Brewing & Beer Steward Technology

I started home brewing 10 years ago with kits purchased from my local home brew store. These kits are great as they are tried and true recipes by people who know what they're doing. However, I likened these kits to making Tollhouse cookies. You go to the store, buy a tube of cookie dough, put the dough on the cookie sheet and put it in the oven. Sure you just baked cookies, but they really weren't your cookies. That's how I began all grain brewing, taking the brewing process outside and off my stove top and into the garage where I could experiment with a wide varieties of malts, hops and brewing techniques. In 2009 I brewed up a pretty good pale ale. One that I fell in love with. So much that I wondered if I could sell this beer to people and ultimately start a brewery.

Fast forward a few years, I partnered up with three other guys, we wrote a business plan, got funded, leased a building and bought all the equipment to brew and package beer. The problem I faced was I was still just a home brewer. I had never spent any time in a production brewery. I had never taken any actual coursework on the process, chemistry and fundamentals of brewing. I just knew how to make beer in my garage. Although my pride told me I could be the head brewer of 612Brew, my better judgment advised against. So I posted a job opening asking for experienced brewers to apply to be the new Head Brewer of an exciting Minneapolis start up brewery.

I received dozens of applicants, most of which were home brewers with aspirations of getting into the industry. Unfortunately, they all seemed to have the same (if not less) qualifications than me. So I started focusing on applicants that spent time in production breweries and had training from the American Brewers Guild, UC Davis or the Siebel Institute of Technology. These were important qualifications because it showed the person had more than just aspirations and passion for craft brewing, but they were willing to take the time and do the work.

We hired our Head Brewer in 2012. He had experience at three different production breweries across the country and completed the in class and hands on Siebel Brewing course work, not just online coursework. In December 2014 we hired our newest brewer who worked in one other production brewery but also completed his Siebel Brewing course work as well. We had set a standard here at 612Brew in which our brewers would be held to a standard of formal brewing education.

When DCTC approached 612Brew requesting input on developing a brewing program, I was thrilled to participate. The craft brewing market is not slowing and there is a great need for experienced and educated brewers out there. Siebel is based in Illinois and UC Davis is in California, it is unfortunate that most of these passionate aspiring brewers are unable to go to these schools due to proximity and other constraints. With DCTC offering similar style classwork as the Siebel and UC Davis programs, this provides an opportunity to educate these aspiring brewers here in Minnesota so that they stand above the rest when applying to work at local craft breweries.

DCTC has built a strong course catalog including the Science of Brewing and Fermentation, Quality Control and Packaging and Process technology which may often be overlooked by aspiring home brewers looking to get a job in production facilities. I believe DCTC's Brewing course catalog is one that will make graduates more desirable potential applicants.

What got me started in craft beer? Well, that's a tough question to answer. For starters, a vague childhood memory comes to mind. My first taste of fermentation came as a kid, going up to a fruit bowl and finding that the grapes had turned into a crude version of wine. This sparked a curiosity in me, observing a natural process that incurred such dramatic change – a very tasty change at that.

But most likely it was my time spent living in Wyoming, making several trips per week to Fort Collins, a sort of Mecca for craft beer. Many a night was spent imbibing some of Colorado's best beer. It didn't strike me until much later that brewers all over the country were trying to replicate these satisfying suds on their own.

Some time later, I heard stories from a friend about trying to make beer in his kitchen. These stories always ended with a huge mess, soaking wet socks, and much-too-drunk friends. I decided to attend one of these infamous get-togethers to satisfy my curiosity. It was everything I expected and more, aside from the sub-par beer. My natural curiosity lingered, and as I kept attending these homebrew parties, I kept seeing more and more ways of improving the process.

Thus, I decided to make my own system. With much stricter tolerances for temperature and sanitation, along with a sober mind (and the foresight not to wear socks while brewing) a group of us finally started making beer during the winter of 2009.

Competition fueled our desire to improve and soon we were brewing weekly, honing new techniques, and sharing our beer within other circles. Casually passing beer out to friends soon turned into bringing a truck-load of kegs to family Christmas and donating my beer to charity auctions to raise money for worthy causes.

One fateful holiday, my uncle brought up an idea: "How would you like to start a brewery?" How could I say no? Soon after, I was sitting down with my uncle, Paul, and Mark Anderson, sampling and describing my beer. Talk of future possibilities carried well into the night.

So, how does a brewer truly become a brewer? In my mind, it all starts off with a relentless passion for beer. You can have all the theoretical knowledge and tangible skills in the world, but without true passion you will never make amazing beer.

Thinking back to my start as a brewer, I wish there had been a local program that condensed everything I had to scrape together into one comprehensive course. Going from home brewing to commercial brewing is an incredibly challenging leap of both skill and faith. Even though the core principles of brewing remain the same, amping up to a commercial scale requires a comprehensive understanding of chemistry, physics, work flow, and sanitization.

All in all, being a brewer is more art than science. You can learn everything you need to know from a book, but those pages will never allow you to create your own unique recipe... or how to adjust your boil when there is a storm rolling in since your grain bed is about to stick and throttling back on your lauter valve—or getting a feel for running your O2 for a bit longer because the yeast is over-stressed. Know what I mean? A brewer's feel only comes with time and treating the equipment you have like an extension of your body.

Horace Cunningham is Director of Brewing at Cold Spring Brewing Company - Third Street Brewhouse, a new craft brewing facility that provides quality premium brews for an expanding customer base. He is also a past president and honorary member of the Master Brewers Association of the Americas after serving its governance for many years and being a member for all of his career. He is also an active member of the American Society of Brewing Chemists, the Brewers Association, and the Institute of Brewers and Distillers.

Horace's brewing career began over 30 years ago when, after graduating college with a science degree, he joined Desnoes & Geddes Limited, Jamaica, brewers of world renowned Red Stripe lager. That opportunity laid a foundation of ethics and a drive for quality in his career which took him to brewing quality control in Carib Breweries in Grenada and then to Banks Breweries in Barbados.

Whilst in Barbados, Horace qualified as a Brewmaster, having been trained in many of the best brewing schools in the USA and Europe. His brews have won many awards at prestigious contests and tastings.

In the USA, Horace has lead the brewing team at Summit Brewing Company for a number of years. Recently, through his longstanding connections with many world famous Brewmasters, teachers and allied industry specialists, along with his experience and expertise, Horace has been very effective in catapulting new breweries to the next level.

In his spare time, Horace is an avid outdoorsman, and a committed car racing enthusiast.