Brewing courses

[Andres Falconer]

Since I once searched online for online brewing courses, it seems like Facebook is now targeting me with offers for university certificate programs covering from basic brewing techniques to the business of running a brewery. I'm always interested in learning, but not planning to operate a beer business.

What learning resources - from free YouTube video series to degree-awarding programs - have you found most interesting and useful to apply in your homebrewing, and why? Please share your experiences both with free resources as well as those which you felt were a good investment of your money as well as your time.

 

[VikeMan]

KU Leuven (a university in Belgium) periodically offers an excellent on line course through EDX called "Beer: the science of brewing." It takes a few hours per week for about 3 months. It's self paced, but (at least when I took it) the modules are not introduced all at once, so you can't just binge it. It's a free course, but you can pay (not much, IIRC) if you want a certificate and unlimited future access to the course materials.

I would highly recommend it, as I learned a lot from it. And I feel a tiny amount of ownership, because a few of my suggested tweaks were subsequently incorporated.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

What learning resources - from free YouTube video series to degree-awarding programs - have you found most interesting and useful to apply in your homebrewing, and why?

After a good book (e.g. How to Brew, 4e, but there are others)

• HomeBrewCon presentations. Especially if one follows book authors, there often new insights to be found.
• Supplier videos (e.g. Fermentis, Lallemand, maybe others?). Good information from those who know. (Yes, it's likely that 5000 home brewers will find enhancements). Links to two upcoming presentations can be found here:
  • Ready for your next Homebrew Competition?
  • FREE Presentation with John Palmer Tomorrow-All About Water Chemistry
• Magazines (e.g. BYO, Craft Beer & Brewing) often have video subscriptions as part of a subscription plan. I tried the one from Craft Beer & Brewing and got value out of it. If you consider yourself to be a beginning to intermediate brewer (or are adding all-grain brewing to your skillset), these plans may be of interest.
• It's likely that the same content can be found, for free, elsewhere. I'm willing to pay for curation of content.
• I also fit into"homebrewing is a hobby" & "homebrewing is cooking". That being said, there are things that can be leaned and adapted from industrial production of beer and from brewing science.

 

[hottpeper13]

It's not free,I pay ~180$ a year to belong to the MBAA. I also took their Malting and Brewing Science course at UW Madison in 2017.
I believe it's the best money I spend on brewing every year.
They also have a Microbiology for Brewers course at UW Stevenspoint that was awesome. I put a lab together after that one.

 

[Cameronl]

I wouldn't recommend it if you're not planning to go into the business, but I got my brewing science certificate from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT. I only did it because I work at the university, so basically free tuition (I had to pay for one credit). Total cost after books and lab fees, about $14k. I think I spent about $1k (most of it that one credit). It's hands on, so you have to live nearby.

Classes were held at a local large-scale brewery. We started brewing on Anvil all-in-one systems and then moved up to one barrel pilot systems. I got to intern at a brewpub and got a lot of hands-on experience. Sensory and analysis classes really taught me a lot about evaluating beer. And I got to meet a lot of professionals and visited a lot of breweries and related businesses. Safety and sanitation where hammered into us. It also covered the business side of things. I had to write a preliminary business plan for a brewery.

The #1 thing it did for me was to rekindle my enthusiasm for beer and the hobby. I had been a casual brewer for about 20 years, with looooong gaps between brewing sessions. Now I'm actively involved in the hobby and fantasizing about opening a nano-brewery when I retire (not too far in the future).

 

[madscientist451]

I commute to work over an hour a day and learned about brewing by listening to Brewing network and other podcasts and then brewing small (about 3 gallon) batches 2-3 times a month for a few years to figure out what works for me and what doesn't. The CYBI series helped me because I could then compare my homebrew clone version to commercial examples. I'd also recommend basic brewing radio and experimental brewing. There are lots of great you tube videos about how to do stuff like kegging, some of the brewing videos are quite good, some not so much.

 

[Jim R]

I realize that there are people that learn best by taking classes and there are people that learn best by reading and self study. For me, it was by far the most time efficient (not to mention less expensive) to just pound through a couple thorough textbooks. For $20 and about 4-5 hours of study time, you can work through John Palmer's How to Brew book and have a very good baseline of brewing knowledge and then expand from there. Most of the classes I have taken in my life have been about 10% useful information and 90% waste of my time.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

The Siebel Institute has a great course from what I understand.

 

[Brooothru]

I wouldn't recommend it if you're not planning to go into the business, but I got my brewing science certificate from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT. I only did it because I work at the university, so basically free tuition (I had to pay for one credit). Total cost after books and lab fees, about $14k. I think I spent about $1k (most of it that one credit). It's hands on, so you have to live nearby.

Classes were held at a local large-scale brewery. We started brewing on Anvil all-in-one systems and then moved up to one barrel pilot systems. I got to intern at a brewpub and got a lot of hands-on experience. Sensory and analysis classes really taught me a lot about evaluating beer. And I got to meet a lot of professionals and visited a lot of breweries and related businesses. Safety and sanitation where hammered into us. It also covered the business side of things. I had to write a preliminary business plan for a brewery.

The #1 thing it did for me was to rekindle my enthusiasm for beer and the hobby. I had been a casual brewer for about 20 years, with looooong gaps between brewing sessions. Now I'm actively involved in the hobby and fantasizing about opening a nano-brewery when I retire (not too far in the future).

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Your top picture has the logo of Two Roads brewing. My daughter (a college admissions administrator) was on a recruiting trip to Fairfield, CT, a few years back and toured Two Roads during a slack day in her schedule. She brought me and her husband each a full growler of one of their flagship beers. The growler still holds a place of honor in my 'Cave. Is Two Roads where you interned?

 

[Cameronl]

Your top picture has the logo of Two Roads brewing. My daughter (a college admissions administrator) was on a recruiting trip to Fairfield, CT, a few years back and toured Two Roads during a slack day in her schedule. She brought me and her husband each a full growler of one of their flagship beers. The growler still holds a place of honor in my 'Cave. Is Two Roads where you interned?

Two Roads is where they hold the brewing classes. The lab is located in Area Two, their experimental brewery next door to the main facility. I interned at Brewport in Bridgeport, just down the road.