Day 1 (January 27, 2014)

Today was the first day of the Master Brewers Program. It was a pretty basic first day: meet the professors, fill out basic paperwork, write a large check for tuition, get a big stack of books (see picture), go over the syllabus, take a class picture, etc. The fun part is the classroom is over Sudwerks Brewery in Davis, CA. So it helps make it feel more casual. But the gigantic stack of books reminded me that there is a huge amount of very technical information that I have to learn in a rather short period of time. The professors seem like a lot of fun and the atmosphere is friendly. I can imagine becoming good friends with a lot of the people in the room. There were only three females (including myself) out of a total of 36 students. I was happy to see two other ladies in the room with me. Everyone introduced themselves and after hearing a little about their backgrounds, I started to feel a little bit better about my preparation. There were a lot of people in the room with very little brewing experience. Most people came from far away, including: Venezuela, Columbia, Argentina, Japan and Norway. I think there were only two people in the room, including myself, that got to drive from home everyday and go home every night. The best part was when there was free beer with lunch. It was the first time at school or work when I was expected to drink while on the clock! Time to start reading. Click on the link below for an introduction to The Pope of Foam (one of our professors) and a great overview to the brewing process.

 The Art & Science of Beer with Charlie "The Pope of Foam" Bamforth

This was the stack of books waiting at each person's seat.