When you’re 32, having dedicated 19 years to studying seems like a preposterous amount of time. It’s not only more than half my life but I'd reach the point when I never thought I’d pick up another textbook unless it was under pressure from my mum who wants the family home clear.
Having said that, I’ve watched a lot of TV and spent a fair amount of time scrolling on my phone since that last exam so you have to wonder whether, despite years of experience, study is something of which I'm capable.
It’s those thoughts that run through my head as I make my way to Melbourne's Docklands, to start the Wine & Spirit Education Trust’s Level 2 Beer Award. This intermediate course is aimed at anyone looking to expand their knowledge of beer and, while WSET’s history stretches back to the 1960s, this part of their offering is quite new. The UK-based educational organisation only announced its expansion into beer last year after decades teaching wine, spirits and sake to industry professionals and eager consumers.
Over the coming three days, alongside eight others, we learn about beer’s ingredients, how beer is made, how to serve it, and the nuts and bolts of more than 60 beer styles from Jayne Lewis, the Two Birds co-founder who helped launch WSET in Australia before starting in a new role with Melbourne Royal. We’ll also get to drink some beer along the way, which is a nice reminder of the best part of my lengthy educational career: first year Arts.
As for the course itself, in a sign of just how fresh it is, many of those learning beside me are studying the Level 2 course ahead of being certified as WSET educators themselves. My fellow students have gathered from different parts of Australia as well as Asia; among them are wine salespeople, brewery founders, bottleshop employees and bar owners.
One is Brian Bartusch, who founded Beervana in Thailand around 12 years ago. It's unrelated to the beer festival in Wellington and instead specialises in importing and distributing craft beer in his adopted home.
“It’s all about educating people where I live about how beer shouldn’t be an afterthought,” Brian says. “It’s a lot more than why you buy at 7/11 or a supermarket.”
For the most part, Brian distributes American craft beer but he also brings in some Australian breweries’ offerings, including Hawkers, while also running a brewing company of his own. His desire to become a WSET educator stems from a wish to foster a greater appreciation of beer in Thailand.
The country has a rigid alcohol system that has effectively outlawed small breweries and, while such laws have loosened, Brian sees even more exciting developments in the future. He hopes that more knowledgeable bar workers selling beer will pass on their passion and excite more people.
“We’re just hoping to elevate the knowledge and build the community,” Brian says. “We really want to promote better knowledge amongst servers and bar owners.
“I think education is the roundabout way of building more interest in beer anywhere. For us, that ultimately leads to selling more of it.”
Brian plans to run a class in Thailand around once a quarter, with his classes looking similar to those taught here by Briony Liebich, the Adelaide-based sensory gun behind Flavour Logic. Briony runs her current courses at Bowden Cellars and says the students are drawn both from those working in beer and also passionate consumers or homebrewers.
“It’s about a half-half split between enthusiast and industry, which I think is fabulous,” Briony says. “People learn from each other and there’s a real mix of knowledge in there.”
Among Briony’s current cohort are bar and bottleshop employees as well as brewery front-of-house and marketing staff; Briony sees people in those roles, as well as those in sales, being boosted by the coursework since they're talking to new craft consumers.
“I think it’s working well for people who know a bit about beer, it confirms their knowledge and boosts their confidence,” she says.
“Someone in the course was just serving beer at the Royal Adelaide Show and she felt she was serving it a lot more confidently and knew more about what she was pouring.”
Indeed, unlike TAFE and universities courses in different parts of the country, WSET isn’t there to teach people to brew. As with the Cicerone beer courses that have been running in Australia for a number of years, the WSET Awards are more focused on beer’s building blocks as well as how to serve and look after it.
Brian, who hopes to see more bartenders in Thailand develop a broader knowledge of what beer can be, was impressed with the structure of the course material. As someone who has worked in beer for more than a decade and has loved it for far longer, Brian already knew plenty but still found it a good way to understand the basics of what is a very broad world of knowledge.
“It’s very logical and systematic, which is impressive,” Brian says. “So, going through it myself, it was a little slow for me, but you do really retain the knowledge.
“I know it’s a brand new course but I was very impressed; they teach it in a way that beginners can really access the information.”
Indeed, WSET’s Systematic Approach to Tasting (SAT) certainly lives up to the name: as we move from samplings lagers to a brown ale, there’s a common approach, from appearance, nose and palate before making an assessment.
