Oregon State University Presents Origins of Beer Flavors and Styles, Beer Quality and Craft Cidery Start Up Courses

Oregon State University is one of the regions top resources when it comes to fermented beverages. As part of its Professional and Continuing Education (PACE), OSU offers various courses from its 80+ year history of brewing education and research to bring the world of craft beer and cider to professionals that wish to learn more about the craft.

Upcoming PACE courses include this weekend’s Origins of Beer Flavors and Styles in Portland and then in the month of June there’s Craft Cidery Startup Workshop and Beer Quality and Analysis Series. Tom Shellhammer, Nor’Wester Professor of Fermentation Science, leads the beer courses alongside his staff and leaders from the industry. We are looking forward to attending this weekend’s Origins of Beer Flavors and Styles course to advance our knowledge on the subject!

Here are additional details on each of the upcoming courses with descriptions provided by Oregon State University.

Origins of Beer Flavors and Styles
(Portland, Oregon – March 17 – 18)
For brewing enthusiast, brewery and restaurant staff, this two-day course is led by Tom Shellhammer, Jeff Clawson, and Scott Lafontaine.

Our Origins of Beer Flavors and Styles workshop is an experiential sensory course that will guide you through the brewing process from raw materials to finished beer. Through hands-on instruction, participants will learn how the main raw materials used in brewing process (malt, water, hops, and yeast) impact beer flavor and aroma. Participants will work through standards and exercises with the goal of highlighting how each of these materials impacts beer flavor. Guiding tastings, focused with a historical lens, will also walk participants through on how these raw materials have impacted beer styles historically overtime. Over this two-day course, participants will evaluate 8 beer styles and over 35 beers.

This course is designed for novice and advance beer enthusiasts, as well as professionals who are interested in gaining a broad view on the origins of beer flavor. It is also well-suited for Cicerone training, beer enthusiasts, avid home brewers, BJCP preparation, people in the beer distribution trades, and workers/servers in brew pubs.

Highlights of Origins of Beer Flavors and Styles:

• An overview of the beer industry and the brewing process.
• The origins of flavor in beer including influences from raw materials and brewing techniques.
• Beer proficiency as it relates to the use of hops, yeast, malt, water and other ingredients.
• The characteristics of various beer styles.
• Aroma reference standards for beer quality and aroma defects.
• Methodology used by professionals in the brewing industry.
• How to develop your palate through tastings and discussion.
• How beer can work with food and understand beer and food pairing principles.

Food Innovation Center
1207 NW Naito Pkwy
Portland, OR 97209

Craft Cidery Startup Workshop
(Portland, Oregon – June 11 – 15)
For cider entrepreneurs seeking to launch or expand, features leaders Nick Gunn and James Kohn from Wandering Aengus and other leading Pacific Northwest cideries.

Highlights of Craft Cidery Startup Workshop:

• Recognition of craft hard cider making opportunities in your community.
• Process to create a sustainable cidery business plan.
• Best practices for growing and marketing your craft hard cidery.
• Development of capital and infrastructure including sourcing ingredients and brewing equipment.
• Entrepreneurial insight from local cidery owners.
• Current trends in the cider industry.
• Elements of a successful cidery business and management culture.

Widmer Brothers
929 N Russell St
Portland, OR 97227

Beer Quality and Analysis Series
(Corvallis, June 19 – 23 plus online content)
Led by Tom Shellhammer along with Jeff Clawson and Scott Lafontaine., the flagship program for pro brewers focuses tools and techniques to analyze and evaluate beer to influence quality control in a production brewing setting.

Highlights of Beer Quality and Analysis Series:

• Microbiological techniques and American Society of Brewing Chemists Methods of Analysis used in brewing QA/QC labs.
• Fundamental techniques for isolating, enumerating, staining, and screening brewing yeast and contaminants.
• Official methods that can be implemented in a brewery lab.
• How to use modern equipment to analyze wort/beer and evaluate process quality
• Official methods used to evaluate beer production in a QA/QC lab.
• Scientific principles behind packaged beer quality and analysis.
• Ways to implement and analyze statistical data as it relates to brewing quality beer.
• Quality assurance vs. quality control as it applies to a brewery.
• Lessons from discussions with hop and barley breeders from Oregon State and industry tour of a Willamette Valley hop farm

Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR