Someone had suggested to us that a fun vacation can be going to school for a hobby that you enjoy. The original thought was to go to beer brewing school in Germany, but when Caroline looked into it, there was a much more applicable school in Chicago with a German company called Siebel Institute of Technology. They put on a one week long Advanced Home Brewing school once a year. Since Caroline has friends in Chicago and we knew there were lots of things for William to do and see, it seemed the natural choice. So, we signed me up! As we toured around the states prior to the class, I mentioned my upcoming school to a few brewers and they exclaimed, "Siebel! That's like the 'Harvard' of brewing! How did you get in? I've had friends that have tried to get in for years!" OK, they are probably talking about their Master Brewers program which is months long, costs some $16,000 and is booked for two years out. But it still made me excited to be going to such a reputable school on the matter.
OK, their Chicago offices aren't that impressive looking, but it's more about the instructors they hire and the quality of lecture rather than the facilities that make it so great. Besides, for all the actual brewing exercises, we took field trips to actual breweries in the area.
As in many schools, there is plenty of lectures and book work. We covered the history of beer, styles of beer, grains, hops, water, yeast, brewing equipment, brewing techniques, problems and solutions... We also did plenty of beer tasting. One of the first things they do is to improve your ability to taste and rate beer, so you better know what is going on with your beer, why it tastes that way, and how to change it if necessary.
One of the tasting days was with a light generic beer that was spiked with small amounts of the various off flavors that one finds in beer along with a discussion on how those tastes come about and how to avoid them.
The next day of tasting (pictured above) was covering the different styles of beer. We'd split each bottle between four people, but there was still a quite a bit of beer. And, unlike wine tasting, you need to swallow beer to get the full taste and aroma profile of the beer. (That's our story and we're sticking with it!) These lectures were fun, but got uncomfortable since everyone needed to go pee! This was also the day they had us fill out the evaluation sheets. They admitted that they did this on purpose.
The CEO of White Labs came to lecture on yeast and fermentation. He also directed us through some lab procedures for yeast isolation, culturing, evaluation, and use. Very interesting. I learned that my lab techniques leave a lot to be desired.
Thursday was our brew day. We went to Metropolitan Brewing where Siebel has a pretty sophisticated brew sculpture (home brew system all on one structure) that they share with the brewery. The brewery uses it for experimenting with new recipes in small batches, and the school comes and uses it for these classes. One of the founders of MoreBeer.com, who made the sculpture, came out to run the lecture and direct the brewing day. We essentially stepped through the entire process of brewing beer talking about all the techniques and potential issues brewing beer. The brewery also kept pitchers of beer available for us to sip off of through the day.
While the beer brewed, they provided a tour of the brewery. Above is the micro brewery version of the beer sculpture. The Mash/Lauter Tun is on the left and the brew kettle is on the right.
Inside the Mash/Lauter Tun. Grains are steeped in here to convert the starch in the grains to sugars and then the sugars are flushed out through the screen on the bottom to be boiled in the kettle with hops.
Each day after class, we would usually meet up at a bar in town that either was a microbrewery or focused on serving microbrews. This beer was at the Hop Leaf which specializes in Belgian beers. This one is served in a unique glass that requires a holder. Apparently this style of glass was for carriage drivers. The glass would hang on a gimbaled fork and the ball on the bottom would ensure the glassed tipped in response to the movement of the carriage as to not spill the beer. This way the driver could carry his beer along while he drove. So, it is a purpose built drinking and driving glass!
The class was a lot of fun and I learned a great deal. It was a wonderful way to spend a part of my vacation.
Some highlights of the week:
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