Brewing School, who has been, where.

[ubnserved]

I'm helping my son do a little research on schools while he is deployed and mentioned that brewing is something that he is interested in for a career. I of course can see all the schools online etc but I think it is far better to get firsthand knowledge and experiences from people who have attended.
So if you have attended give me your thoughts on your overall experience, instructors, costs, and overall value of the knowledge gained from your attendance.

Oh and i almost forgot. ... where you went and diploma, degree, certificate gained.

Last thing, would you do it again?

 

[kadozen]

Subbed, I've been looking at a few, I'm curious what former students have to say

 

[sudbuddy]

I'm helping my son do a little research on schools while he is deployed and mentioned that brewing is something that he is interested in for a career. I of course can see all the schools online etc but I think it is far better to get firsthand knowledge and experiences from people who have attended.
So if you have attended give me your thoughts on your overall experience, instructors, costs, and overall value of the knowledge gained from your attendance.

Oh and i almost forgot. ... where you went and diploma, degree, certificate gained.

Last thing, would you do it again?

I finished the Concise Course in Brewing Technology from the Siebel Institute last year. It was $3500 and web based, and totally worth it. I learned a TON about brewing and it's helped me a lot at my current job running a LHBS. I am enrolled in next year's Master Brewer program at Siebel as well and cannot wait. The Siebel Institute of Technology is America's oldest brewing school, with campuses in Chicago and Munich, and another one in Montreal but I have no idea what they do there. It is really a great program, and I found that the online version was really easy to do at my own pace, but was intensely challenging academically. He would need to have prior brewing/homebrewing experience to really get the most he could out of it, but that is probably the same for all brewing programs. I hope this helps, and thank him for his service

 

[sudbuddy]

and I guess I say "really" a lot now

 

[ubnserved]

You can thank him yourself i am sending him a link to this thread.

How long did it take you to complete? And was it a diploma course or a degree course?

 

[ubnserved]

I looked at that and sent a link to my son. He was shocked at their pricing and lack of gi bill allowances. He did find a newer program near where he is that he can do in his spare time. Anyone heard of Blue Ridge? Seems they have a program put together by Oskar Blues and Sierra Nevada or something like that. He also mentioned portland.

 

[ubnserved]

I haven't gotten much response here so i have been looking around some more on my own. The following may or may not still be active. Check back once in a while and I will try to find out. The next few were found on a thread here on HBT. I am adding courses and individual classes that may be interesting to other HBT members.

https://www.edx.org/course/harvard-university/spu27x/science-cooking-haute-cuisine/639
Free

https://janux.ou.edu/landing/#CHEM4970-detail
FREE but not sure if it will be offered again, a ton of HBT members signed up when the class was originally offered not sure how many actually finished the class. I am trying to find out now if the class will be available this year. (2015)

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/organic-chemistry
not sure if free or not

http://www.humsci.auburn.edu/brewing/
Latest addition haven't checked it out.

http://www.cwu.edu/ce/craft-beer-certificate

http://cicerone.org/
Beer server to beer sommelier certification. Education on "off flavors" also added.

http://www.craftbeeru.com/about/
I found this one but did not find any educational certifications or accreditation. I clicked on their "about " page and got a resume for 2 guys instead of information about the school. I would use at your own risk unless we can get some feedback from someone here on HBT.

http://www.humsci.auburn.edu/brewing/
After completing the course you can go to the UK and take some certification tests.

I certainly don't want to say anything that contradicts the instructor as he's the one structuring the course but brewing is about biochemistry which builds, of course, on organic chemistry but only a small part of it. I think that if one understands the relationships between acids, aldehydes, ketones and alcohols and a few other bits at that level i.e. the beginning stuff he can probably handle or at least appreciate much of the biochemistry of brewing.

