We all know that craft beer is growing (if you didn't know,
then just take my word for it) and the need for educated people is becoming
more prevalent & even required in order to keep the consistency of craft
beer to a high level. To fill the gap of needing well trained individuals, there
are 4 post-secondary institutions in Canada (at least that I know of and at the
time of this writing) that are offering brewing related programs as follows:
Niagara College - (in
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario) started the proverbial ball rolling with their
Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management Diploma program a few years ago.
They have the luxury of a viticulture program (that’s wine-making there, folks)
and a culinary program to boot to round things out.
Olds College – out in Olds, Alberta (Don’t know where that
is? Think about 1 hour North of Calgary), they’re going to be graduating their
first class of their Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management Diploma Program
this April. Located in the heart of
barley country so they enjoy close proximity to high quality ingredients
combined with a large impetus placed on hands-on learning.
Kwantlen Polytechnic University – out in Langley, BC have
started their Brewing & Brewery Operations Program in 2014 and the first
program of their kind in British Columbia. With all the breweries that are
opening in BC, this makes sense.
Simon Fraser University – this group in has 3 campuses in BC
and are offering a Craft Beer & Brewing Essentials certificate that’s
launching in October of this year.
Now if you’re not
quite ready to commit to a few years to expanding your technical brewing skills
then look no further than Olds College because they are offering a 2-day Practical Microbiology for the Craft Brewer
short course held at Olds College on May 2nd & 3rd (Sat-Sun).
 |
| Get in on this while you can, I hear that space is very limited. |
Who will be
instructing this course?
It will be instructed by Dr. Jordan Ramey who
is a microbiology guru, certified Beer Judge, professor for the Olds College Brewmaster
& Brewery Operations Management program, brewing consultant, sensory
scientist, and contributing member of the Master Brewers Association of the Americas.
Why would you want to take this course?
This course would do well for people that may already be in
the craft brewing industry (before all the brewery programs listed above came
to be) and are looking to improve their lab skills. Perhaps a craft brewery has brought onto their
staff a talented home brewer and needs to introduce lab techniques to them? You could
be part of a brewery and you’re building a lab and need to gain some skills.
I
have it on good authority that he will be assisted by Doug Cheknita who is part
of the inaugural graduating class of the Olds College Brewing Program. A
strong brewer specializing in Belgians, Sours, and wild fermentations, Doug has
a special affinity for brewing microbiology and working with novel yeast and
bacterial strains for creative flavor profile production. He has been working
on a Special Project over the past year to isolate wild strains of yeast &
brewing bacterias in Alberta.
What should you
expect?
Jordan & Doug are both patient, insightful, and bring a
wealth of knowledge that will expand your scientific techniques with various microbiological
assays that are commonly used in a craft brewery. Expect to learn about yeast
counting & viability, Gram staining, media preparation, differential media
use, micro QA/QC planning, and yeast library maintenance in a hands-on
environment. Space is limited to only
9 participants so you’ll want to get in on this. Don’t expect to see scenes
like the picture below, but that’s not to say that fun won’t be had.
 |
| What do you think the caption for this should be? It's like a Meme waiting to happen. (and No, this isn't a picture of Jordan & Doug) |
As a brewing student that has taken Brewing Microbiology,
learning about lab techniques that can be used in a craft brewery was a truly
eye opening experience and truly rounded out my insight into the brewing
world.
Now some of you may be thinking “Why the plug? What do you get out of it there, Beerlearner?” The
funny thing is that I don’t get “anything
out of it” short of satisfaction in helping get the word out to expand the
knowledge of people in the craft brewing industry. Sometimes as a BeerLearner,
it’s not just about my own knowledge gain but also spreading the learning to
those motivated and interested people.
Enjoy!
BL
No comments:
Post a Comment