(An inspiring statue outside the UC Davis libray)

I’ll freely admit that being away from the classroom for 3 weeks and in an actual brewery for my internship was certainly a nice change of pace.  The downside to that is you’ve had just enough time to get out of school mode, which wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t greeted with a mock exam the day I came back to Davis.  The focus of the program over the next couple weeks according to the syllabus, is to look at the exams over the past 5 years and see what types of questions seem to reoccur each time around and to practice answering them.  This will be approached in a variety of ways 1) In open forum class discussions 2) In small groups 3) Timed practice exams.  Seems pretty straightforward right?  Well..... yes and no.

There are indeed certain categories of questions that you do know will be on the exams, but there is so much information on each one of them that you really don’t know which direction they’re going to go with it.  That means you’ve got to cram as many details as you can from all angles regarding every subject area we covered into your head.  Trust me, it is as hard as it sounds.  The other X- Factor is the actual examiner.  The IBD chooses a single person to grade the exams, which I assume is to provide some sort of consistency in their expectations of a quality answer in a given year.  The notes of the previous examiners are provided to us for each question over the past five years that was presented to candidates.  Some of them seemed to be somewhat forgiving and gave great feedback.  Others, such as the examiner from 2009 and for our class in 2010, seem to think that inadequate answers are borderline insulting and their feedback can be marginally useful and very brief.  So what kind of questions do they ask?  I’ll share a few from each module so you have an idea of what I’m talking about:

Module 1 - Materials & Wort

Describe the basic principles of design and operation of a specified malting system.  Explain what parameters are controlled in operations of steeping, germination and kilning, and the significance of their control.

Outline the theory and practical features of the different wort separation techniques.  Discuss their respective merits in relation to run-off rates, extract recovery and wort quality.

Discuss the relevance of brewhouse pipework, vessels and ancillary plant hygiene management.  Your answer should include an evaluation of the risks involved.  Outline the range and main constituents of commercially available cleaning agents and explain how their actions can be evaluated.  Describe typical cleaning regimes which are operated in a brewhouse to ensure hygiene control.

Module 2 - Yeast & Beer

Outline methods by which the brewing yeast strains may be preserved in the laboratory as pure cultures.  Describe the techniques that may be employed to assure yeast identity and genetic stability.

Outline the design, operation and application of the following filtration systems.
a) Powder
b) Cross-flow
c) Sterile

With the aid of fully labeled diagrams, describe the key features of a typical, actively fermenting, brewing yeast cell and outline the functions of the sub-cellular organelles and structures, as seen in electron micrographs.  Outline the methods for distinguishing lager yeasts from ale yeasts.

Module 3 - Packaging & Process Technology

Describe the precautions that need to be taken the minimize the pickup of oxygen from bright beer tank to final bottle and can.  Explain in detail the filling and closing operations for cans and glass bottles differ in these measures to minimize oxygen pickup.

Describe, with sketches and with typical values for time, temperature and pressure, the cleaning, sterilization and filling cycles of a multi-stage keg cleaning/filling machine.

Define the terms repeatabilty, r(95), and reproducibility, R(95), when applied to the analysis of packaged beer and discuss their relevance to packaging operations.  Explain the difference between the accuracy and the precision of a set of results of measurements made on packaged beer.  The table below (Imagine a table with a bunch of numbers on it) contains laboratory measurements of the contents of 20 bottles of 500ml nominal capacity taken at random from a beer bottle filler.  If the tolerable negative error (TNE) for 500ml nominal bottles is 15.0 ml, calculate the mean of the data and describe what actions should be taken.

(End of the sample questions)

I didn’t even get to show you some of the math crazy questions since they would have been way too long to fit into this blog, but I think you get the picture now.  With the varied backgrounds of some people in the class, certain sections will come easy to certain people, others will not.  One thing I know is that no one has it all down at this point and we all have some serious studying to do.  I never saw anything like this before the program began and I think I may have been a bit scared if I did.  My advice to anyone out there considering enrolling is don’t let these questions intimidate you.  If you want it bad enough, you will learn AND be able to talk/write about things you never thought you you’d be capable of.  You may not get it all, but you will get enough to take a good crack it.  

Next Week:  Lunch at Dr. Lewis’s house & potential job opportunities.

Questions or Comments?  Feel free to email me at beereaucrat@gmail.com