The days are getting shorter, the weather is getting (somewhat) cooler and students everywhere are preparing for a new school year. As a student of craft beer, you also have to prepare for a busy semester since there are a few classes available to you.

Algonquin College School of Part Time Studies Beers of the World (September 3 – November 19) -$526.44 Beer is an important component of the beverage industry. Students learn about the ingredients used to produce this historical beverage, as well as how it is made domestically and internationally. Additional topics covered include the classicisation of beer, how to properly taste and assess beer, how to match beer with food, and how to cook with beer. Special attention is placed on local micro-breweries.

Savvy Company Importing Wine, Beer & Spirits for Pleasure & Profit (November 1) – $325.00 Join Steven Trenholme for this day-long seminar and learn about the dynamics ofimporting wine, craft beer & spirits into Canada. Based in Toronto, he has over 30 years’ experience in working in various capacities including managing a national sales agency, brand manager of Mosel wines in Germany, consulting to Wines of South Africa and SABMiller.

Beerology Sensory Evaluation Workshop (December 9 –December 11) – $212.99 Master Cicerone Mirella Amato explores the most common off-flavours that can occur in beer through a guided tasting. It provides critical troubleshooting information for bar managers and brewery representatives through an in-depth exploration of what causes these off-flavours and how they can be prevented.

Of course, back to school wouldn’t be the same without some proper text books to accompany your course load. Here’s what’s on the shelves at the Ottawa Beer Events office and what we recommend to you – from a wide variety of beer-y topics!

Tasting Beer: An Insider's Guide to the World's Greatest Drink by Randy Mosher

Everybody knows how to drink beer, but few know how to really taste it. Tasting Beer is a lively exploration of the culture, chemistry, and creativity that make craft beers so wonderfully complex. Heighten your enjoyment of every glass with an understanding of the finer points of brewing, serving, tasting, and food pairing.

The Brewmaster's Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food by Garrett Oliver

Traditional craft-brewed beer can transform a meal from everyday to extraordinary. It's an affordable, accessible luxury. Yet most people are only familiar with the mass-market variety. Have you tasted the real thing?

The Complete Joy Of Homebrewing by Charlie Papizan

Everything you need to get started is here, including classic and new recipes for brewing stouts, ales, lagers, pilseners, porters, specialty beers, and honey meads.

The Audacity of Hops: The History of America's Craft Beer Revolution by Tom Acitelli

n 1975, there was a single craft brewery in the United States; today there are more than 2,000. A once-fledgling, clumsy movement, craft beer has become ubiquitous nationwide and even includes a honey ale brewed at the White House.

Ontario Beer: A Heady History of Brewing from the Great Lakes to the Hudson Bay by Alan McLeod and Jordan St. John

Wherever Europeans explored, battled, and settled, beer was not far behind, which brought the simple magic of brewing to Ontario in the 1670s. Early Hudson's Bay Company traders brewed in Canada's Arctic, and Loyalist refugees brought the craft north in the 1780s. Early 1900s temperance activists drove the industry largely underground but couldn't dry up the quest to quench Ontarians' thirst. The heavy regulation that replaced prohibition centralized surviving breweries. Today, independent breweries are booming and writing their own chapters in the Ontario beer story.