BREWING EDUCATION

BELOW: The Institute

seal and one of the
artifacts on display in
the classroom. The bust
of Anton Schwarz who
130 years of
brewing education
founded the US Brewers
Academy.

Siebel’s World Brewing Academy in Chicago

The Chicago campus of the Siebel Institute and the World Brewing
Academy consists of a class room in the Goose Island brewpub and a
first floor administration office just across the busy North Clybourn
Avenue. Students had finished the very first morning of a two-week long
Concise Course in Brewing Technology and were just reassembling after
lunch in the pub for a lecture by veteran brewer Ray Daniels on alcohol,
beer and health. There were thirty students from Washington State down
to Florida and one guy all the way from Peru. I never did
get to talk to him about his first impressions of the
formidable Goose Island IPA compared to the beer he
was used to at home!

Academy moved in back in 2002. Long heritage

The bar from the old Siebel Peterson
Street bierstube is in an adjacent
room where the students are fed and
watered. The bar is available for G-I
customers in the evening as is the
classroom if there is a ‘do’ on.
The arrangement with Goose
Island works well and the Institute
does not need to worry about rooms
standing empty between courses as
it did back in the late 1990s when
Siebel lost its way a bit and
By Roger Putman Lallemand took an equity holding.
The lab services continue for
analysis (raw materials, wort,
The Siebel heritage is a long one; in
1868 German born Dr. John Ewald
Siebel founded the Zymotechnic
Institute which was a chemical
laboratory where training took
place. He changed the name to the
Siebel Institute of Technology a few
years later. Dr Siebel was a prolific
researcher, technical editor and
wrote over 200 books and scientific
articles so it was not until his sons
joined the business and incorporated
it in 1901 that the courses in both
English and German took off. In
those heady days, the Brewer’s

Siebel Institute W hile Ray conducted his

lecture, fellow lecturer Kirk
Annand had a free spell to explain
of Technology
and World about Siebel’s offerings in the world
of brewing education. Kirk was 25
Brewing years with Moosehead in Nova
Academy Scotia and he still lives there. He has
1777 North been involved with Siebel since
Clybourn Avenue, 1994 and is currently in charge of
Chicago course content. So what better
IL 60614-5520 excuse for a chat over a few glasses
of Goose Island’s finest.
Tel: +1 312 255 0705 The classroom contains a library,
www.siebelinstitute.com in locked cabinets, topped by
artifacts collected over the years.
The opposite ancient brick wall is
adorned by photos of delegates from
● Since the Editor’s visit its premium courses going all the
Goose Island has lost the way back to 1901, strangely
lease on the Brewpub. juxtaposed with a single large Orval
Siebel’s will be looking for advertisement. There are desks for
a new course venue.
up to 40 delegates and numbers have
been steadily climbing since the
finished beer, yeast and
fermentation), yeast management
and DNA fingerprinting. You can
lodge your yeast in the library and
get slopes or a litre of cream yeast
delivered for pitching and a whole
host of media preparations for the
micro laboratory. The Montreal
based Biotechnology Research
Institute, a centre for yeast genetics
and fermentation research is also
home to the TwinTrack Brewing
Microbiology Course which teaches
advanced laboratory techniques.
There is a consultancy service using
the many professionals who lecture
on the courses. This was a big part
of the traditional Siebel portfolio
and ranges from interpreting
analytical and micro readings, to
advice on setting up breweries and
auditing those in operation against
best practice standards.
course lasted a full six months, with
three for engineers and just two for
maltsters and bottlers. By 1919 with
Prohibition looming he diversified
into baking, refrigeration,
engineering, milling and carbonated
beverages.
Brewing courses returned in 1933
under the next generation. The third
generation joined and built a brand
new, custom built facility on
Peterson Avenue in 1952 where they
were to remain for almost 50 years.
Fourth generation Ron and Bill
Siebel joined the Institute in the
1960s and helped introduce the
concept of shorter courses at two
weeks or less in length designed to
meet the specific training needs of a
changing brewing industry.
The modern Siebel’s is run by
President and COO Lyn Kruger ably
assisted by VP Keith Lemcke who is

