| BIO |

BIO / Beer Resume ;)

I started brewing kits (brewhouse kits) back in 2000-2005ish as a way to save money on beer while I went to school.  I always had a thing for beer, buying whatever looked cool and different, at the liquor store.  It was not long after that, I found a great homebrew shop in Edmonton called Southside Winning Wines Plus (AKA Brewcrew) that stocked various ingredients and supplies for all-grain brewing (from scratch).  The Owner Andrew, told me about the Edmonton Homebrewers Guild (EHG), which was a group for beer lovers like myself.  We met at the Alley Kat Brewing company once a month to share, discuss, and judge homebrew.  I quickly found myself on the executive helping plan events and competitions for other homebrewers like myself.  This club is where I learned from other great professional and amateur brewers alike.  They taught me the tricks and techniques to brew better ales and lagers than you can buy.

While at the EHG learning to taste beers and develop my pallet I learned about the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP).  This was an in depth course that studied the history, recipes, techniques, and character of every beer style in the world (kind of like a "sommelier" of beer).  Not only did you learn about how a beer was supposed to taste/smell etc, you had to know the faults in beer.  You then had to be able to interpret what caused the fault and give feedback to the brewer during a blind tasting/judging.

The exam lasted about 3 hours and included multiple essays about different styles of beer as well as recipe formulations from memory.  You were then interrupted by proctors that gave you 4 blind tastings to judge anytime during the exam.  Some beers were perfect, some great but just in the wrong category, and some were problematic.  I was fortunate to score as high as you can, above 90%, in both tasting and written portions of the exam.  This score gave me the potential to become the highest rank judge but not without acquiring points from judging at real competitions.  I have earned enough points over the years to reach the National level which I am very proud of.  Eventually, after judging many more competitions there is the potential to reach the Master level which is quite rare.

During all of this time spent in Edmonton with the EHG I was also brewing up a storm!  Sometimes I had up to 8 beers in fermenters at one time preparing for upcoming competitions.  Generally each well established beer club hosts a competition once a year.  Some of them are competitions that are first round for larger National and International competitions.  Over the years I have been successful to win many medals for my homebrew including a few at some international competitions in the USA.  My most prestigious beers were the spiced Christmas/Winter Specialty Ale(cat 21A) and a Pumpkin Spiced ale(cat 21B).

Finally after homebrewing for many years I had an urge to see what it was like in the professional setting. I was fortunate to get a part time job assisting German Brewmaster Gunther at Brewsters Brewing Company in Edmonton.  Gunther was a friend and fellow past homebrewer part of the EHG.  He helped me to understand the differences brewing commercially for profit vs for yourself and competition.  Brewing on such a large scale also proved to have its challenges with understanding how to run, maintain, and troubleshoot specific equipment.  I unfortunately had to quit this job when my "real" job got in the way ;(

Now I live in Central Alberta too far to be a regular member of the EHG or Calgary's Cowtown Yeast Wranglers.  However, I plan to continue brewing and share recipes etc online though this blog with friends and fellow brewers.  I also plan to travel to competitions and help judge when I can to keep up the skills and get more points!

Cheers!

Please contact me if you have any questions or wanna chat beer ;)

kurtstenberg911@hotmail.com