About the Author:
Resume
Biography
How I Became A Brewer
My Worst Brewing Experience
Teri in the News
Rain Dragon Studio
Artists on Amherst
 
Articles by the Author:
Hiring the Best Brewers
Schedule for Opening Day
My Burn Injury
Specialty Malt-Presentation
Specialty Malt-Handout
My Brewing Career
Ingredient Supply Chain
Creating A Community
Forward Hop Contracting
Australian BrewCon
Beer Across America 2007
Grain Handling Systems
7 Secrets of Brewpubs
5 Brewpub Success Tips
The Jockeybox
Going Pro in the Beer Biz
1999 CBC Safety Panel
Brewing Diagrams
Server Beer School
Increasing Beer Tourism
Closed Pressurized Fermentation
Shortcut to Brewmaster
 
Dialogs & Essays:
Advice for Future Brewers
Extreme Brewing Dialog
Definition of "Brewmaster"
Opinions & Advice
 
Tools & Formulas:
Brewpub Lab Manual
Operations Manual
The Mash Hoe
The Brew Clock
Simple Brewlog Template
IBU Formula
Alc by Vol. Formula
Calorie Calculations
Recommended Reading
Fal's Beer Descriptors
 
More Articles & Recipes:
Bread Class Handout
Bread-Making Advice
Root Beer Production
Food Recipes
Beer Recipes
 
Women and Beer:
Pink Boots Society
Pink Boots Society Story
 
Road Brewer Trips:
2007 Road Trip Blog
2007 Trip Itinerary
2007 Trip Statistics
1999 Teardrop Adventure
 
Click here to download if you don't already have it: Several of the links are PDF files.

Server Beer School

In 2008 I visited American Flatbread-Burlington Hearth & Brewery in Burlington, Vermont. We had a consulting trade: I learned about restaurant operations, and in return I held "Beer School" for their servers.

With permission from Paul Sayler, co-owner and brewmaster of the brewpub, here are the actual training materials I developed for them, with their input.

Beer School Class Info Booklet

Beer School Sensory Keywords

Beer School Quiz

Beer School Quiz Answers

Beer School consisted of a quick run-through of the Class Info Booklet, then a thorough Tour of the brewery, including what was unique to Burlington Hearth as compared to other brewpubs.

Then we tasted four beers with as varied of flavor profiles as was represented in their house-brewed beer line-up that day. The sensory keywords listed were chosen to specifically match the beers we tasted. The class was confident enough by the end to make sensory keyword suggestions of their own, which was one of the goals of the class.

Servers were taught to taste with "two sniffs and one swallow, then repeat" including certain techniques like sucking in air over a cupped tongue, and allowing the beer to roll off the edges of an uncupped tongue so the beer touches all areas of the mouth.

The Quiz was open-book, using the Class Info Booklet. Collaboration was encouraged in order to encourage discussion, but we asked that answers not be shouted out or given away, only that discussion was allowed.

As each server completed the Quiz, they exchanged their completed Quiz for an Answer sheet, which was stapled to the back of their Class Info Booklet.

The Class Info Booklets were given to the servers to keep and read more at their leisure, and all were invited to ask the Brewmaster questions later, as they arose. Class took about two hours.


Road Trip Blog: www.roadbrewer.com
Women in Beer & Brewing: www.pinkbootssociety.org