First Class

Hey everybody. I'm here asking a little advice. My daughter's daycare does a fund-raising benefit / auction once a year where the parents donate a product or service for other parents to bid on. This year, I donated one homebrewing lesson. I'm providing ingredients, instruction / advice, facilities and cleanup. They get an all-grain lesson and 5 gallons of beer.

So, the donation sold, and the buyer wants to do the lesson in the week after Christmas. The problem is: How to go about teaching a lesson.... I mean, I can just do a normal brew-day with them (the lesson is for two) performing all the steps and explaining each step along the way, but is that enough? Should I have some kind of structured format or outline?

If any of you have taught a homebrewing class in the past, I'd appreciate an and all advice.

Thanks.

Sounds good to me, maybe let them actually do the steps in the process while you explain it. That's how I've taught in the past.

Edit: I've never taught a formal lesson, but done many a "teach a friend to home brew day"

Just do like you plan on doing. You may want to make a handout with the brewing process and a few tips on it to give them after the lesson.

Exactly^^^. Make a few pages that really dumb down or provide a visual explanation the mashing process. Include some nice graphics that are either analogical or actual depictions of the how the mash works and what goes on with emzymes.

Check out the new show "Brewmasters" with dogfish head on discovery. They do a decent job of concisely explaining the brewing process. Maybe have an episode recorded and cued to those scenes?

You could have pictures taken of them doing each step. Would make a good reminder and keepsake for them.

Are you dong AG? Extract would be more "learn how to brew" so they could attempt at home with minimal equipment if they like it. But, AG does appear much cooler to those that dont brew

I'm doing a huge brew day next weekend. One of my brewing buddies is bring a couple who want to learn to home brew. I plan on doing an extract batch and an all grain batch at the same time so they can see the differences.

This sounds like an awesome auction item!

A few thoughts as a teacher here:
1. Have something to sit down and read before the whole process starts. Its always nice to have an idea about what is coming up next, my students always want to know and seem to understand better when they have some sort of knowledge.

2. Visuals are awesome teaching aids. They'll retain much better with visuals and actually doing it.

3. Do a "dry run" first without actually using any ingredients.

4. Possibly have a list of what equipment/materials they would need if they wanted to replicate the brewing by themselves. (which we all assume they will)

This is really quite the great idea, I hope you have a good time with it!

First, I want to say what a terrific fundraising gift item this is. I'll have to keep this idea in mind for the organizations I'm involved with.

I agree with the posts above. A simple handout will be invaluable to both you and them. I'd create a one or two page handout with the following:

1. A short glossary of brewing terminology.
2. Basic step by step process for how you will be brewing that day.
3. The recipe for the beer you'll be brewing.

This will give you a few discussion points, and help you stay focused. They will get something to take home that day to show their friends and family, as well as remind them of what they learned.

I also like the idea of taking a few pics of them doing it at each stage of the process as an added bonus.

Moose

Wow this really is a good idea and also solves the problem of how to donate homebrew to charities while avoiding the legalities of selling homebrew.

All the ideas sound great, I would send them your 2-3 page handout beforehand to read. I think that will get them excited and they will have some time to digest a lot of information and have some knowledge when they show up.

Also always explain a term the first and second time you use it, this is key as homebrewing has lots of terms that non-brewers won't get wort, mash, strike temperature, pitch yeast etc.

Good luck