Taking Homebrewing to the Next Level

A few times a year we offer advanced scholastic instruction in the homebrew arts. If you’ve brewed a few batches and are looking to up your game, or if you’re a seasoned brewer looking to fine-tune your techniques, we have a class for you.

Next-Step Brewing Class

Friday, January 30th @ 6:30pm         $40 per student          (SIGN UP)

This class is geared toward the homebrewer who has brewed a few batches and is ready to learn more about the ingredients and brewing process. Our Next-Step class will focus on putting a beer recipe together discussing specialty grains, hop varieties, and yeast strains. We will also have a brief discussion on brewing water. In class we will brew one of our Keystone Kits, discussing the beer during the process. It is encouraged to bring some of your own homebrew and we’ll be serving some of ours as well. We highly recommend brewing at least one extract with grains beer before taking this class.

All-Grain Brewing class

Sunday, February 1st @ 10:00am     $75 per student          (SIGN UP)

Most homebrewers strive to brew beer just how their favorite breweries do it. Our All-Grain brewing class will guide you through the many techniques and necessary equipment to start making your beer from scratch. This class will cover all the different base malts (like Pale, Maris Otter, Pilsner, etc), mashing, sparging, chilling, recipe formulation, yeast starters, and some water chemistry. This class will run approximately 5 hours, with a live All-Grain brewing demonstration. Lunch will be provided. Due to the complexities of this class, it will be limited to 12 students.

Sour Power Brewing CLass

Sunday, January 18th @1:00pm     $75 per student          (SIGN UP)

After a 3 year hiatus, the original and still the best sour beer brewing class is back! Even if you’ve mastered homebrewing, making sour beers is whole other kettle of beer. This class will run through classic sour beer styles, strains of Brettanomyces and bacteria, recipe formulation, aging and bottling, and safeguarding your brewery from permanent contamination.

Ready to guide you through this intrepid endeavor is Keystone’s very own wild brewer, Aaron Fourier. Aaron has proven his brewing mettle again and again through his creative beer creations. Aaron is the reigning two-time “Most Creative” champion from Sierra Nevada’s Philly Beer Week homebrew competition.

This class includes a tutored tasting of some of the world’s best and rarest sour beers, along with instruction on how to brew them at home. Aaron’s “Brett Project” series of homebrewed single strain brett and bacteria fermented beers will also be featured, along with many blended culture fermentations. Palate refreshing snacks and beverages will be provided during the tastings. Due to the scarcity of some of the commercial sour beers being served, the class will be limited to just 10 students.