This is honestly where it gets a little boring. The second session of the brewing class is considered "discussion". So there would be no more new material (big relief!), just a review of material presented in Session 1. The general format was labs on Monday and Friday, either at the UC Davis brewing lab or working with brewers at Sudwerks Brewery. Both days were useful for seeing and practicing methods we'd been reading about in books, but if it was stuff you'd already seen, then they were good days to stay home and study on your own. Tuesday through Thursday were usually review with the professors. They would come in and re-lecture or quiz us or try practice questions. There was lots of talk from students as to whether or not this part of the course was as helpful as we would have liked. Some people thought so, some didn't. Some skipped lots of days to study on their own, and some were there everyday. I was there most of the time, but stayed home occasionally when I thought studying on my own would help me more. I was very glad that I'd spent one of the 5 weeks at my internship at Stone Brewing.
A common theme for all of us was that we started deeply questioning our readiness for the upcoming IBD exams. Since the test is so unknown in the United States, there was lots of negative talk about it's practicality or necessity. Some said they didn't care whether they passed or not and some really wanted to. One way or the other, I think everyone was hitting the brewing wall. There's only so much that can go in your head, then it starts to feel like it's all coming out. I went from knowing nothing at the beginning of the class, to feeling like I had a great handle on it at the end of Session 1, then spent Session 2 feeling like I was knowing less and less. By the time we got to the end of the five week Session 2, I just wanted to be done. There were only 3 more weeks to come in Session 3, one week for each of the 3 modules on the exam. I wanted it to be over but also knew 3 weeks wasn't enough to be ready. Fatigue was upon us all.
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| Separating sifted milled malt to evaluate mill settings. |
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| UC Davis Brewing Lab fermenters |
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| UC Davis Brewing Lab Brewhouse |
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