The Challenge!

Alright readers, as I just posted about our hand hop analysis I thought I would also let you all know about the challenge that Burghard issued to our class. Well it's really more of a contest than a challenge I suppose but you get the idea. So here it is: IPA. India Pale Ale. Familiar with it? Personally it is one of my favorite types of beer to drink. I like Hoptical Illusion from Blue Point, and Longhammer IPA from Redhook. The sky high bitterness of anywhere from 40 to 100 international bittering units (IBU) makes for a very crisp beer particularly in the American style of IPAs which tend to use hops with citrus undertones.

Back to the challenge. The class will be split up into 4 groups, each of which must brew an IPA in the pilot brewery (1.5hL/batch). The best IPA wins... the pride of having brewed the best IPA. One thing to note is that most people in the class have never even heard of an IPA much less tasted one. Other than Burghard and we three Americans I don't think anyone else has ever had an IPA. On the one hand this could be an advantage for us as we know the flavor profile we are aiming for. On the other hand if the only people to taste an IPA don't win... ouch. I can see how no one else has had an IPA as I have yet to see one served here in Berlin so it's been awhile since I have had one myself. Hopefully I can remember.

Hand Hop Analysis

Welcome back fair reader(s?)! This week we had what was one of the most interesting practical workshops yet: the hand evaluation of hops. Not to say that the practical work in the lab doing water analysis isn't interesting but it was nice to get hands on with something that I can relate to a bit more as a homebrewer.

A portion of the two hour class covered hop anatomy like the different leaf types on the cones, location of the lupulin glands, structure of the sprig, etc. After breezing through that it was on to the hand evaluation. There were six positive factors and three negative factors to take into account when grading.

1. Picking: How well was the picking of the cones from the vines done? Are there any other unneeded bits of plant material like stems or vine leaves in the batch? Are the cones themselves whole or were some picked such that the cones are not fully intact?

2. Humidity: Do the hops have an acceptable moisture content? We were given the moisture content as measured by some instruments.

3. Color and gloss: Do the hops have a healthy color? Do they have a homogeneous color? Sometimes hops can pick up brown areas from the drying process. (Brown=bad)

4. Cone Condition: This character overlaps a little with the picking character. Are the cones closed or open? Open cones means more moisture could have gotten into the interior of the cones where the lupulin is contained (Bad). Are the cones relatively homogeneous through the batch as far as size, shape and coloring? Is the spindle (the stem on the interior of the cone) thick or thin? Thick spindles would mean that a greater proportion of a given batch of hops is useless plant matter as far as the brewer is concerned.

5. Lupulene: Apparently this doesn't really enter into hand hop analysis anymore as there are other methods of determining the alpha acid content of hops.

6. Aroma: This was my favorite part. You need to assess the purity, fineness and intensity of the aroma. To really assess the aroma you have to volatilize the aromatic compounds by taking a few cones in your fingers, tearing them vertically down the middle and then rubbing the pieces together right beneath your nose. Be careful not to get too much of it up your nose! Some people sneezed doing this part (By some people I mean me... it stings to get bits of leaf up your nose!). Does the aroma remain even after rubbing for a bit? If the heat generated from the rubbing is enough to eliminate the aroma then it surely won't last long when you put it into 100 ° C wort.

The negatives.
1. Pests: Is there evidence of pests like molds, or spots from an insect infestation?
2. Deficiencies: Were the hops damaged during drying?
3. Seeds: Seeds are useless to the brewer.

So after looking at all of these characteristics, each of which was graded either out of 5 or 15 points, we added everything up and got a total score out of 100. The picture back at the top of the post shows the four samples we graded. #4 was... not good. It smelled like an ancient, dirty, dusty, decrepit, stuffy, musty, cardboardy, moldy, (you see what I am getting at yet?) old basement. The instructor said that some breweries actually want the smell and the flavor from hops like this (they were a year old) but I definitely washed my hands after that one. Speaking of which, when you hand grade hops your fingers get really really sticky. Try touching your camera with fingers like that.

So how can this apply to homebrewers? Not a whole lot if you get your hops like I do in pellet form in one ounce nitrogen filled packets. Nonetheless it's an interesting exercise that I highly recommend trying (You obviously need to get whole hops not pellets) if for no other reason than to get more familiar with one of the basic ingredients of every brew. It would also be interesting if you grow your own hops, as we started doing last year, so you can compare across your individual plants and varieties.

One other thing I would like to mention. So every two people received a tray of each hop variety during our class. That's at least 14 of those trays for each variety. Remember the one I said smelled... not good? Well what do we do with all the hops when we are done? Why dump them all into a garbage can at the front of the room until it is nearly overflowing. Brilliant. Smelled great up there the next day. Oh I should also mention that as hops oxidize they start to smell like old gym socks so even though we removed the garbage the next morning there were still hop bits all over the floor in the classroom that probably won't get cleaned up anytime soon. Do the math.

In any case why don't you go do some hands on study of hop flavor and open up a beer (homebrew preferred). Cheers!

I do in fact have an apartment

I guess I will finish up some of the details about living in Berlin that I left hanging in that post a few weeks ago.

Not wanting to live in a cardboard box outside the U-bahn entrance I picked up the apartment search once again after the new years celebration was over. A few apartments had responded and so I set up times to look at two of the places and talk to the people already living there. All of the email conversations were in English so I had high hopes that it would be fine. Well let's say my German was just not up to the task in the end. Luckily for me my friend Sebastian who is originally from Germany happened to be in Berlin at the same time and I can't even begin to tell you how much he helped with the apartment hunting.

The first place I looked at was in a nice area of Prenzlauerberg. Almost right next to my building is what I can only describe as a mall, but a little different than a mall in the States. In addition to your usual clothes stores, shoe stores and a few small "restaurants" there were also several grocery stores and a bakery. It was like walking into Marketplace Mall/Bellevue Square and finding a Wegmans/QFC in the middle. So on the upside I wouldn't have to go far to get groceries. Also there were both S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations right outside but the apartment had enough buildings in between that it was still quiet. The bedroom was small but came with a bed, desk and shelf. What more do you really need? It could get the job done. There was a bit of a communication barrier with the guy showing the apartment as apparently his wasn't the perfect English responding to the emails he was here for his "friend" who I had been emailing. Thankfully Sebastian helped sort through with that. Well I didn't take that apartment right away even though it was in a great location I wanted to see some other places as well before I decided.

The next day I went to see one other apartment in Prenzlauerberg. This one was on a more residential street vs the hustle and bustle of the first apartment. To say this place was a bit messy is an understatement. I think I saw stale nachos in the shape of a bowl sitting on the kitchen counter. The room here was bigger, cheaper... and messier. Somehow no matter how much people tell you "The smell will be gone before you move in" it never really seems to change what you think of the place. In any case the three people already living here were about as eager to speak in English as I was to speak in German although Sebastian and his cousin helped here. It turned out to be a situation more like a job interview where they were interviewing people for the "position" and would choose who they liked best by the end of the weekend. This wasn't exactly what I expected and if I had to judge how my interview went I would say I wasn't getting hired.

After seeing that apartment I decided to go with the first one. Though a bit more expensive I knew the other two guys living in the apartment were also students from other countries and the area it was in was much better. On a side note about the expense of apartments, it is common for people to move into an apartment and then rent out the remaining rooms at much higher prices in order to pay the rent and make some money at the same time.

I had to stay in the hostel an extra day and it took me two trips across the city on the S-Bahn to move both my massive suitcases but I got myself moved into my new place on the 5th. I also met my roomates (American student and French student) after a day or two.

Well according to the good doctor here beer is good for you so why don't you have one, maybe something new (Unless you are at work. On the other hand if you work at a brewery then go for it). Cheers.

First Impressions

To just preface all this I actually started writing this post last weekend but didn't finish it. Point is that some of my first impressions of VLB were wrong. Very very wrong. But not in a bad way. Read on.

So it seems like I should probably make a post about the brewing school I said this blog was going to be about so here goes.

First off if you ever have to go to a class in a foreign city I guess it is probably a good idea to find out where it's actually located at some point BEFORE 8:15am on the first day of classes that start at 8:30. Just a thought. If you do that then you might not, say get off the subway and walk the complete wrong direction for about... half a mile before realizing hey, you are now even farther away from the school than when you started. Again, just a thought. In any case I made it a little late after asking directions in terrible German.

The class is made up of 31 people from USA (3), Canada, Turkey, China, Japan, South Korea, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Thailand, Austria, Germany and Lithuania. Nearly everyone has been sent by their brewery with the exception of all three Americans and the guy from Argentina. Some breweries even sent several of their people though they could afford to since most of the breweries represented had at least 200 employees if not several thousand. We have people from a wide variety of positions in the brewery from sales to R&D to raw materials specialist to junior brewmaster. After seeing some of the class pictures of previous VLB Certified Brewmaster courses I had assumed that I would be the youngest by ten years but there are actually several other people in their mid twenties though most are at least 30. Not that it has made much of a difference as everyone is ready to go out together for drinks outside of class.

