Introduction

Hello.
My name is Dan, and I've been homebrewing with my dad and his friends for about five years while finishing my history degree at Portland State University. After learning a lot about making beer and becoming more interested in the brewing industry in general, I have decided to dive in head first and sign up for the International Diploma in Brewing Technology program at the Siebel Institute of Technology this fall. As the premier brewing school in the United States, Siebel has been educating brewers since 1872, making it extremely important to the success of the American brewing industry over the past century.
When my friends, family and brewing buddies found out that I was going to Siebel, I felt that I had no choice but to share my experiences over the next three months in blog form. I'll be in Chicago for seven weeks at the Siebel Institute, where I'll be attending classes forty hours a week and exploring the city in my free time. After that, I'll be flying to Germany for the final five weeks of the program: Three weeks at Doemens Academy in Munich and two weeks of travel to different breweries and malt producers. I'm really excited about the next three months of my life and hope to relate many of my experiences through this blog. I'll be leaving on Sunday for Chicago, so check back next week for my first impressions of Siebel.