Just in time for all those new year resolutions, UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education is offering a number of high-quality brewing education courses beginning in January. Improve the quality of your beer with an online course from the Beer Quality Series or increase your business/operating skills with a new course in the Business of Craft Beer. Here’s a roundup of what’s available.
Online Beer Quality Courses
Taught by Charlie Bamforth and designed for professional brewers and amateur homebrewers, as well as quality assurance folks, these self-paced courses cover the fundamentals of beer quality and how to assure a quality operation at any scale. Courses are $385 each and run January 6-March 29.
NEW! Beer Quality: Quality Systems
The difference between success and failure as a brewer is whether you can deliver a quality beer. Learn what quality really means and the practices that need to be put into place to ensure the production of a product that delights the drinker every time. Examine how to define quality, what should be measured and how, documentation of raw materials and processes, and how to establish a quality program.
Learn how to achieve flavor stability, the positive and negative changes that can occur in beer over time and why these changes occur. You’ll also learn how to assess flavor change using your senses and other relatively simple methods, how to address raw materials and process in enhancing stability, and how to prevent the skunking of beer.
Beer Quality: Color and Clarity
Discuss why the appearance of beer matters, the nature of color and how to measure and control it. Explore the types of turbidity issues in beer, how to measure clarity and how it changes over time, the factors that impact clarity and how to troubleshoot when things go wrong.
Business of Craft Beer Courses
Designed to address the growing needs of brewers looking to successfully start and operate a brewery, these courses provide brewers with focused, practical instruction and training that they can readily apply on key topics beyond brewing science.
Brand recognition in today’s highly competitive craft beer industry is becoming increasingly more important, and so is the need to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Learn basic concepts of business marketing, including building a brand identity, finding your target audience, creating visual appeal and utilizing social media. Jan. 11-12. $299
NEW! Brewery Safety: Creating a Safe Workplace
Whether you’re a nano taproom or regional production brewery, health and safety is a critical element of a successful brewery. Learn to create a structured safety program and road map for implementation, self-assess potential safety issues and steps for mitigation, develop a risk assessment chart, how to comply with regulations and more. Jan. 18-20. $599
