The Introduction to Homebrewing class will begin Monday, January 27th at Itasca Community College, Wilson Hall room 107. The class is held Monday nights, 5:30 – 9:30 PM. We meet 4 nights, with the last night being February 24 – we skip President’s day to give the beer another week to ferment. We brew/bottle four batches of beer in class, and the students split up the 200 bottles on the fourth night. How many classes have you taken where you get to take beer home?
People constantly tell me if they’d known how fun the class would be, they would have taken it years ago. Some have so much fun, they take the class repeatedly.
There are PowerPoint presentations each night, covering brewing, brewing history, how to choose and brew different beer styles, ingredients, equipment, brewing techniques and bottling. Each night includes hands-on brewing, fermenting, bottling and sampling examples of many beer styles. You do not need any experience to take this class, except the experience of having lived to be at least 21 years of age.
Call ICC at (218) 322-2410 to register. The total cost of the four nights of class is $75. Though walk-ins can be accommodated, it’s safest for you to preregister so you don’t find out the hard way the class is already full! Preregistration also allows for better class planning. Brochure at www.getlearning.org Online registration is at this link, scroll alphabetically to “Homebrewing” or “Advanced Homebrewing.”
Advanced homebrewing classes begin Monday, March 3rd. These classes go longer each night because we’re doing all-grain brewing, which takes more time. There are five nights of advanced classes.
Check out the article about this class and homebrewing in general: Brewing Beer & Giving it Away This article was written by Burton Lane about 2013’s Advanced Homebrewing class. He focused somewhat on interviewing people who began brewing after age 50. It’s an excellent writeup about the passion homebrewers share. Reprinted with permission from the Senior Reporter. Burton took pictures of the “old folks” during class, and lined us up for the cover photo for the August 2013 edition of the Reporter.
- Getting the brew ingredients ready
Research shows that moderate beer consumption can help prevent heart disease and strokes, provide important vitamins and minerals, is low in fat and helps increase good cholesterol (HDL).