Siebel Online Course - Advice?

[jheckfas]

I've been homebrewing nearly weekly for a little over a year, and am seriously considering raising some money to begin a micro with a few friends. While we are planning to bring on someone with some commercial experience as part of our business plan, I want to build my knowledge and understanding about the brewing process as well as get a solid overview of commercial brewery operations. My current job is quite demanding, so a correspondence course is my only real option. Does anyone have any experience with the Siebel Web-based Concise Course in Brewing Technology? It appears to be exactly what I'm looking for, but dropping $3,000 necessitates doing a little homework first. Any insight would be much appreciated.

[beauxman]

Seems like this topic gets posted almost monthly, do a search and there has to be many threads that deal with this (most always have a post that says what I am saying here). I can only advise that you are entering an industry that is in challenging times that even experienced players are having issues. You would be well served to arm yourself with as much technical and practical knowledge as you can stand to get. I would suggest a short course balanced with practical on the job experience. I think the long courses are great but have a large up front cost. You might find that working your ass off for low wages isn't as cool as homebrewing. In the grand scheme of things, a few thousand dollars to find out if the investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars and your sanity are worth while....priceless. Well worth the money, even if you don't pursue it or just become an owner that has hired a brewer. In fact, I would say that even if you hire a brewer, you should take the short course. The short course doesn't make you an expert brewer, it just gives you a great foundation for additional brewery education or a great foundation for an owner/manager. If nothing else, you will appreciate what your brewer has to deal with on a daily basis. I did the American Brewers Guild program. It does not make me a master brewer but I am a better brewer and owner for it. It really comes down to you get out of it what you put into it, regardless of the school or book. In my opinion, the greater valuable knowledge is business knowledge. I have said it many times, the brewery is a business, we just happen to make something wonderful that we can drink. The successfull brewer in this maturing industry is not only a hophead, but a savvy business person as well. That being said, brewery school is not the only way in. The other way is the school of hard knocks. Get in the business any way you can and work your way up. Some of the best craft brewers have not had formal training, but they have worked hard to develop their knowledge and experience outside of a traditional classroom.

[tariq khan]

I agree with Beauxman, before you shell out a lot of cash on a course it would be good idea to give it a lot of thought first. Personally I woudn't do a course that didn't involve some type of work placement/experience as well. You can get all the academic info you need from the many brewing textbooks out there. I think getting some practical experience in the brewhouse, even if it were short-term would be really beneficial to someone wanting to start up a brewery.

T