Beer class

Week one
After being up way too late last night, I made it to the Sandlot at Coors Field for the first day of brewing class. Met the beer guys...ie the brewmaster and asst. One is a microbiologst and the other is an aerospace engineer.

They brought out samples of hops and malts for use to look at and taste while we discussed beer ingredents. Note to self..Do not eat raw hops again. Quite strong flavor, very bitter....ok it tastes nasty. Sampled the different malts okay but not what I'd want for breakfast. Then out came the yeast. It was activated all foamy and nasty looking. I was handed it first so I opened it up and stuck a finger into it pulled it out and sucked the yeast off it. don't know why I did that but I did. Then some of the others tried it. We found out that no one in any of the other brew classes they had given for our school had actually tasted the yeast. I gotta see if I can get some of it to make some bread. They have it going like a starter.

Then we moved over to the brew area and went over the process and got to look at the equipment. This of course ended up were the beer was being held. Heh heh heh.. Then it was time to sample a couple of beers and perform sensory evaluations with them. I tried the barley wine and a their Slugger stout. Man I'm glad I don't have a class after that one.

The barley wine was kinda wierd kinda like a beer and kinda like a mead.Potant stuff! Flavorful and fruity,nice finish. It's a little too sweet for my tastes but I could see making a killer mustard out of it. The stout was not bad it had good flavor. It was rather sweet too. Not one that I would buy as it's not all that stout of a stout.

Next week we begin really learning and working.

More to come....???