It's the too huge world vaulting us

The first section of beer school ended yesterday, and later today, we fly to Munich, where we begin class on Monday.

After six weeks of studying brewing theory, we changed pace a bit this week to complete our final group presentations and to take a short module called "The Business of Brewing," a brew-oriented business simulation designed by a former Siebel student. Though there was some pressure and weight put on the final presentations, we were given ample to time to prepare for them, so as a whole the week in class required a less studying than before.

This proved to be a good thing, as it afforded all of us a little more time to enjoy the city, take care of pre-travel logistics, see friends for a final time, and catch up on sleep. After business class on Monday, a number of us headed to our favorite near-school beer bar, The Local Option; I managed to convene a nice mix of friends--mostly from camp--at Piece on Wednesday night for one more round of New Haven-style pizza and house beer. Thursday night, Joel Sircus and I squeezed in a dinner together, managing to finally pull off our standing commitment to get together before I left Chicago, and an early dismissal on Friday afternoon allowed us time to take advantage of our "pro deal" at the Goose Island brewpub again.

My group's presentation went well--we were tasked with discussing how we would modernize the filtration system and improve shelf-life of beer in a large (1 million hl) lager brewery. The instructors didn't mince words in assessing the thoroughness of each group's presentation, so when we were told "pretty good presentation; very logical," we knew that that was as close to high praise as we would get.

It's hard to internalize, much less articulate, the overall impact of the "Chicago section," though I know that, no surprise here, my knowledge of brewing is far improved. I also know, and it took me a few weeks to figure this out, that I'm more excited about what I'm studying here and the job path than I have since long before leaving Colorado.

Mary Williams, Rose Lenehan's mom, passed me an article from the New York times that had been written about a year ago about the increasing appeal of jobs that make you work with your hands among people in their 20s and 30s. It was written by a doctoral student cum motorcycle mechanic and easily applies to farming, brewing, cooking, and other classic "trades." In part, the allure is that these jobs can't be outsourced; equally, and probably more important, is that these positions inevitably mix a level of technical expertise with material, real-world results. Really, it's the same appeal that drew Wendell Berry to being a Kentucky farmer and writer when he shunned a traditional academic career. And while the immediate appeal of washing kegs, shoveling grain from mash tuns, and cleaning draught lines may seem more humbling than the sexy sides of brewing like designing recipes and attending beer festivals, I am excited about and ready for both.

We depart for Munich about 10 this evening and arrive tomorrow afternoon. I suspect that in my honeymoon phase with European brew school, my posts may become less frequent, but I will do my best to keep this current. Thanks for reading for the first seven weeks--now on to part zwei!