Week 8 - Good News or Bad News? (March 17-21, 2014)

I'm a bad news first kind of girl. So, I didn't get the Deschutes internship. I didn't get the Hangar 24 internship. But I found out yesterday that I DID get the Stone Brewing internship! So I'm headed to San Diego!

Quick wrap up of week 8. Monday and Tuesday we had the honor of having Dr. Tom Shellhammer come down from Oregon State and do some review with us on packaging and engineering. He's truly a fantastic teacher.

Wednesday we got a day of foam from the Pope of Foam himself, Dr. Bamforth. In the afternoon the Brewmaster from AB-Inbev Fairfield, Scott Ungermann, came to talk to us for the afternoon. He was awesome. He was generous and helpful and told quite an impressive Anheuser-Busch story.

Thursday we had engineering in the morning. It's started to become actually anxiety producing for me. But I get through. In the afternoon, we headed for a tour of the Anheuser-Busch/Inbev brewery in Fairfield. They broke us up into groups and gave us tours. The brewmaster and assistant brewmaster each lead a group. Two quality control people lead the other groups. It was quite an impressive tour. If you've never done it, you should. You have to see the whole beechwood aging process in person. AND if you go to the Fairfield brewery, you get to see the largest lauter tun (I think) in the world.

After the tour, we headed back to Sudwerk's in time to freshen up and then head to the MBAA Northern California district meeting at Rubicon's West Sacramento Brewery. That was a good time, too. SO much beer from so many different breweries. Vinnie Cilurzo from Russian River sat at my table. Again, starstruck. There was a great talk from a Portland brewer about barrel aging. Great night!

Friday was a day to study and then an afternoon with Sensory Sue. She is the best way to end any week!

The Science of Beer: Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Week 7 - Undercover Investigation Shutdown (March 10-14, 2014)

Week 7 was brutal. It started out gently enough with a morning for private study on Monday followed by an afternoon exam. But then Tuesday and Wednesday were all yeast and microbial contamination and fermentation with Dr. Brown. Brutal, I tell you. 163 powerpoint slides on the first day and I didn't bother counting on the second. And every bit of it was super intense. Glycolysis in one slide. Imagine what the other 162 were. I should have come home and read all night but there just wasn't any room left in my brain.

Luckily, Thursday was a field trip to Lagunitas. It was wonderful. I was impressed already when we walked through their, courtyard, I'll say. Beautiful wooden tables, kegs with tops for seats, raked dirt, white lights under a clear tent. Once we entered, we could order any beer we wanted. I sampled a few (Austin fusion, my go to Hairy Eyeball, and my new favorite Undercover Investigation Shutdown Ale... which has a great origin story, by the way). They followed the beer with a lunch on the house. From there, we got a tour from Jeremy Marshall (the Master Brewer himself). Our focus this trip was on packaging and we got to see every detail. We ended with a class photo (with Jeremy Marshall front and center) and a trip back to the bar and gift shop. Thank you to Lagunitas for your wonderful hospitality!

We wrapped up the week on Friday with another guest speaker. Jeffers Richardson from Firestone Walker Brewing Company came to talk us. He was super down to earth and generous with his time. He talked about Firestone's two different operations: their main brewery and The Barrel Works (their funky, wild yeast brewery). He also brought beer to share with us. I think Feral One was my favorite.

Oh, just to follow up, I didn't get the Deschutes or the Hangar 24 internships. Just not meant to be. I'm working on another one, so we'll see!

Me with Jeremy Marshall (Lagunitas Master Brewer)

Lagunitas Courtyard. Great ideas for our backyard.

This round is on the house!

Our class wore him out!

Week 6 - The Mothership! (March 3-7, 2014)

The front entrance

I'm definitely starting to fall behind on my blogging. I'll just hit the highlights of last week. Monday was a test (did pretty well... top 3!), Tuesday was all yeast and fermentation, and Wednesday was a field trip to Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico. Thursday and Friday were Engineering, Packaging and Sensory as usual, so let's  focus on the field trip.

Me with Dr. Michael Lewis (FANTASTIC man)

I probably don't have to say what I think about Sierra Nevada, but I will. They are fantastic. Whether you like the beer or not, the company is amazing. The place was immaculate and beautiful. Their spent grains go to their own cows, which they then serve in their own restaurant (the cows, not the spent grain). The entire facility is covered with solar panels. They have a 500,000 composter just to reduce the waste their personnel produce. They have hydrogen fuel cells. They recycle the carbon dioxide released from several processes. And I asked every employee I met if they like working there and it was a resounding, "YES, this is the best place I've ever worked... I would never leave" kind of answer.

