So excited to invite all of you to these events next week! Come enjoy the beers and meet some of my students from this semester.

Cincinnati State debuts first student-created craft beers to be tapped at local breweries on December 9 and December 11

Cincinnati State’s BREW 100 course gives people interested in joining the burgeoning craft beer industry in Ohio an introduction to the history and styles of beer and beer-making. The course includes tastings, proper techniques for serving, storing, identifying, and evaluating beer as well as the opportunity to create a unique craft beer.

This semester, students enrolled in the evening class worked with brewer Eric Baumann from Christian Moerlein Brewing Company to develop their class beer, a black IPA (India Pale Ale) called BREW 100: Curve Ball. The official tapping for their beer is set for Friday, December 11th, 6:00 pm at the Moerlein Lager House. $1 from the sale of each pint sold on that night will benefit Cincinnati State Brewing Science courses. BREW 100: Curve Ball will then be available at both the Moerlein Lager House and the Christian Moerlein Malt House tap room on Moore St.

Students from the afternoon class are working with Bryant Goulding and Jim Matt from Rhinegeist Brewery. Their class beer is an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie stout called BREW 100: Sweater Weather. Emily Bolton a second year Pastry Arts student had a lot of influence on the selection of the beer’s flavor. “When two gentlemen from Rhinegeist came to class, we were choosing what we wanted our class beer to be. We discussed how I’m currently taking a pastry buffet class, and came up with the idea of the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie.” Although BREW 100 is offered as a Humanities and Sciences course, Bolton feels the BREW 100 class was a great addition to her Midwest Culinary Institute Pastry Arts education. Adds Bolton: “I was just taking the Brew 100 class for personal insight into the different beers. I didn’t realize it would relate to my pastry classes and the things that I’ve learned in them as much. We learned that historically, no one knows which came first, bread or beer making. Luckily, I took an Artisan Bread making class over the summer so I had some knowledge of the way yeasts work.” The Rhinegeist tapping will be on December 9th at 5:00 pm at the 19th and Elm brewery.

BREW 100 was included in Cincinnati Magazine’s “Best of” issue released this month, and is taught by Instructor Carla Gesell-Streeter, chair of the Communication and Theater Department and a founder of Hoperatives, a well-known regional blog devoted to craft beer.

Enrollment in Cincinnati State’s “BREW” classes is limited to students who are at least 21 years old. The 2016 spring semester class is scheduled to meet Mondays and Wednesdays from 4 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. beginning January 11, 2016. Students will work with MadTree Brewing to develop their own class beer – which will be tapped for sale in April or May 2016. In addition to BREW 100 this spring, Cincinnati State will offer BREW 160: Sensory Evaluation. This 3 credit hour course focuses on the visual, olfactory and gustatory parameters used in the evaluation of beer. BREW 160 will cover topics such as aroma, taste and finish as well as the judging systems and other factors that are involved in beverage competitions. The class is scheduled for Mondays, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. starting January 11, 2016. Enrollment for each class is limited to 24 seats.

For more information on the class, please contact Prof. Gesell-Streeter at carla.gesell-streeter@cincinnatistate.edu.

Registration for the Spring Semester at Cincinnati State is now open, and closes January 5, 2016. Please visit www.cincinnatistate.edu/apply for details.