Advanced Homebrewing Course In Australia?

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klemcke

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Greetings from Chicago!

I spent a month in Australia & New Zealand in December, and had a great time learning about the home brewing & craft brewing communities. And the beer was bloody good too!

For the last two years, we have offered our Advanced Homebrewers Course in Durango, Colorado, USA. Initially, we didn't think we would get too many people signing up for a one week course that costs $1650 US, as we had heard back from many homebrewers that it was too expensive. Well the first year we ran it in 2004, we attracted 8 people, half of whom already owned elaborate Beer, Beer, & More Beer brew systems, and the other half were planning on buying them after the class was done.

Well, we thought 8 people was pretty good for the first year, but what we found even more amazing was the 2005 course that just finished attracted 24 people, which is a completely sold out class. With the amount of people inquiring about next years course, we think we may need to offer two courses.

We obviously underestimated the interest in this class, and I wanted to ask everyone in this forum for your opinions about whether such a class would attract enough people to offer it in Australia. It will obviously be quite costly to fly our instructors down to Australia, so we would probably need about 20 or so people to make this a financially viable course. I know there are lots of homebrewers Down Under...do you think there would be enough interest in all-grain brewing & more advanced "small-brewing" practice to draw people into this program?

All opinions are appreciated, and if you want to get more information on the course, you can find it at http://www.siebelinstitute.com/course_desc/homebrewing.html . If you want to drop me a line directly, my e-mail address is [email protected]

Thanks very much!

Keith Lemcke
Vice-President
Siebel Institute of Technology
America's Oldest Brewing School
 
keith,

i would certainly have an interest if you could keep prices at a similar level - much higher & i think you would struggle to get many takers...

I would also have an interst in coming over for the course (my preference). Would be great to come over with a few fellow Aussies if there's any interest here...
Can you email me some info please [email protected]

cheers Ross
 
Ross Pay me 1/2 that and ill teach ya to brew.......ok it wont be a structured course, but we can get drunk for a week.....no?

Actually i think its a good idea Keith. I know the Uni of Ballarat holds a short course, but im not to sure on the price and the structure, and in professional circles the Siebel has a good name..

my only concern is that the land downunda has its population spread out so much more than the USA, i think i heard once that NYC has as many people living there as our whole population, so what ever state you held it in you would have to come up with a good accomodation plan?
 
hi keith
i would certainly be interested if you could manage it but distance and costs plus putting in place or even finding a place to hold it may be your biggest challenge.
never the less im certainly interested.


cheers
dave
 
Maybe if we get enough together, we could charter a 747 complete with bar staff and loads of home brew.....
 
Thanks to all for the comments so far, both sent directly and to the forum. I guess an important question would be: How common is all-grain mash brewing in Australia & New Zealand compared to extract brewing? Any opinions & comments are appreciated.

Keith
 
ozbrewer said:
Ross Pay me 1/2 that and ill teach ya to brew.......ok it wont be a structured course, but we can get drunk for a week.....no?

[post="74127"][/post]​

how about you pay me half as well & we pool our collective knowledge & then get drunk together on the proceeds....yes?

Seriously though, I'd be keen to go over for a weeks holiday (whoops... i mean study) - sure I can work out someway of making it a tax deduction - anyone else up for it?...
 
Ross, I would love to go but the fundage is not there. I grew up in them there parts. Durango Colorado is the biggest party town ever. My brothers best friend own a bar on main street. Summer or winter there is always somthing to do. It would be good if they timed the course to coinside with the blue grass festival held in Telluride Colo!! A party to be sure
 
klemcke, if you fly your instructors down to sydney, i'll do the course, im in the process of building an all grain brewery and would like to gain all the knowledge i possibly can.
 
Gidday Keith, good to see you on the forum. If you do the course in Melbourne I could rent my B3 to you! :D You could speak to the Goat boys about using their space - did you meet them when you came over? Or perhaps Gerard has enough space at Paddy's?

Another idea is to hold it at Holgate Brew House as he now has accomodation at the pub and maybe would do a good deal for every one etc

It would be good to see the course come over here and for you to get back here!

Cheers

Paul
 
As far as all grainers go about 70% of my brew club are all grainers, but you need to remember that the size of a brew club here in oz is small in comparision (less than 40 members).
 
for the kiwis you might want to post on www.realbeer.co.nz on their forum to find out
 
I personally can't see too many people taking up this opportunity. 1 week off work + AUS$2200 for the course + accomodation and living costs if you're from interstate. That's a lot of money to a home brewer!

There's just so much information in the public domain so it doesn't make much sense paying big wads of cash.

Plus within most brew clubs there is already a wealth of knowledge to assist you. In my small club there are 2 professional brewers.

In Adelaide we're also lucky enough to have Grumpys, a HBS that's also a micro-brewery. These guys really know what they're talking about and can help with any of your questions.

Then you have this forum that has microbiologists, people studying food science, professional brewers etc.

Cheers
MAH
 

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