Munich

Today I finally got the much anticipated details of the Germany/European Tour part of this course.

For 3 weeks in Germany, we will brew 6hl batches of four styles which will all be brewed with different techniques. I'm super excited about this. I won’t know until I see it, but I've heard the Doemens brewery is an amazing micro setup. It's equipped with some cutting edge technology, including the 'Merlin' brew kettle. I expect to use very complicated filters and bottling systems, as well as operate some cool automated equipment. Not only does the brewhouse create badass wort, it has a research lab. I'll be putting on the lab coat and test the beer to a micro scale. If I get to do all the things I've been learning about, I'll get to look at budding yeast cells and determine how vital they are and identify mutations. I could test the composition of the wort/beer to reveal what I’ve created. Almost all the elements that create flavor can be measured. I will also start my own pure yeast strain by placing thousands of yeast cells on agar, displacing single cells and waiting for them to grow. By comparing their growth I can choose the best colony and build it up to slants. I hope to play with beer spoiling bacteria and learn how to isolate infections in the brewery. This week Michael Eder arrived with an arsenal of lectures that will take us through the rest of the diploma course. He is a German brewmaster you may not have heard of. He has brewed at major breweries around the world, even in West Africa. Some of the most advanced brewers in the world ask for his input. You can partially attribute that to the level of education needed to brew with Germany's purity law- its intense. He has to understand how to naturally produce all those chemicals and nutrients we add in pure form. I’ll expand on that topic later, it’s pretty nuts. And he's not just a macro brew guru, he now brews on Doemens 6hl system doing experimental batches- a homebrewers DREAM.

I know of many homebrewers, and even some commercial brewers who prefer to "wing it" and enjoy brewing in a fun, less scientific way.. and you can make some damn good beer if you know the fundamentals. But think about how fun it can be to expand your recipe into 3 pages of data instead of a list of ingredients. Improving your accuracy and understanding the beer you made in a measurable way, which gives you more direction to your ‘artistic’ creation. So, homebrewers- a hydrometer and proper pitching rates/temps and throwing in some powders for pH control are simple upgrades and you will notice the difference, not to mention reduce the chances of making a headache beer. Even in Belgium, the home of wacky, daring and artistic brewing, they know a ton about the beer they're making. They are scientists too; their process is just more reliant on nature and their design is made for it.