By Chris Leguizamon
In my eyes, an instructional book on beer is just like a museum, with well-appointed rooms providing insights on rich brewing cultures, histories and techniques. If you are in the market for a multifaceted educational project, I would like to be your museum tour guide via my upcoming Virtual Book Club. Starting at 5 p.m. on May 16, I will be walking participants through my favorite beer book, The Beer Bible – First Edition by Jeff Alworth. On this beer journey, we will cement broad concepts and fundamental topics through audio, visual and even taste experiences. This is a call for the beer curious, enthusiasts and professionals alike to feed off each other’s energy and learn together in an effort to raise the standard of beer knowledge!
This project is about mentorship and bringing the beer community together over a great book. With multiple guests from around the globe, viewers will get a front row seat to how these subjects covered in the featured book have been experienced from different perspectives in real life. We will cover the assigned pages for each session and expand on the topics even further with the goal of making the concepts covered digestible no matter viewers’ levels of expertise. Also, let’s say when we cover lambic-making that you have a question on turbid mash, come ready with those questions because they will be happily answered in real time. The goal is for all of us to learn from each other and grow together. Each session will be an open discussion that will average an hour or so, but if everything is flowing organically, we won’t abide by a time limit.
The Virtual Book Club will run through late December. Each month there will be two sessions and each session will cover two-to-three sections of the book. A full schedule can be viewed online. Sessions will be broadcast live on my Instagram account, then categorized care of Instagram TV for you to access at any time, so you can get the full experience whether you watch real-time or recorded sessions. But first, you’ll need your Virtual Book Club materials, starting with the book!
As a beer-book fan, I know firsthand how expensive building an educational library can get, especially when newer editions are slated for future release. To avoid this conundrum, I’ve teamed up with the owner of The Homebrewer, George Thornton, and the amazing people at Workman Publishing. We are running a promotion that will make beer education more affordable and will keep your bookcase from toppling over. From now through September 13, you will be able to support your local homebrew shop by preordering The Beer Bible – Second Edition, which will debut in September with 25% more, all-new material, and receive a complimentary ebook so you can follow along with this Virtual Book Club series. Click here to take advantage of this great deal.
Now, let’s talk beer. We all have busy lives, so fitting in time for hitting up bottle shops in search of specific beers to evaluate can be difficult. So, I’ve conspired with the stellar squad at Bottlecraft to create curated monthly six-packs that will help us taste our way through the reading. If you’re a local, simply fill out the sign-up sheet (which I’ll post the link to on my Instagram account each month) and indicate which of Bottlecraft’s five San Diego County locations where you’d like to pick up your kit. Your first kit will include a reusable tote to make pick-up a breeze and future pick-ups way more eco-friendly. Win, win! And if picking up your kit isn’t an option, Bottlecraft will gladly ship it to you directly (additional shipping and handling fees apply, excluding delivery to Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas or Utah excluded). Boom!
Now that you have the beer and text taken care of, it’s time to sharpen your sensory skills. Teaming up with sensory scientist Lindsay Barr from DraughtLab, we will be syncing their tasting app, Sample Ox, with the beers we have curated for the club. On my beer journey, I have been fortunate to work around some incredible beer judges and, at this point of my career, I want to provide that for others. With its user-friendly setup and vast glossary of relatable sensory descriptors, Sample Ox will be the perfect tool for that.
Finally, you can catch monthly recap articles right here at San Diego Beer News. I will go over key points from the recorded segments and topics that deserve some extra attention. This will be a perfect way to bring in people who do not use Instagram but want to follow along.
We will be taking advantage of Instagram Live’s recently launched Live Rooms, a fantastic feature that allows us to have up to three guests on a stream. This means that if you are interested in joining in on a topic or know someone who is perfect for one, we can potentially use this platform to bring our talents to the worldwide beer community. Let’s work together as a team to drop knowledge on others. If you’re interested in collaborating, just DM me on Instagram.
At its heart, this entire initiative is about brining people together, so spread the word, tag your beer-loving (and beer-curious) friends, and let’s make beer education more accessible for all. If you would like more information about it or have any questions, just ask me on Instagram (@chris.thebeereducator).