I am thinking of teaching a homebrewing course any suggestions

I am thinking of proposing a beginner's homebrewing course to the local adult education center, it might be something worth doing and could bring a whole bunch of new people into the hobby. Does anyone here have experience teaching a course like this and or ideas about what to cover.

The courses they offer are either 1 night lectures or between 4 and 10 weeks with meetings once a week for an hour or two. They have cooking facilities with large stoves etc. I would need to do at least 5 or 6 weeks of classes so that the students can brew either the first or second class and have finished beer by the last class.

I am an adjunct professor at a local community college (sociology), so I know how to teach, but the problem I am coming up with is that a beginners course in homebrewing might not take 6 to 12 hours of class time, and by that point you would get into some pretty advanced stuff that I don't have the best background to lecture about. But I do think it is of utmost importance to have the students brew and bottle some beers then share with the class so they know what the beers come out like and get a feel for the process.

Any recommendations or ideas? If any new brewers want to chime in and talk about things they wish that someone else had told them prior to starting, please let me know.

I can't seem to find it, but there have been a couple of guys here that have done this. One even had a whole class schedule and write-up. From what I remember, there wasn't much interest, but it's probably worth a shot.

Found a couple. Maybe those involved can chime in with their thoughts/experiences.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=27144
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=40583

I would recommend a Hefe Weizen or another fast ale and teach using DME and mentioning the processes using LME and all grain...take the middle road...

I think Bobby M tried to teach a class in NJ, but there was a lack of interest at the time...

You're not just planning to teach the mechanics of homebrewing are you?

You also have to cover the styles of beer.

Brewing history;(earliest fermentation- eqypt-England/germany-German (brewing purity laws)-immigration to the states (german brewing industry)-prohibition- rise of the post prohibition brewing industry- 1978 repeal of homebrewing ban- rise of the craft brewing industry-up to present including.)

Ingredients...

Types of Home brewing..Extract, PM, Ag...

Take a look at some of the info on the Cicerone program...there's some great material that can be incorporated into the course www.Cicerone.org.

THese are just some things to bring in...you could do a lot in 12 hours of course time... You could also work in meadmaking as well...

Just weave the didactic with the experiential over each class session... Let's say in week 2 0r 3 they are only racking to secondary (teaching them siphoning, etc. and let them do it) but you'd also be covering in the lecture part maybe history...

The single thing that I found most helpful when starting out brewing was the idea of RDWHAHB. Charlie Papazian hammers it home in his book, and I felt it made getting to grips with the mass of new information so much easier. It's not useful information in itself, but given that there's a lot to think about when starting brewing, if you can convey the importance of not worrying, that'll be half the battle won.

I was lucky that I found a community ed director that was raised in a real German household and loved beer. It was immediately intriguing to her and she agreed to advertise the class. The brochure went to something like 100,000 homes in upper middle class counties. They got one phone call asking about it, no registrants in two different attempts. I think they overpriced it at $119, and then $89, both times for three 2-hour sessions.

I guess it depends on the area.

I'm going to give it one more shot in the spring and change it to a single day seminar for 3 hours and ask them to price in the $40 area. Instead of showing them how to bottle the batch that was brewed in an earlier session, I'll probably just run through the process with water.

Bobby_M said:

I was lucky that I found a community ed director that was raised in a real German household and loved beer. It was immediately intriguing to her and she agreed to advertise the class. The brochure went to something like 100,000 homes in upper middle class counties. They got one phone call asking about it, no registrants in two different attempts. I think they overpriced it at $119, and then $89, both times for three 2-hour sessions.

I guess it depends on the area.

I'm going to give it one more shot in the spring and change it to a single day seminar for 3 hours and ask them to price in the $40 area. Instead of showing them how to bottle the batch that was brewed in an earlier session, I'll probably just run through the process with water.

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That is one of the problems I have been grappling with, it either has to be done in one day, or spanned over the course of a few weeks to walk through the whole process. I think the one day thing might be interesting, but might be hard for some people to get a real feel for the process. I am going to propose the class soon, the deadline for submission is the middle of March. I also have to do a sylabus and all that fun stuff so I was just looking for info.

So far I was thinking of using the John Plamer book and having students each brew their own beer a 5 gallon batch throughout the course of the 6 weeks so at the last class they could all trade and sample eachothers brew.

I was going to spend time going over malting and how to keg etc. I think some people would be interested, but I don't know how many.

Donasay said:

That is one of the problems I have been grappling with, it either has to be done in one day, or spanned over the course of a few weeks to walk through the whole process. I think the one day thing might be interesting, but might be hard for some people to get a real feel for the process. I am going to propose the class soon, the deadline for submission is the middle of March. I also have to do a sylabus and all that fun stuff so I was just looking for info.

So far I was thinking of using the John Plamer book and having students each brew their own beer a 5 gallon batch throughout the course of the 6 weeks so at the last class they could all trade and sample eachothers brew.

I was going to spend time going over malting and how to keg etc. I think some people would be interested, but I don't know how many.

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That sounds like a great format for the class...Especially the last session...the tasting!

You might have some trouble with the idea of tasting if it's on someone else's property. If it's a college, they don't like the idea of consuming alcohol on prem.

What alcohol? You're tasting malt and yeast samples!

Revvy said:

Just weave the didactic with the experiential

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Avoid using any phrases that sound remotely like this one, and you'll be just fine.

BTW, I'm druck...

I highly recommend using this as your course book. It's laid out very well and in any event will help you tremendously as you work on the curriculum of the class.



Pick it up at your local home brew store and ask for their support for supplies & such.

Order it online here.
http://brewyourownstore.com/beginnersguide.html

Online courses are becoming more and more popular, and I might be easier to reach a broader audience.

Homebrewing is a little more hands on. You wouldn't take an online cooing class right?

Bobby_M said:

Homebrewing is a little more hands on. You wouldn't take an online cooing class right?

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yeh not really sure what i was thinking there....