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!