Behind every pint of beer is a lot of preparation and science.
It takes technical expertise and patience to brew a desirable pint from grain to glass.
This is the daily task of a brewmaster — often someone who has taken their love for beer and made it into a career.
Don Harms, the sole brewmaster for Kichesippi Beer Co. in Ottawa, has studied beer all over the world.
His story began in his hometown of Calgary, where he used to drink at a local wine bar called Buzzards. He and the owner would try different exotic beers.
“At the time, there were not a lot of different beers available, so this was exciting,” he says.
Eventually, Harms decided he wanted to actually make beer.
“I eventually got ahold of someone in Germany and was able to apprentice in Bavaria,” he says. “I was there for almost a year.”
After returning to Canada for a stint at the Vancouver Island Brewery, Harms continued traveling and learning the trade.
He went to the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago and the University of California, Davis.
“After that, I was one of the first few Canadians to write and pass the brewmaster exam in London,” he says.
As a brewmaster, Harms is responsible for the quality of the product, recipe formation, fermentation control, filtration control, packaging control and associated lab work, he says.
Being a brewmaster is no easy task. Becoming one isn’t, either.
Jon Downing has been making beer since he was 14 years old. He’s now a professor in the brewmaster program — the first of its kind in Canada — at Niagara College.
Every September, the school accepts what he calls a “full case” of 24 students.
“It is very competitive,” he says.
The brewmaster program, which is two years long, currently has a waiting list with more than 500 applicants, Downing says.
A day in the life of a student in the program involves courses ranging from sensory analysis, chemistry and microbiology to packaging and marketing.
Students in the program vary in age. The youngest is 19 and the oldest is 41, Downing says.
“Many are coming back for a second career.”
Jennifer Nadwoncy is one of those students. Nadwoncy, who has worked in the restaurant industry for more than a decade, is in her first year of the program.
“I had always wanted to be a brewmaster; I considered it a fantasy job,” she says. “Most of the brewmasters I met were microbiologists. I have an English degree.”
Despite only being in her first year of the program, Nadwoncy says the experience has already been worthwhile.
“I am pretty confident that at the end, I will have a thorough understanding of not only how to make beer, but also to have mastered industry specifics,” she says.
That said, the program isn’t perfect. Expanding it to a three-year diploma and allowing students to write the brewmaster test with the college would be beneficial, Nadwoncy says. She also has another wish.
“More time in the brewery,” she says emphatically. “Our time is limited there.”
When she graduates, Nadwoncy says she wants to work on the “smaller side of things,” perhaps at a craft brewery as opposed to a large corporation like Molson. But she says she’s “not ruling out any options.”
The local craft brewing movement has become popular because “more people are favouring locally grown food and locally produced beer goes along with that,” Harms says, adding that travel has increased interest in locally produced craft beer.
“North Americans are much more travelled now, so they are exposed to the different styles of beer available in Europe,” he says.
“Craft brewers offer these different brew styles to interest people.”
And it appears to be working.
“We put in a lot of effort to make sure [the beer] is of good quality,” Harms says.
