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!