Yeast Essentials Workshop

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ammo

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Austin
Have any of you been to one of these Yeast Essentials Workshops by White Labs?

http://www.whitelabs.com/education/yeast-essentials-workshop-austin-tx


I was thinking of signing up for this, but was wondering if any of you have ever attended one and whether you thought it would be worth it for a home brewer. It sounds fun to me and I like to learn things that have the potential to make me a better brewer.:rockin:
 
I am a recent emigrant from SD and am also considering attending the Austin workshop - any insight into the quality or value of these would be very appreciated!
 
I attended this event in Austin Texas on October 23, 2013. In case you are interested, here are my key take-aways.
1. Homebrewers and Craft Brewery folks were both in attendance and it was neat to talk to others, though it is not a networking event where you can easily meet everyone else in attendance. I met about a third of an estimated 28 people in attendance.
2. There is a book called "Yeast" written by Chris White, which covers most of everything in the class.
3. The labs are interesting and you look at quality yeast, identify dead yeast, and attempt a yeast count. I think this was interesting, though I am not convinced it is that important for homebrewers. It seems that all problems with diacetyl and acetaldehyde can be solved with time. Just let your beer rest and the yeast can fix those two problems.
4. You learn how to say things like diacytel and acetaldehyde, Saccharomyces cerevisiae or pastorianus.
5. I learned about a unique strain of yeast by the craft brewer Ballast Point in their (Yellow Tail) Pale Ale, which I find delicious by the way.
6. I learned about top cropping for yeast harvesting, rather than washing. Also about the general care of yeast to keep it healthy and how much to use in a batch of beer.
7. Also, if you do wash or top crop and you are saving your own yeast, the best thing to store it in is not water, but BEER! That makes a lot of sense after I think about it because the beer helps keep bacteria and other stuff out.
8. It is likely that at some point I WILL make better beer because of this class.... and though I read the book "Yeast" by Chris White, I had a copy from the local library, I think I will buy this book on Amazon.
 

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