California Sour Beer and Barrel-Aging Boot Camp in Santa Rosa

Brew Your Own magazine is running a series of homebrew Boot Camps around the country, and lucky for California, they're second! February 24th and 25th I’ll be leading sessions in Santa Rosa (excited to finally make it to Russian River...).

Friday will be wood and barrels, with hands-on experience installing stainless steel sample nails, removing and replacing the head of a barrel, and a comparison tastings of the same beer treated with different woods. Saturday the focus shifts to sours beers (surprise), including a lecture, blending session (with my homebrewed sours), capturing wild microbes, and creating a custom sour beer recipe/process.

More details on my sessions on my blog.

Here is the link to sign up (other speakers include Chris White, Gordon Strong, Vinnie Cilurzo, and Sean Paxton)! Sign up soon, a few of the sessions are already sold out for the November version in Burlington, VT.

Whoa this is really cool! I live in Petaluma, and am going to try hard to figure out a way to make this happen. Thanks for the info!

Cheers! The Sour Beer session just sold out for Burlington, but room still available for Santa Rosa. For the wood session I have a malty brown divided between a Balcones Malt whisky barrel, infused with the spirit itself, and aging with honeycomb oak for a comparison tasting!

I signed up for the classes in Santa Rosa and am really looking forward to it. I'm in your barrel class on Friday, but it was a difficult decision between your sour beer class and Vinnie's hopping techniques class on Saturday. In the end I went with the hopping technique class on Saturday to mix it up a bit.

drgonzo2k2 said:

I signed up for the classes in Santa Rosa and am really looking forward to it. I'm in your barrel class on Friday, but it was a difficult decision between your sour beer class and Vinnie's hopping techniques class on Saturday. In the end I went with the hopping technique class on Saturday to mix it up a bit.

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I think that may be a common path, the wood class was outselling the sour class last I heard.

I actually wish they were doing two 3 hour sessions each day for a bit more variety. I don't blame you for not wanting to spend 12 hours with me!

Oldsock said:

I think that may be a common path, the wood class was outselling the sour class last I heard.

I actually wish they were doing two 3 hour sessions each day for a bit more variety. I don't blame you for not wanting to spend 12 hours with me!

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Hah, well, I would have, but the hopping class was too intriguing! I'll buy you a beer at Russian River though!

Sounds like fun! Enjoy

Today is the last day for the early sign-up discount! Here are some photos of us taking apart a barrel at the first one in Burlington.