[url]http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,53%257E460802,00.html[/url]



Course on beer brewing heady stuff for students

By Dave Curtin
Denver Post Higher Education Writer

Thursday, March 14, 2002 - It's every college student's dream - Beer 101. For credit.

 
Metro State student Coulter Reyes, 23, examines the sediment in a glass of wheat beer during an Art of Brewing class. Part of the course is being taught at the Sandlot Brewery in Coors Field.  
Students in the hospitality and restaurant administration program at Metropolitan State College of Denver are learning to brew beer in a six-week class underwritten by Coors, which pays the $500 tuition.

It's the only college class of its kind in Colorado, Metro organizers say.

"There's a lot of interest in beer," understated assistant professor Michael Wray, who introduced the course this semester.

"An important part of the program is the ability to develop sensory evaluation skills," Wray said.

In other words, you don't just brew the beer, you taste the beer. Students must be 21.

"But it's not about just drinking beer," Wray said. "The students realize they have a potential career and are improving their marketability. To succeed in the food and beverage industry you have to know beverage. Beverage is usually the most profitable part of a restaurant."

The course also is timely because microbrew restaurants continue to be popular. "And we want our graduates to be competitive," Wray said.

Fourteen students of The Art of Brewing meet for two hours on Fridays. Their classroom is the Sandlot Brewery at Coors Field. Later they will take a National Restaurant Association certification test for bar-manager responsibility.

"I get a lot of flack when I tell my friends I'm heading off to beer class," said student Robert Reyes, an aspiring chef who's also taking a wine class.

"But it's a lot more difficult than I ever imagined," Reyes said. "I've realized how you can pair beer and food like you can pair wine and food."

Coors says it's happy to subsidize the education of the next generation of restaurant managers.

"It's exciting for us to work with students who are dedicated to bar and restaurant management," said Rennie Solomito, director of strategy development for Coors. "These students will go on to manage substantial establishments and be responsible for training their own staff."

Students learn the differences between a German lager, a hefeweizen, barley wine and a lambic. And they learn the biology and chemistry behind brewing.

Questions on the next test may include: Hops grow best at what latitude? What are the two main categories of hops? Describe the malting process. The British ales of Burton-upon-Trent are made with hard water - true or false?

On a recent Friday afternoon one female and six male students gathered around a table to distinguish different beer styles and their ingredients by tasting 2-ounce samples from bottles of seven different local and imported beers dispensed by Sandlot brewmasters Tom Hail and John Legnard.

The course manual is clear: "Consumption of beer for purposes other than sensory evaluation will be grounds for immediate dismissal from the program."

Students eyeballed the beer, swirled it, sniffed it and finally tasted it - on the front and back of the tongue. They analyzed the color, clarity, carbonation, aroma, flavor, viscosity and aftertaste.

"We're going to ruin beer drinking for you today," Hail said. "Your friends will think you're odd sniffing your beer before you drink. Hopefully you won't start sniffing your food.

"We could drink 40 beers and not hit all the styles," Hail said. "Some people like fish sticks and some people like sushi."

Then the real fun began: diagnosing the ills of off-flavored beers with symptoms that include skunky, papery, leathery, moldy, even "catty." Students were satisfied to sniff rather than taste.

Next they'll design five beers for their hypothetical brewpub and discuss the marketability of each. But not before a homework assignment. Homework?

"Do a sensory evaluation of your favorite beer or one you've never had," Hail assigned. "But don't do it in a bar. You don't want to be a beer geek."

I could go for this.   I went to the Budweiser Beer School, and found it very interesting.

It would be good to study this more.