 ID scanning.

Who needs an Oregon OLCC service permit, what changed on March 31, 2025, the 45-day CAMP window, the minor permit rules for 18 to 20 year olds, and the five-year renewal.

Jinro soju is the best-selling spirit brand on the planet, and most people who drink it could not tell you what is inside the bottle. Here is what soju is, the 1965 law that created the green bottle, how both styles are made, what they taste like, and how soju is drunk in Korea.

Who needs BASSET in Illinois, the 120-day rule (60 in Chicago), the three-year card that cannot be renewed, and how to keep a whole roster certified.

Class 12 or Class 13? The Washington MAST permit difference explained: who can mix, pour, and supervise, plus the 60-day rule and how permits really expire.

Vodka is the best-selling spirit in America, and it is also the one your staff are most likely to sell on autopilot. Someone walks up, asks for "a bottle of vodka," you point at the shelf, they grab the brand they saw in a commercial, and the sale is done. No conversation, no upsell, no reason for them to come back to you instead of the grocery store down the street.

Walk into almost any liquor store, grocery beverage aisle, or back bar in America right now and the agave section has roughly doubled. Tequila climbed from a shot-and-salt afterthought to the second most valuable spirits category in the United States, behind only vodka. Mezcal, raicilla, sotol, and bacanora are landing on the shelf right next to it.

If you work in beverage alcohol long enough, the same question keeps coming up. A new hire asks what they should study. A distributor rep wants to level up. A retail manager wants a credential on the wall. A brand owner wants their team trained. And every time, the same alphabet soup gets thrown around. WSET. Cicerone. CMS. CSS. AFNA. Sommelier. Master this. Certified that.

There is a bottle on your back bar, or your retail shelf, or your restaurant's beverage list, that almost no one in your building knows how to talk about. It outsells most spirits categories in Japan, has a brewing process more complex than any beer on earth, reaches natural alcohol levels higher than any other brewed beverage on the planet, and arrives in your warehouse labeled in a language most of your staff doesn't read.

The world's largest spirit. The smallest section on most American back bars. Here's what bartenders, retailers, and curious drinkers need to know about baijiu in 2026, and why the next five years will look nothing like the last fifty.

Today, we're proud to announce the launch of PKGD University, a professional credentialing platform built in partnership with PKGD Group, one of the leading importers of heritage, producer-owned agave spirits in the United States.

If your staff can't explain the difference between a Pinot Noir and a Pinot Grigio, they're not selling wine. They're stocking shelves.

If you run a liquor store, bottle shop, grocery alcohol department, or convenience store, you already know the math. You hire someone, spend a few weeks getting them up to speed, and then they leave. You start over. Repeat.

If you serve or manage alcohol service at an on-premise venue in California, RBS certification is required by law, and new hires have 60 days from their first day to complete it.

Running a business in New York means staying ahead of compliance requirements that protect your staff, your customers, and your license. Whether you operate a bar, restaurant, liquor store, or retail operation, state-approved training is one of the smartest investments you can make. Learn Brands offers a complete library of New York-specific, state-required and state-recognized training courses, all available online, on demand, and built for individuals or entire teams.

The alcohol industry enters 2026 at a clear inflection point. After decades of steady growth, global alcohol consumption is declining, consumer behavior is shifting, and long-held assumptions about premiumization, brand loyalty, and category growth are being challenged.

Learn Brands is proud to announce a new partnership with 360training, making Learn Brands a certified reseller of 360training’s industry-leading compliance and workforce training courses.