Expert: Ed Westemeier - 6/20/2006

Question
i've always been a big fan of beers, for a lot more than just their alcohol content, and've taken up homebrewing, and have even started brewing every other week with a couple of buddies of mine. the results have been great, but i'm just not content with being able to flip through a book and find recipes and guidlines for beers and making them thataway. so for my questions:

what's a good resource for someone who's comfortable with the basics of brewing, but doesn't understand much about the ingredients or amounts. what's the next step in the learning process really.

and also, what're some good brewing schools? i've almosted completed my degree in restaurant and catering management, and hope to eventually open a brewpub, but dont know nearly enough about brewing, especially commercial brewing.  

Answer
Great question!
I think the best resource for you at this point in your development would be a book called "Designing Great Beers" by Ray Daniels. It's just technical enough to give you some real insight into the process, but not so technical that it will put you to sleep like a professional brewing text. You can find it at bookstores, or Amazon.com.

As to schools, there are really only two major schools for brewers in the USA. The oldest is Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago (http://www.siebelinstitute.com) and the other is the University of California at Davis (http://extension.ucdavis.edu/brewing/index.asp). The majority of the professional brewers at both large and small breweries in this country got their training at one of these. Both offer long and short courses.