Ah class. Boring list alert! These are the classes I am taking right now: Raw Materials: Barley, Brewery Arithmetics, Economics, Chemistry, Plant Equipment: Malting, Malting Technology (well this one should start soon), Water, Energy and Utilities, Microbiology, Raw Materials: Hops, Chemical/Technical Analysis and Process Control Engineering.

After the first week of classes I had thought everything was going to be a breeze. Coming from a science background a lot of the material in the chemistry, microbiology and chemical/technical analysis was very basic stuff that I remember from college and even earlier. It seemed like I could breeze right through this course and that it wasn't the in depth education I had expected.

Needless to say I was wrong. They aren't kidding when they tell you the first week that they are going to start slow to really be sure they can bring everyone to the same basic starting level before diving into more depth. Although that first week was no trouble at all, as we got to the end of the second week all of the aspects that I had pegged as simplistic were turning into anything but. For example, the biochemistry of barley is getting much more detailed. We going to cover things like amino acid structures (memorize them), the different protein fractions of barley (oh memorize those too as well as the overall percentage of each fraction), the other different macromolecules that make up barley and how those percentages change once barley is malted (memorize that too), characteristics and subsequent consequences of over modified and under modified barley, cytological modification vs proteolytic modification, etc. The list goes on.

So, to all those that scoffed "Oh he is going to BEER school to drink BEER" I say this, well of course I am drinking beer and let me tell you I have tried some good ones, but there is far more science and study than you could imagine in the process of brewing beer. From the raw materials used right down to the biological processes in individual barley kernels that can lead to particular off flavors in your beer and how to correct for them. More than anything else these past few weeks have showed me how pitifully little I truly knew about brewing beer. Sure I have read some of the brewing books and I thought I knew more about the biology and biochemistry involved in the process than your average homebrewer but that was barely scratching the surface.

So take away messages from my first impressions. This is going to be fun. A lot of fun, but a lot of work too. It's been awhile since I've been a student but not to worry I have note cards at the ready! I will try and post a little more often so I don't have to always have large posts. Well enough of my mundane, meandering... word things. Okay I couldn't think of another word that starts with M so sue me. On that note, relax and have yourself a beer (homebrew preferred). Cheers.

First week in Berlin pt 1

Alright this is most certainly not a brew related post so if you aren't interested flee, flee my friend.

I arrived in Berlin the Sunday afternoon after Christmas after a really uneventful flight. I checked into Jetpak Hostel in the Charlottenburg area of the city. I've never actually been to Europe much less stayed in a Hostel so I didn't know what to expect but it wasn't bad at all. I ended up with a bed in a 6 bed dorm style room with only one other person in there. On the upside of things the hostel had a huge plasma screen tv with 80 movies hooked to it and free breakfast in the mornings. On the downside... nothing. Decent place and great staff who pointed me towards a free walking tour of Berlin to get oriented to the city.

After sleeping the rest of the day Sunday I opted to check out the walking tour on Monday. Anyone out there familiar with the weather in Berlin this time of year? Anyone? I'll give you a hint. COLD! Very cold. I am talking snot freeze in your nose cold. I don't think it has gotten above zero (Celsius) since I got here! But that's the norm for Rochester too so life goes on.

In any case a walking tour of the city in sub-zero temperatures probably wasn't the best choice but it was worth it. Listened to about three hours of Berlin history (yes I saw the wall and ironically it has a fence protecting it from tourist "wall-peckers"), saw some of the sights, kept an eye on the gypsy pickpockets, you get the idea. On the pickpocket note it doesn't seem like much of a problem here, we were just told to watch for the gypsies by the guide. They are little girls that walk up to you all pitiful looking and ask if you speak english and ostensibly free you of your valuables while you read the little card they are holding with some sad sad story about dying kittens or something. Let's pause for a second though. If you are obviously, red flag on a white wall obviously a tourist who is going to have a legitimate reason for walking up to you and asking if you speak english? No.... one... On every occasion that I have been asked if I speak english it has been by either gypsies or pan handlers. Take from that what you will.

Moving on. So I saw the sights that day and returned to the hostel a bit burnt out from 9 hour jet-lag and all the walking so I watched a movie and went to sleep. Oh and btw I got out of the wrong exit from the U-Bahn (subway) station and had to wander around for about ten minutes before I found my way back to the hostel. Tuesday I decided to play the tourist again and went to see the German History Museum then slept some more. That day I also had two new roomates in the hostel, Australians from London traveling on holiday. Nice guys. I should point out that by the end of Tuesday I had been in Berlin for almost three days and I hadn't had a single beer yet. Strange isn't it?

