We’ve just completed our Spring Diploma course and Brewlab are pleased to announce all the students have passed their assessments and are now ready to take their next steps in the industry. The nine-week course kicked off at the end of February with seven students enrolled from all around the world. We welcomed Louis and Matt from France, Anand from India, Marc from Canada, Kda from Taiwan and Zeph and Paul from our region.
The group had mixed levels of experience in the industry with some having worked in a brewery previously, some homebrewers and some with no brewing knowledge at all. The beauty of the Diploma is it can take the complete novice and starting from the beginning with liquor treatment and recipe formulation, build you up to being a professional brewer.
The students brewed their own recipes seven times over the duration of the course and there were some fantastic efforts. One of the more unique brews was from Marc who imported some Canadian spruce tips to add in – they really brought some bold flavour. On top of the commercial placements, we also let the students lose on the 100 litre and 500 litre brew kits at Brewlab. Those beers were a great success with all of them ending up in trade. It can be a real highlight to see your hard work being purchased and appreciated by the public.
Course coordinator Richard stated ‘It’s wonderful to see the students progress and develop into confident brewers who are able to create recipes from scratch. You can feel the energy in the room as they follow their passion and turn it into reality. There were some improvements we made to the course this time round introducing a couple of field trips and talks form successful local breweries – we really wanted to deeper dive into the realities and experiences of setting up a craft brewery. Alex, who is head brewer at Full Circle Brew Co in Newcastle talked us through how they set up – everything from his journey to the branding stage to selecting the premises and kit. It was useful as he is a graduate of this same course so it really shows what can be achieved. Lee was also excellent at Brew York showing off how they have grown their business and the processes behind the scenes. We wish the students well in their next steps and look forward to seeing their progress.”
Zeph won the beer and food match session that we hold a the end of the course. He paired his 6.6% dark ale called Atlas with a homemade tiramisu.
Louis and Zeph were kind enough to record testimonials before they left, they can be found here. Also, the students have each done us a graduate profile so if anyone is seeking a new brewer, check them out over on social media.
Good luck guys, please keep in touch!
Return to Brewlab blog