I’ve been looking for courses that will improve my brewing. However, I’ve found that almost all courses are either geared towards beginners or towards those hoping to go pro. Very few formal courses (at least it seems to me) are geared towards intermediate to advanced homebrewing. I read a ton - both books and online - but I’d love to turn up a good certificate course. Anyone got a recommendation? Thanks!
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In my experience, the best way to improve your brewing is to read and brew. Is there something specific you’re looking for?
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Hey, Denny! Really good to hear from you. Nothing particular- just always trying to improve. As I said, there seems to be very few general brewing books (as opposed to style specific) aimed at intermediate to advanced homebrewers.
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You, too, Tom. I can tell you that that’s the audience our books are aimed at. But I find it odd that you can’t cite an area where you want to improve. Maybe you already are improved!
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Well, foremost, I AM odd. Second, I found your books exceptionally helpful.
I think you may have hit upon where I am: feeling that I’m at a plateau. My experience has been that a good class pushes you and/or introduces you to new ideas. Stuff you didn’t know that you didn’t know! Perhaps you’re right that I just need to keep reading, listening, watching, and brewing.
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A couple thoughts…first, a plateau is not necessarily a bad place to be. That’s where I am, and have been for a while. I just keep brewing, and when I find something I don’t understand, I dig into it at that point. I don’t go out of my way to find stuff I don’t know because I’m satisfied with what I’m doing.
Second, to get to that point, I looked around at brewing info. Web articles, following people who seemed to know what they’re doing. When I saw something that looked interesting or applicable to me (cold dry hoppping, for example), I tried it a few times to see what I thought. To me, brewing and analyzing the results is the best way to learn.
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If you can join a BJCP exam study group where you live, I highly recommend it. Do so and judging homebrews helped me tremendously in developing my palate and improving my brewing.
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Excellent idea! Thanks!
I’ll echo Denny’s sentiment that a “plateau” is just a fine place to be. I’m at a point in my life where I don’t have a lot of time to do too much experimenting. I know my system well. I can throw together and brew a recipe in my favorite styles without much worry that my only batch for a few months might not work out because I’m constantly pushing the limits.
For me, I still get new ideas from this forum and from my favorite podcasts. I branch out from time to time, usually to try new ingredients, but otherwise I’m just fine where I am at this point.
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Podcasts are great - I listen to them while I brew! Often I get a new idea to try out on the very next beer to be brewed. Sometimes, I just listen for the entertainment - Denny and Drew fill both slots, quite often.
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Thanks. That’s the idea.
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Hello! Personally, my brewing elevated a lot with becoming a BJCP judge. I learned an awful lot studying, and taking the tasting exam. When you judge you meet many professional brewers as well as many homebrewers and judges to gain a lot of knowledge from.
Local homebrew clubs can be fun, you have to try them out to find your fit. Some are more like a social hour, and others actually help each other get better without “putting you down” for not knowing something. Also, there are many, many different ways to brew a great beer…one person’s opinion may not be the path to your best result.
I also found a course by Charlie Bamforth on Coursera. It was pretty intense, but I knocked it out over a few months and learned an awful lot. I learned that the supplementary materials are not necessary but you do need to take notes during the lectures.
Happy brewing!
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I’ll check both out! Thanks for the suggestion.
Thank you for this feedback - for some folks, classes can be helpful, in addition to the wealth of podcasts, videos, forums, etc. I’ve taken cooking classes that significantly upped my game on something I considered myself already good at; “you don’t know what you don’t know.” I was looking at that Coursera course on beer quality. Did you audit it for free, or pay for it?
Agree on homebrew clubs - my brief experience before several household moves separated me from access to clubs for a long while was how welcoming and fun they are, and how much you can learn. The judging exam studies are a great idea too.
Last thought - @denny, if I were at your plateau, I’d be happy there too. 
Agree completely with these sentiments. Everyone learns differently- classes do it for me. Glad podcasts, videos, and books work best for some. I’ve enjoyed each of them. As a longtime member of a brew club that I genuinely love, couldn’t agree more about how great they can be!
I think you overestimate me
Biggest improvement in my brewing came from all grain and using good ingredients. After that I would say it’s pretty much incremental and dialing in recipes that you like
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Two things that helped me improve were joing a club with many good brewers that gave great feedback, the second was becoming a BJCP judge.
What I miss is more books like Scott Janish’ book on hops, i.e. books where some competent persons reads through a lot of research and sums up and discusses the results in a language ordinary people can understand.
Or: I miss more stuff like Cade Jobe’s podcasts (The Brülab) where people engaged in actual research are interviewed.
In short: I want more access to what’s going where new knowledge is produced.
I’m fairly happy with my beer, but I’m still wanting to improve, because my beer can definitely be improved. And I definitely think that the better you understand the processes, the better your beer will get. That’s what I have experienced. And I’m absolutely not happy with my understanding of very many details. I’m both curious and dissatisfied
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I am no professional brewer. I do seem to be a professional reader. ((One of the joys of being partially disabled.)) I think that if you feel you are at a plateau, enjoy it while you can. Like some of the respondents have said above, if you come across something during your brewing process, look into that detail. In a past career iteration, I was always looking for something new to learn. After awhile it stopped being fun because I was always trying to learn and practice different things. Over time I found myself enjoying the activity less and less as I spent most of my time working in minutae rather than focusing on the enjoyment of the experience. This is just my 2 cents on your post. Just keep it up and have fun. Remember “Relax and drink a homebrew!”