Week 10: Last week in the first session (March 31-April 4, 2014)

We finally hit the last week of the first session. This was the last time we would be learning new information. Session 2 is a "discussion" session to review session 1 topics and/or participate in an internship. Session 3 will be 3 weeks of review: one on each module.

I skipped Monday morning. Dogfish Head people came out to Davis and did interviews for anyone interested. I had no interest in moving to the east coast, so I skipped it and stayed home and studied. In the afternoon we had a practice essay exam on Haze. This time I was ready.

Tuesday was a day with Dr. Bamforth: Quality (not a lot of fun, definitely going to skip any question on quality on the IBD exam), gushing (or 'gooshing' as Charlie says it), and color. I can handle a gushing or color question. No thanks to quality. In the afternoon we had two local guest speakers come in to talk about marketing, distribution and sales. It was actually pretty interesting and good to have this perspective.

Just finishing pouring all of these. It's 9:00 AM. Well, maybe 9:30.

Super cool pairing mat. Going to use this at home with friends.

Wednesday was a special day with Sensory Sue. She set up a sensory practicum for us. She wrote up 4 real world examples of sensory problems in breweries. We broke up into 4 groups and each group worked to come up with approaches to the problems. We planned presentations and then got up in the afternoon to present how we would address the problems. It was a good idea, but let's just say it didn't exactly go as I think Sue would have liked it to. I think we all worked pretty hard and came up with reasonable and detailed solutions to the problems. But Dr. Lewis wasn't very impressed with any group and made his opinion known. I think Sue meant for it to be a fun learning experience. It was a bummer that it didn't turn out that way. I think Dr. Lewis just wasn't feelin' it that day.

Thursday was all review. Dr. Lewis, Dr. Bamforth and Dr. Brown all came in and we had the chance to ask whatever questions we wanted to ask. We didn't really know the format ahead of time so it wasn't as useful as it could have been, but it was nice to have a chance to wrap things up. In the afternoon, Dr. Marbach (engineering) came in and did a similar review. I had to skip it due to other obligations.

10 Weeks and 1 Session down. 8 more weeks and 2 more sessions to go!

Friday was awesome! Sensory Sue set up a beer and food pairing in the morning for us. 8 foods and 8 beers. Yup, at 9:00 AM. Sue even partook. We love Sue so much and were all bummed this was going to be our last day with her. After the morning, we headed downstairs to Sudwerks' banquet room for a really nice lunch. There was beer (of course) available for all of us. Dr. Lewis made nice comments about all students that were leaving the program at that point and then handed out certificates and mugs to commemorate the completion of the 10 week certificate program. It was a really nice way to wrap things up. There wasn't much time for me to rest because I was leaving the next day for my two week internship at Stone Brewing Company in Escondido!

Week 9: Haze, Flavor, Refrigeration, OH MY! (March 24-28, 2014)

Monday started off as usual with an essay test from Dr. Lewis. I didn't prepare for it and it wasn't fun. I should have prepared, too. It was an essay on foam. And we'd just had a full day of foam the previous week from the Pope of Foam. So I didn't do well. But that's ok. I learned what I needed to read to be ready for a future foam question. Ask me anything you want to about foam now. Really, go ahead. A little nucleation or maybe some coalescence. Maybe some hydrophobic proteins (that's right, I'm talking about you Protein Z and LTP 1). Or maybe you're thinking about lacing or surfactants. We can go there, too.

Tuesday was a full day of Haze. Again, you may have never thought about the haze in your beer. And you probably don't want to. Just be happy when it isn't there and know that a TON of research and effort goes into making sure it's not there... unless it's suppose to be (Hefeweizen). And then effort had to go into that, too. Oh, and when you go to a restaurant (won't say which one) and there are chunks floating in your beer and you send it back, and it comes back with the same chunks in it, and the manager comes out to tell you (speaking very loudly and very slowly so that you can understand) that those chunks are suppose to be there because this is UNFILTERED (again, very loudly, slowly and well enunciated), you can tell them that he's full of it, that that's not what unfiltered means and that he's got DIRTY TAP LINES (say it loudly, slowly and enunciate well). Or you can politely send it back and not go back to that restaurant. Whatever works for you.

Wednesday was a full day of flavor. I decided on that day that I wouldn't be answering a flavor question if it popped up on the IBD exam. Flavor is super complicated. There's not a single action taken during the brewing of beer that doesn't impact flavor. Flavor's also about as easy to define as, say, well flavor. Ask any two people to describe the taste of something and they will not do it the same way. So, I'm just staying away from that question, oh, and any color question, too. I mean, tristimulus chromaticity, no thanks. Though I would answer a color question over a flavor question, I think.

Thursday was engineering and packaging. It's a good thing I just started to get comfortable with engineering with only one more week to go. Would have been nice if that happened a lot sooner. This week was refrigeration and I totally got it. You know: evaporator (Heat energy in), compressor (work in), condenser (Heat energy out), expander, saturated and supersaturated vapor, saturated liquid, subcooled liquid, enthalpy, pressure, temperature, entropy, critical point, etc. Good stuff. I totally get it. Give me a refrigeration question on the IBD exam, PLEASE!

Friday: no Sensory Sue today... bummer. Instead a morning with the engineering TA and an afternoon of private study. I stayed home to do my own studying. Week 9 was in the books!

Where was I? (June 16, 2014)

 Oh, that's right, week 8 had just finished. Well, the truth is, the whole thing is done now. And I'm SO happy it is. I stopped writing in week 8 because it just got to be too much. I was studying so much, I couldn't justify time for anything else. But I decided I have to finish the whole story because I found out it's not just friends and family that were reading this blog. Don't get me wrong, it was very nice to know that friends and family were reading this and I appreciate all the support they all provided along the brewing school adventure. The whole reason for starting it in the first place was to keep them in the loop. However, a superstar in the brewing world asked why I stopped my blog. My jaw hit the floor. Then I promised I would finish. So I will. I will pick back up in week 9 where I left off and take it to the finish line. And, by the way, it was a very powerful lesson in the idea that anything you put on the internet can be read by anyone!