I'm speaking from my own experience. I wanted very much to understand some of the biochem of brewing and, in discussing this with a colleauge who had studied biochem, expressed the fear that I would never be able to understand any of it because all my chemistry had been a freshman level (inorganic) course in engine school. He said not to worry, I wouldn't need to know that much organic and gave me a biochem book (Lennigner) with a bookmark at the pages where fermentation was discussed. He was right.

Thus to those who are wondering how to prep, my suggestion would be to pick up a biochem book, look up EMP (Embden, Meyerhoff, Parnass) or glycolysis in the index or, easier still, look at the Wikipedia article at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycolysis

Don't expect to understand everything there after one, or even multiple, reading(s) but if you can get to the point where you can follow the argument you will probably be OK.

 

[ubnserved]

https://www.coursera.org/
Free not sure what is applicable to brewing I got bored with looking through courses. If anyone has used this please let us know what you think.

If anyone has knowledge of classes etc. that would be of interest to brewers in general or to those wanting to make a career of brewing post a link and description and I will add it to the top of the thread. Thanks

 

[myerstyson]

He was shocked at their pricing and lack of gi bill allowances.

Has he checked out UC Davis's Master Brewers Program? It is VA approved.

And tell your son thanks for his service.

 

[ubnserved]

Will do. I will have him check it out.

 

[aviator01]

Central Washington University has a beer program: http://www.cwu.edu/ce/craft-beer-certificate

I've heard it is growing into a full degree program in addition to the certificate.

Information in king.

 

[ericfine50]

Fermentation science is another area he could look into.

 

[ubnserved]

Central Washington University has a beer program: http://www.cwu.edu/ce/craft-beer-certificate

I've heard it is growing into a full degree program in addition to the certificate.

Information in king.

Thanks for the input. I'll check it out for him and send him the link.

 

[soccerdad]

Post 6 mentioned a connection to Oskar Blues .. the program at Auburn also has such a connection as they claim the OB founder as an AU grad. No idea of cost or support for vets. There is an FAQ. http://www.humsci.auburn.edu/brewing/

edit - from web link above .. This program has been approved for Veterans Administration educational benefits.

 

[doverox]

hey ubnserved,
thanks for your response to my post earlier.
i can actually offer a little advice on this topic. your son being a vet, i would definitely suggest choosing one of the university programs, particularly uc davis. while siebel does have a reputation as one of the best brewing institutes, it offers absolutely zero financial support.
also, i think that the online course is definitely a valuable resource but i personally would choose to take it on campus. i can tell you first hand as a brewery intern that there are ins and outs of commercial size brew equipment that you kind of need to experience hands on.
and finally, as a cicerone (level one) i would say it's a good step for him to take if he would like to work in a beer bar or such in the meantime but it won't really help him find brewery work.

since my post about siebel i've decided to take the on-campus concise course in october. i live in chicago so fortunately no boarding expenses.

good luck to your son!

 

[FoCobrewguy]

Colorado State University in Fort Collins has a fermentation major. There is a 10 barrel brew house on campus too for the students to use. It is a 4 year degree program think you end up with a science degree. You have New Belgium and Odells in town as big local breweries not to mention the 100s along the front range. It is a young program I think this year is the second but just another option to look at. I went to CSU for business great school and great town.

 

[ubnserved]

Sorry haven't updated in a bit. Thanks everyone who has posted. I will keep updating as I can.

 

[WeimBrew]

Central michigan university has a program starting in the fall of 2015. I hear western michigan university also is starting a program.

 

[ubnserved]

Amazing how many schools want in on the action. Granted in the past there was not a lot of help out there education wise. Now it seems that it may be getting to possibly be too much. As in not everyone can offer top notch teachers with hands on experience and the knowledge needed to actually teach the subtle nuances of brewing in turn making it harder to choose a program that will allow you to finish and become a good brewmaster. Any nerd can teach you that water+hops+sugars=wort wort+yeast+proper temp+time = beer. But can they teach you that a different yeast will make your bad beer good or that as little as 3° could be the difference between a good beer and a great beer and why? Most of us that spend any time brewing or on this forum know that there is a lot of science that goes into brewing and most that is on the ingredient side of brewing. .....
Well enough of that just some random thoughts.
If anyone has attended let us hear from you about your experiences. Thanks again!

