I have an associate of science in brewing, fermentation, and production technology, and a certificate in brewing basics. 

Some classes of note include: 

• Intro to Craft Beer and Fermentation

• Brewing Elements

• Safety & Sanitation

• Recipe, Process and Technology

• Advanced/Craft Brewing & Lab Methods

• Brewing Science

• Sensory Evaluation

• Packaging & Materials

• Filtration & Finishing

• Marketing & Management

​​

Putting it simply, brewing beer can be broken down into three points of failure: grain, temperature, yeast.

​

Grain

Grain is the main ingredient (outside of water) needed to make beer. Depending upon the mash in temperature, grains add different flavors to the wort. Grain creates your main source of food (sugar) for yeast to eat. When you do not select the right type or quantity, it will effect how your beer tastes. While grain is not the sole source of flavor, it is the primary flavor, with hops and yeast providing secondary flavor components. 

​

Temperature

It may be a surprise to see temperature as a point of failure in the process, but depending upon what the temperature of the mash in is, depends upon what type of complex sugars are produced. 153 degrees Fahrenheit is the mid point, which creates a the balance between fermentable sugars and unfermentable sugars. As you lower temperature, you increase fermentation but decrease sweetness in the final product. As you increase temperature, you increase sweetness but decrease the amount of fermentable sugars. If your temperature isn't right, you may not get the amount of sweetness you were wanting in your beer.

​

Yeast

Without yeast, all you are doing is making sweet water. Yeast breaks down fermentable sugars and creates alcohol and CO2. Through this process, they also create a range of esters and phenols, that can add to or even subtract from (taste wise) your beer. 

​

At the end of the day, as long as you account for these three major pitfalls, you can make a quality beer. 

​​

​