As future brewers, we got a super extended tour and got to see parts of the brewery not seen on typical tours (pictures below). It ended with a scrumptious lunch in their restaurant and all the beer we could drink (though we didn't have time for enough). I left with a 4-pack of Bigfoot, their barley wine, which has become my new favorite. Amazing foam... Dr. Bamforth would be proud!

Their hop freezer. NOT your typical hop freezer. Since Ken Grossman still insists on using whole cone hops, they need a big freezer. 

Whole cone hop

The brewhouse. Vessels all the way from Germany.

Sweet (unhopped) wort straight from the mash. It will be boiled next in the kettle and hops will be added there.

Cool artwork surrounds the brewhouse portraying the brewing process. Each picture resembles a member of the Sierra Nevada family. This corner piece is Ken Grossman.

The torpedo. It's a Ken Grossman invention. Each of these vessels is filled with whole cone hops. The fermenter sits above it (rising several stories up). During fementation, the wort is sent through the torpedo 4 times to infuse it with hop aroma and bittering units. This produces their "Torpedo" (which makes up 15% of sales, 2nd to their flagship Pale Ale which makes up 70% of sales). 

A view through the catwalk to packaging at all the solar panels.

Packaging. Truly impressive. The only thing packaging can do is make your beer worse. There's a million things that have to get the beer to the consumer as it was when it was finished.

The amount of beer moving through here at full speed is mind boggling. 

I wouldn't mind my own truck one day.

Week 5 - "For Jenny" (February 24-28, 2014)

So this is going to be super fast. Last week was our 5th week. Long story short: Thursdays are rough. The morning is all engineering. Let's just say, it's not fun. At least for me. We take lunch (though I don't, I stay to get help and make sure I have it). Then we have an afternoon of packaging. It's tough to get fired up about packaging (though I will credit my teacher by saying he does get fired up about it).  By 4:00 pm, after 7 hours in the chair, we're fried.

Friday mornings, a TA from Sac State comes in to help us with the previous days' work. Last Friday (week 5), he offered to help me with a problem that he knew I'd been stuck on the week before. I wasn't up to it and left to go take a needed break and have lunch and get away from it for a while. When I came back to class for an afternoon of sensory science, this (see picture) was up on the board. He worked out the problem from week 3 for me (that he did on his own time) to make sure I got help... even though I wasn't willing to stick around through lunch to work on it. Let's just say, I feel appreciated! Thank you, Ian.

Star Studded Week 5 Comes to an End (February 17-21, 2014)

Steve, Justin, Kevin, Phil and Me (Roman is taking the picture.)

It's been quite a week! I started off the week sick and had to miss Monday's exam.

Tuesday I hallucinated my way through the day but got to end the day listening to Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing Company talk about funk. Vinnie even brought along beer for everyone. We got to try three of his wine barrel aged funky sours (Sanctification, Supplication, and Beatification) along with his non-funky cult classic Pliny the Elder. Vinnie was humble and mellow and down to Earth and awesome to listen to.

Wednesday I felt a little better and got to spend the afternoon listening to Jeremy Marshall (Brew Master for Lagunitas). Jeremy was super enthusiastic and quite a contrast to Vinnie. Since he's friends with Vinnie, he knew Vinnie had talked about funk and so he sort of went the opposite way and talked all about non-funk. He also talked about the opening of the second Lagunitas brewer in Chicago.

Thursday was engineering and packaging as usual. Then we ended the day with a talk about interviewing for brewing jobs. A retired Anheuser-Busch employee (she worked there for 31 years!), came to talk to us about interviewing strategies. She was very helpful.

Friday was engineering support in the morning and then sensory science in the afternoon with Sue Langstaff (I love her!). We got to do blind taste testing on each other. It was super fun and interesting. Oh, and I interviewed with Deschutes for a two week internship. Keep your fingers crossed!

Saturday I went into Sudwerk to brew with 4 classmates. If you look at the picture you can see they make me look like a teenager again since I'm like half their size. I love it! I'm really at least 10 years older than all of them I think. I got to get to know 4 classmates that I hadn't had a chance to hang out with yet: Steve from Buffalo, New York, Justin from everywhere but Davis, CA. most recently, Kevin from Davis, and Roman from Venezuela (he's taking the picture). Phil is the Sudwerk employee that comes in to brew with us and makes sure we know how to use their equipment. They're all super great guys and we had a perfect day of brewing. Not a single glitch all day. We're all looking forward to tasting the Helles that we brewed.

We're now headed into week 6. Yeast and fermentation mostly. Wednesday we'll get to take a field trip to Sierra Nevada in Chico. Can't wait!