An introduction to Craft Beer

£45
Level: Peer






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Level: Peer

Course overview

In this craft beer course, you'll learn from Matt Simpson, the world's first beer sommelier. Matt will guide you through the types of craft beer, the difference between craft beer and commercial beer, how beer is brewed, and how to choose which beer to pair with food.

By the end of the course, you’ll understand the creation process for beer, craft beer styles, craft beer tasting (appearance, aroma, flavour and mouthfeel), glassware (no plastic cups here, folks) and, importantly, food and beer combinations. You’ll be confident pairing the right beer with various meals, including chocolate, cheese, and desserts.

What you'll learn

  • about using grains, hops, malt, yeast and water in craft beer brewing
  • craft beer brewing processes
  • different craft beer styles around the world
  • beer glasses, storing beer and pairing beer with foods

What's included

  • 4 on-demand video lessons - presented by Matt Simpson
  • lifetime access to the videos, notes and interactive class
  • flexible classes - join and learn when and where you like
  • downloadable lesson notes
  • practical craft beer assignments and recipes (with tutor feedback available)
  • access on your mobile, PC, Mac or laptop
  • small interactive online classroom - chat online with students from around the world and share your creative ideas

How much time you'll need

Every student is different, but in general, we think the whole course will take around 10 hours and 10 minutes to complete, including:

  • Video lessons: 2 hours 10 minutes in total
  • Course notes: 30 minutes per lesson
  • Your craft beer assignments: at least 1 hour per lesson
  • Interactive classroom time: 15 minutes per lesson
  • Tutor feedback review (Expert level): 15 minutes per lesson

What you'll need

You don't need any specific equipment for this course, but you will be tasting craft beer with Matt, so a selection of craft beers as you go through the lessons will help you to understand the differences between different craft beers.

Got any questions?

If you have any questions, please click on the orange speech symbol to contact us. We'd love to hear from you.

Watch course trailer

Lesson summary

Grains, malts, hops, water, yeast
Craft beer creation takes the sugar from grains, boils it with hops and water, cools it down, adds yeast, which eat the sugars, and turns them into carbon dioxide (or, CO2) and alcohol (and a few other things). But more specifically in lesson one we learn about the components that make up craft beers and what the combinations mean. We’ll cover: Hops (plant flowers for bittering): If beer is a soup, the hops are its spice. Water Water may be the most voluminous ingredient in the creation of beer, but for our purposes, it will take a back seat. Yeast In a nutshell, yeast are microorganisms that eat the sugars in the wort (the beer before its fermented) and make alcohol and carbon dioxide (CO2), as their main byproducts…with a bunch of other flavor and aromatic components as well. Malt may be the backbone of beer, water the base and hops the spice…but yeast is the workhorse – the engine – that turns the soup into beer!
How is craft beer made
In order to create a beer, much like any other gourmet dish, you need to formulate a recipe. The brewer selects from all the combinations of grains, water, hops and yeasts available, and comes up with a recipe to match the style guidelines (or personal taste) for which he’s looking to match. Once he/she’s created the recipe, it’s simply a matter of “cooking” the ingredients for their individually required times, volumes and combinations, until the “soup” is just right. In this lesson you will learn the different impacts of the combinations, at that craft beer making is as much art as it is science. You will learn the components of making craft beer in lesson two:
Craft Beer Styles
As a trained and experienced beer judge, I believe that having delineated styles is not only healthy, but necessary. Why? Because without style guidelines and their inherent definitions, competition among brewers – both professional and homebrew – would be impossible. How else would it be possible to compare apples to apples, style for style, entry for entry, and see which brewer is more competent at adhering to a given set of parameters? It wouldn’t. Without someone outlining the levels of bitterness, color, gravity, aroma, flavor, and more - for any given beer type, competitions would be purely hedonic and subjective, not objective and impartial, as any competition should be judged. By the end of lesson three – you will understand the following styles and how they are judged: German Lagers, Ales, Czech Republic/Eastern European German Lagers, Ales, British Ales, American Ales, American Beers, Stouts and Lagers and more.
Beer Tasting, Presentation and Storage
There’s nothing really complicated about drinking beer. You simply pick it up and drink, right? No, not really. Beer is an incredibly complex beverage that commands the respect of a proper pour, an inspecting glance and sniff, and finally, a taste. If you think about what goes into making a beer (water, malt, hops and yeast), then consider how many different varieties of each component there are, then multiply all the possible variations of those ingredients, you’ll realize how many possible variations of this beverage are possible…thousands. Which is what makes the Style Guidelines so important as a baseline. In this final lesson you will come away with the learning outcomes of understanding: Tasting beer properly, beer glassware, beer serving temperatures, and beer and food pairings.

Get the most from peer knowledge

  • Start course whenever you like
  • Practise what you learn with your peers
  • Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
  • Lessons with videos & notes
  • Course assignments
  • Group chat & direct message classmates
  • Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom

meet the expert

Matt Simpson

Craft beer expert with over 20 years of experience, including as a BJCP Certified Judge, Siebel/Doemens Bier Sommelier, and award-winning homebrewer.

Read more

Why choose Learning with Experts?

Start whenever it suits you, and immerse yourself in motivational lesson tutorials with expert guidance.
Enhance your learning and personal growth with lesson assignments. Each course includes an optional assignment at the end of every lesson.
Drop a friendly message or respond to your assignment feedback. Our world-class experts are just a click away, ready to help you!
Stay informed about your own progress and those of your peers, and take joy in celebrating achievements along the way.
Chat and share ideas with passionate communities of learners from around the world.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between PEER and EXPERT levels?

At Peer and Expert level, you get access to the same core content and features:

  • Video lesson tutorials led by your expert tutor
  • Downloadable lesson notes
  • Option to practise what you learn with lesson assignments
  • Group learning within an online interactive classroom of up to 20 classmates
  • Lifetime access to videos, notes and classroom

If you choose Expert level, you get all of the above plus the following:

  • Personalised assignment feedback and coaching from your expert tutor
  • Opportunity to interact with your expert tutor through a private messaging system
  • Certificate of completion.
What is an online classroom?

Our online classroom has been developed to allow you to learn from our experts in a sociable environment alongside up to 20 other students. After each video tutorial led by your expert, you will be encouraged to practice what you have learned with optional assignments - these can be seen by the other students in your class, who are free to share their own thoughts and questions with you.

You will be encouraged to take part in an ongoing class discussion where you can discuss ideas, post images or work, and comment on each other’s assignments. It’s a great way to learn from other like-minded people who share your passion from all over the world.

This means not only do you benefit from people who are outstanding in their field, but also from a close-knit group of like-minded people whom you can learn alongside. Group learning has shown to greatly improve not just the experience of studying, but also how well you retain the knowledge, and we have built our classroom experience around this fact.
When can I start my course and how long will it take?

You can start your course any time within 12 months after receipt of your purchase confirmation email. Once you start, you’ll have lifetime access — meaning you can revisit the lesson videos and notes whenever you want.

Our courses are designed so that you can study at your own pace, some prefer to binge learn while others like to spread their studying over a longer period of time - it’s completely up to you. To give you a rough time frame, each lesson video is approximately 30-40 minutes long, and we recommend that you spend around an hour on each assignment.
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