Briony, who’s been in the sensory business for more than a decade, says this systemic approach helps people really think through each beer, no matter whether hops or a funky yeast are the star.
“I think I taste more consistent and use more consistent, descriptive language,” she says. “The tasting structure makes you think about malt, hops and yeast aromas so it doesn’t lead me to where I’m expecting.
“If it’s a hazy IPA, I don’t jump straight into the hops; I think about what could be coming from the yeast or the malt.”
With Cicerone courses, much of the study is self-guided, but the majority with WSET takes place in the classroom. Other than being beneficial to someone like myself who’s frankly spent too much of his life doing homework, Briony says it helps ensure the basics are reinforced ready to be built upon.
“I'm not saying it's easy but it's guided and you’re provided the materials,” she says. “So you’re not distracted by the whole world of beer knowledge out there, it’s more essentials.”
Mionie Kim already had an incredible depth of beer knowledge but was drawn to WSET because of its long established and global record in education.
“WSET is quite famous for wine education; everyone knows it,” she says.
“I wanted to do it to give myself more credit in what I’m teaching. We don’t have many options to study beer in South Korea, so I think this helps.”
Mionie runs a "beer-tasting bar" in Seoul, a term she uses quite deliberately due to the way in which the wonderfully-titled Fermented Ghost operates.
“I wanted to create a different occasion to a normal pub; an environment to educate people and a place to experience beer differently,” she says.
Having started out homebrewing, Mionie has gone on to study as a beer sommelier at Doemens Academy, works closely on events with brewers, bars and restaurants in South Korea, and often travels to judge beer.
“I made a lot of beer but it never tasted good, so I started studying,” Mionie says, “and I’ve studied a lot.
“I found myself very good at tasting and presenting beer to people.”
It's certainly hard to think of a local equivalent of Fermented Ghost, with Mionie’s beer-tasting bar only having space for around a dozen people. The private tastings she hosts might match the seasons but can be far more bespoke.
“Before they book, I ask about their preference for their everyday life and their mood,” Mionie explains. “We talk a lot and I design something to make them happy with beer.”
As we return to the classroom and I count how many coffees I had over lunch to ensure I can make it through the afternoon, I think of Brian's comments about wanting to build a better appreciation for beer and his need to work with a lot of beer servers and bar owners in order to achieve his goal. I think of how tough the past couple of years have been for the craft beer industry, and the look of dread in the eyes of many industry veterans due to how beer is on the decline and fears that craft will fail yo capture younger drinkers.
I think about the group of Cicerones who launched a community here last year to advocate for beer at a grassroots level across the country. Surely, with more education, craft beer in Australia still has many new drinkers waiting to be found.
When Brian started Beervana 12 years ago, if you wanted something other than a pale lager in Thailand your options were Guinness and Hoegaarden. Today, there are hundreds of different labels made by Thai people as well as a market for the beers he imports.
“It’s gone from zero to who knows where next?” he says.
“I do feel like we’re on the edge of the revolution in Thailand.”
And maybe, once the wider economy recovers, and with a fresh focus on beer education, we could be due another one here. After all, five years of history did teach me that revolutions do come around again and again…
If you'd like to find out more about WSET's courses across Australia, head here.
Will Ziebell is a history graduate who knows more about The Wire than he does about beer. He was awarded the AIBA Best Media trophy for 2018; HBO have told him to please send his fan mail elsewhere. He can be found on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
The beer(s) or moment(s) that turned you on to good beer:
Spending time living in the UK (and backpacking across Europe) when I was 21 certainly gave me a better understanding of the beer and different styles of the world. But I'd say it was a holiday to the High Country a little while later when lunch and a tasting paddle at Bridge Road Brewers created an obsession with Australian breweries and locally made beer.
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
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Boatrocker's Miss Pinky: It's a raspberry-packed Berliner Weisse that neither looks or tastes the way many people conceive of beer.
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Bad Shepherd Hazelnut Brown: A luscious mix of chocolate and hazelnut that can appeal to the sweet tooth within us all.
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Stone & Wood Pacific Ale: As the father of my oldest friend once said to me: "It's the perfect refreshing pint that smells like they've loaded it with the God's herb."
The last beer you enjoyed:
Garage Project's DFA while sitting at the bar at Miss Moses as the sounds of The Rolling Stone drifting in the background.
Three things that represent you:
- Bruce Springsteen
- Ken Burns
- The State Library of Victoria
