Siebel Institute of technology

[edb23]

has anyone taken their associate brewers course before? i'm thinking of taking it online but would like to hear some opinions

 

[lostboysbrew]

i guess the real question is why do you want to???

I guess what I am saying is I could find a much better way to spend $10k.....

 

[edb23]

I'm going to be pursuing brewing as a career and feel like some education could help get my foot in the door

 

[lostboysbrew]

Not necessarily true......actually had that conversation with alot of brewers. i have no education, even in biology and I have gotten my foot in the door. If you have a local brewery I would recommend offering up volunteering (cleaning brewhouse, kegs) in exchange for some knowledge. Brewers were once like you.

I started as a volunteer, got asked to come on part time for 6 months b/c the Asst. Brewer got hurt. Now I am interviewing with a large brewing company in California, and things are looking good. I just believe that your money is better spent elsewhere. I have seen so many posts on ProBrewer about Siebel grads looking for jobs. The three courses offered in the Associates program can be learned on your own time, for free. Now if you were doing the Master Brewer program I would say thats different because you will learn stuff there you'll only get in the industry.

Not trying to deter you from going from it, just giving you somethings to think about.

 

[brum]

Lost boys brew has it right. Our assistant brewer has no formal training. Just had spent 5 years with the company prior in packaging and cellar. I started cleaning kegs a little over a month ago and am already working heavily on the bottling line. I know if i could work full time I could probably get promoted to the cellar within 6 months. It helps I'm a chemistry major who is almost done ;-)


Good luck to you !

 

[edb23]

My problem right now is that i'm really too poor to be volunteering. I was working an internship at a local brewery in Pittsburgh for some time, but had to leave so i could work more hours. I want to do the master brewer program really badly but i'm not able to drop everything and go to their campus, and they don't offer it online

 

[JJL]

Depends on what the end goal is. If you want to brew, then lostboys is probably right about gaining experience over formal schooling. If you want to be a yeast rancher, then you'll likely need some type of schooling.