Funny as this thread gets longer new things are popping up below in 'similar threads'. This one didn't show up even when I searched. .. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f19/average-joe-brewing-pro-my-two-years-brewing-school-352161/

 

[aprichman]

I'm a Food Science & Technology student at Oregon State University with an emphasis on fermentation science. Heavy emphasis on chemistry, biology/biochemistry, and physics with applied science classes such as brewing science, brewing analysis, fermentation microbiology, food packaging, food engineering principles, etc. Some classes focus on production such as wine production principles, fruit / vegetable processing, food processing calculations, and dairy processing. A good deal of classes focus on safety, sanitation, haccp, etc. A few classes focus on the history and anthropology of food and beverages such as food science & technology in the western world, wine in the western world, food in non-western cultures, etc.

I think it's a really exciting area to study because food science is a combination of applied science, history, anthropology, law, and art (culinary aspects). I'm interested in beer but many of other fermentation science students study or research cheese, wine, cider, etc.

 

[helibrewer]

I'm helping my son do a little research on schools while he is deployed and mentioned that brewing is something that he is interested in for a career. I of course can see all the schools online etc but I think it is far better to get firsthand knowledge and experiences from people who have attended.
So if you have attended give me your thoughts on your overall experience, instructors, costs, and overall value of the knowledge gained from your attendance.

Oh and i almost forgot. ... where you went and diploma, degree, certificate gained.

Last thing, would you do it again?

I have done a couple of the UC Davis Extension courses and I can tell you they have a great facility and top staff. Their wine program is outstanding also. If he is able to establish residency in Calif it would reduce the tuition from 38.5K to 14.5K annually.

 

[ubnserved]

I have done a couple of the UC Davis Extension courses and I can tell you they have a great facility and top staff. Their wine program is outstanding also. If he is able to establish residency in Calif it would reduce the tuition from 38.5K to 14.5K annually.

Well nice thing is that he has GI Bill but he is not sure if it applies to out of state college or not. He just asked me about that the other day and was trying to find out.

 

[myerstyson]

Does he have GI Bill or the post-9/11 GI Bill?

Does he need the BS or does he just want a Professional Brewers Certificate?

The answers to those questions will help me direct you to some info.

For now, UC Davis's Professional Brewers Program is VA certified, and since it has a set fee ($16,000), no matter your residency, I believe GI Bill will cover just about all of it. (He should talk to the VA office at UC Davis about this. But according to this VA page, he should be able to have that whole amount covered under the "non-degree granting" part of Post-9/11 GI Bill, as the max for that is $20K.) And he may even get E-5 BAQ to cover some housing. From UC Davis's brewer's program detailed guide:

Veterans educational Benefits (g.i. Bill)Veterans of the U.S. military who have available educational benefits can enroll in the Professional Brewing Programs and obtain reimbursement from the Veterans administration. UC Davis extension has approval under the Veterans educational Benefits program to allow veterans, their dependents and others who qualify for Veterans educational Benefits to further their education via one of our certificate programs.

Now, if he needs the full bachelors, then the residency becomes an issue. I don't see UC Davis on the Yellow Ribbon program (which would mean the college covers the difference btwn in-state tuition, covered by GI Bill, and out-of-state tuition), but that doesn't mean that UC Davis might not help him out with grants or scholarships for the difference. Also, once he's lived in Cali for a year he can declare residency, thus reducing his tuition for years 2-4. I've actually had friends talk to the finance aid offices of the college they wanted to go to, telling them they're veterans who want to go to their school, and that they'd be "bringing" with them the GI Bill, and the school offered them tuition waivers for the difference. Granted, that was for grad school, but you never know.