Teaching Mom Goes to Brew School: 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!