The BREWER & DISTILLER INTERNATIONAL • Volume 4 • Issue 6 • June 2008 • www.ibd.org.uk
44

also Marketing Manager for the
World Brewing Academy side of the
business. This pair was in Europe at
the time of my visit as a tie up with
Doemens in Germany allows the
‘World’ accolade to be used without
fear of contradiction. The jewel in
the Siebel crown is the International
Diploma in Brewing Technology
which is held twice a year and sees
15 different specialist lecturers at
the podium. It attracts a wide range
of delegates from plant directors to
avid home brewers.
12-week Diploma course
This JV with Doemens Academy
near Munich was launched in 2001
as attendance at the Chicago class
room based course was waning. A
twelve-week, two-continent
programme combines brewing
theory and business instruction in
Chicago, practical hands-on
brewing in Munich and a European
brewing study tour. Three weeks are
spent at Doemens for an intensive
hands-on practical spell playing
with the 5hl Steinecker pilot plant,
model small-pack lines and micro
maltings, all backed up with
laboratory bench experience. This is
followed by the two week tour (see
following section by John Rutland
who attended it last year).
Student testing is by weekly
assessment during theory segments
as well as a written final test and
oral exam at the conclusion of the
programme. Incidentally, courses
are run using EBC metric notation
but recognising the fact that the US
is unlikely to ever move away from
lbs and gallons or tons and barrels,
US units are included as appropriate
for the class. One other issue which
The BREWER & DISTILLER INTERNATIONAL • Volume 4 • Issue 6 • June 2008 • www.ibd.org.uk
A class in full swing
with Ray Daniels in
charge, he was telling
the class about alcohol,
beer and health.
“The jewel in the
Siebel crown is the
International
Diploma in Brewing
Technology which is
held twice a year
concerned Annand was the and sees 15 different
continuing high cost of text books, specialist lecturers
that there is no single publication at the podium. It
which covers all topics in the same attracts a wide
depth and many go out of print. But range of delegates
he was pleased that Quain and from plant directors
Boulton is now in paper back and to avid home
the MBAA is commissioning brewers.”
reasonably priced useful material.
A six-week Chicago-based
Associate course covers the whole
supply chain but without the
Bavarian hands-on while the two-
week long Concise course is also
run twice a year at Chicago and
Doemens. These experience even
larger class sizes than the longer
Diploma sessions, showing an on
going desire to get people in all
sizes of brewery and at all levels
better educated. Add to these a
series of two-week courses on raw
materials and wort, beer production SIEBEL ACADEMY
PEOPLE.
FAR LEFT: Lupe
Zepede is in charge of
student registration and
information
management, as well as
looking after them while
in Chicago.
CENTRE: Lecturer Ray
Daniels.
LEFT: Kirk Annand
relaxes with a pint of
Goose Island’s urban
wheat beer -312, named
after the Chicago phone
number – ‘densely
populated with flavour’!
45
BREWING EDUCATION

One wall is adorned and QC as well as packaging and

with photographs of process technology.
alumni. If you want to set up your own
brewery there is a three day business
ABOVE: Here is a orientation course covering finance,
recent one… tax, new or pre used plant decisions
etc. A four-day seminar by Ray
ABOVE RIGHT: Daniels with Randy Mosher looks at
…stretching back over beer styles and sensory training.
the years….

RIGHT: …back to 1900.

Web based learning
There are web-based learning
packages where the Concise two-
week classroom course is extended
to three months at your PC using the
same range of content. Similarly the
web-based Executive Overview of
the Brewing Process was created to
give those in sales and support roles
a thorough overview of commercial
brewing and is also suitable for
training shop-floor personnel in the
fundamentals of brewing.
Ian Stanners (ex Molson) runs
these web-based courses and he
presides over on-line tutorials and a
weekly chat room for delegates. The
web offering does not require the
high speed, wide band-width
internet connections demanded by
other education providers as Siebel
recognises that such technology is
not yet available to everybody in the
world but a full printed folder is
shipped containing the material
which would be presented in a
classroom and web links point to
other on line resources.
A further unusual course held
annually is for Advanced Home
Brewing. This also takes place off
campus at Durango which is a small
town in Colorado but one blessed
with four micro-breweries. Randy
Mosher, Ray Daniels and Chris
White from the eponymous White
Labs run the course and hope that
graduates will carry on for the
Concise experience. Add all these
up and Siebel Institute and its World
Brewing Academy partnership are
able to boast that they run more
brewing-related courses than
anyone else in the world.
Good friendships are made on
Siebel’s courses and the Institute
keeps in touch with its alumni in
over 60 countries by sending out
7500 e-newsletters around the world
several times a year. This keeps
Siebel on the training radar in most
brewing rooms around the world
especially as Kirk Annand points
out
“There are fewer brewers per
hectolitre than there used to be. All
our students leave with the simple
and honest camaraderie of being a
brewer. We have a saying here at the
Institute: “Not only do we teach our
students, but we also help them to
teach each other.” ■

The BREWER & DISTILLER INTERNATIONAL • Volume 4 • Issue 6 • June 2008 • www.ibd.org.uk
46