Category Archives: beer education

Deciphering the Mysteries of Beer (or Cider) via Virtual Beer Classes

Posted on by
Reply

Those tasting room tap lists can be confusing or mysterious, as can the language and info printed on beer labels, but I’m here to help so that you clearly understand it from top to bottom.

Ever since the Coronavirus stopped the world from spinning, not only have most or all of your favorite beer bars been (temporarily) canceled, but so as The Beer Class at UC, Santa Barbara. But when one door closes, one window or browser opens. From intimate gatherings to larger groups of friends, coworkers, or extended family, both my beer and cider tastings are now virtually available by Zoom. I pick the best possible beverages and you pick them up at your local retailer. I’ve done this for folks from here the Valley to over in Virginia (not just alliteration). Together, we’ll come up with the right theme such as style, region, cheese or other food pairing, or just bottles or cans that scratch your fermented itch.

https://www.beervanablog.com/beervana/2020/9/16/terminology-and-average-beer-drinkers

Please get in touch to begin your journey toward not-simplifying but easily-understanding what makes beer &/or cider so complex as well as so delicious.

If you think being a beer writer is cool, wait til you read what I wrote about glycol

Posted on by
Reply

One of my favorite things about being a reporter is getting to interview people who can help me learn about just about anything. Whenever I’m curious about anything beery, I pitch a story about it so I can learn more about the subject. And while I don’t recall the impetus, at some point I wanted to learn about one specific element of virtually every brewery, that gets mentioned on tours but only in passing: the glycol system. In short, glycol is a liquified chemical that courses through factories such as breweries for the purpose of keeping things really cold. Antifreeze! (But, specifically, the organic compound ethylyne glycol versus the non-toxic propylene glycol-based version). Are you on the edge of your seat yet? Read my story, one of only two or possibly three, that I ever had published in Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine. Added benefit: it earned me another NAGBWy award. Bronze, baby!

Photo: Jamie Bogner

Teaching Beer 101 at my Alma Mater

Posted on by
Reply

I much prefer writing about other people than other people writing about me, but when it’s a story about a new beer class I’ll be teaching–and it appears in the student newspaper, the Daily Nexus, of my alma mater because said class will be at UCSB–I’d say that slaps. OK, I shouldn’t say anything slaps because I’m no longer one of the young people. But I’m honored–and as a flashback I’ll add that I’m stoked–to have created the University’s first-ever beer tasting and appreciation class. The pitch was fairly simple: the University has offered its wine tasting class for decades (I took it in the ’90s), it’s time to get with the 21st century and put beer education on equal footing (even though Santa Barbara is, by and large, wine country.)

With Beer 101* I’ve created a curriculum that covers, however sparsely, the entire 10,000 year history of mankind’s foibles in fermenting grain as well as deeper dives into the chief regions and styles of beermaking today. It’s an eight-week course, open to anyone over 21, not just students! Sign up, join us, and if you’re not careful, you just might learn a thing or two.

*Updated 9/10/19: The beer class will henceforth be known as The Beer Class