I should point out that during this time I was also looking for an apartment in Berlin. Everyone keeps asking "Didn't the school help you find a place to live?" Well yes and no. They sent links to several websites that offer fully furnished apartments for people looking for a place to stay for under a year but they were all fairly expensive. I found out later that almost everyone else in the course ended up renting one of these apartments but I also found out that almost everyone else in the course had been sent by their brewery which was paying for their apartment. Lets just say that Midnight Brewing Co does not really have the funds for this sort of thing. So I ended up searching for a shared apartment, a place that already had people in it that just needed roomates, on the german website www.wg-gesucht.de. It was slow going. The site is entirely in German with no English translation. I took German for four years back in High School but that was five and a half years ago now. I knew enough to muddle through the descriptions of the apartments and sent out at least 20 messages to different listings. By Wednesday I had yet to receive a single response. I was encouraged by a fellow in the hostel from Australia who was also moving to Berlin who had managed to find an apartment through this website but the lack of responses was definitely discouraging.

As New Years Eve rolled around I decided to put the apartment search on hold and enjoy the celebrations in Berlin. It sounded like the biggest celebration was going to be at the Brandenburg gate with an expected turnout of 1 million people. The two Australian-Londoners in my room Andy and Ben invited me out with them so after some napping we joined up and headed off into the city. The first stop was a restaurant that served only Paulaner beer where we managed to get a table (Though we could only have it for an hour until they were going to give the table away). After a 1 liter stein of beer each and some Curry Wurst we moved on to try and find the Brandenburg gate.

One thing I should mention about New Year's in Berlin is the fireworks. They are EVERYWHERE. I am not talking sparklers and fountains either. I am talking about big rockets and firecrackers the size of M-80s. So do you think if you had fireworks available on every street you would just sit calmly and safely launch them into the sky only? Okay, maybe you would but not everyone else. People were launching these things all around in the middle of a major city even with the crowded sidewalks. Big firecrackers were exploding every few minutes, some thrown at trains or cars. It wasn't quite mayhem yet since it was still a few hours to midnight but you could feel it coming. We tried to find fireworks ourselves to no avail.

As we got closer to the Brandenburg gate all the roads in were fenced off and from what little German I know the polizei said that no one else was allowed in. I think. Well no problemo, we just wandered around until we found an U-Bahn station and headed off to find a street that supposedly had some good bars in Prenzlauerberg. After getting just a bit... lost we decided to just walk into the next bar we found. It was a decent small bar with everything we could need, ie beer. Although Germany supposedly has a law against smoking in bars not many places honor it so you usually end up smelling like smoke which I am not really a big fan of. As midnight rolled around the entire bar emptied out into the streets. Apparently we were right across from a fire station because they rolled out all their trucks and fired up their lights and sirens. Add to that fireworks going off left and right, people yelling and screaming, it was loud, it was noisy, it was new years! After a bit of this outside we headed back in. Does the mayhem end here you ask? No. No it does not.

We decided to check out another bar and wandered on. Firecrackers and rockets were still flying everywhere. At the next bar one of the guys I was with decided it was time for Jager shots. I passed on the shots but he kept offering about every five minutes or so for at least half an hour so I am sure he had his fair share.

Around three in the morning, after enough celebration I decided I was going to head home, left the other two at the bar and headed into the streets. It was at this point that I realized I had absolutely no idea where I was. Let me tell you firecrackers don't help when you are trying to get your bearings after... a few beers. It seemed like the "best" idea was to just wander around until I found an U-bahn station. Okay maybe not the best idea but it worked. I jumped on the next train that I thought was going in a good direction and ended up at Alexanderplatz. Probably not the train I should have taken but at least I was less lost now. Alexanderplatz is a pretty major station so there were trains going all over the city from here. I switched trains and promptly fell asleep. Yes. I passed out on the train at something like 3:30 am in a foreign city still going crazy over new years. Well by some miracle of luck I happened to wake up when the train was at the station I needed to switch at. I managed to jump out just as the doors were beeping that they were closing. Whew.

I won't bore you with further details of my journey home, but I should mention one more thing. So mr. Jager shots came back from the bar a little after I did. Let's just say he was regretting those shots at this point. Regretting them all over the sidewalk.

Well thats enough of my first week in Berlin pt 1. I will write a bit more later but the next post will focus more on my first impressions of VLB. Cheers!

Blog Online

Alright so I had hoped to get this blog online much, much... much earlier but unfortunately I have been without internet for my laptop since I got here almost two weeks ago. In any case here it is and here I go.

I was thinking that on the offhand chance that anyone interested in brewing/homebrewing/brewing school reads this that I would just tag the more "Brewing" related posts as "Brew School" and then my ramblings about life here in Berlin for people like... anyone else who reads this as "Berlin Life". There is going to be overlap but let's just see how things go. Sound Good?