Graduation #1 (of 2)

So it all started roughly 12 weeks ago in snow covered Chicago. While a some of the guys (and gal) knew each other before hand, it is safe to say that we all made lasting friendships during our journey. The culmination of 7 weeks of intense classwork in Chicago, paired with the practical segments and also intense classwork at Doemens, and the European Brewing Tour we had finally arrived at, for some, the halfway point and for others, the end. It is for certain that many of us will be in touch for the rest of our lives as we share setbacks and successes (hopefully more successes than setbacks).


We had a nice lunch at a small restaurant near Doemens and Lyn Kruger made the trek to Germany to deliver our certificates. Our fearless WBA president, Michael Eder, had some beer from his brewery on hand for the celebrations.


Nice little setting right by the small river that runs through Grafelfing.


It wasn't really a place for pictures as it was a time to gather and celebrate what we had accomplished.


Lucky that this man won't be going anywhere and we will be spending the next two months together for the Master Brewer Program. All in all, there are eight of us remaining for the Master's program and we will be joined by twelve new faces. I am sure there are some amazing times to be had.

Thanks to social networking we have been able to keep in touch and many of our peers have already gotten jobs with some great breweries! It is going to be interesting to see where these talented individuals go in life. Thankfully the students are pretty evenly distributed all over the U.S. so road trips and great beer await!

Location:Grafelfing, Germany