by James Payne, August 31, 2018

Now that I have finished my culinary degree and am focusing on Hospitality, it’s been weird not working with food all day. This quarter, I took a class that made me feel like I was back in the kitchen, without even being in the kitchen or even in my chef whites. This summer quarter I took the Intro to Beer, Wines and Spirits class. I have learned so much from this class and it’s at the top of my list for favorite classes to take at Kendall.

While it has its advantages to take this class when you’re over 21, it also gave me a chance to taste all different types of beverages that I have never had before. I would say that 98% of the different wines, beers and spirits that we tasted throughout this class were totally new to me. I never really was a fan of beer before this class. But, after tasting multiple types of brewers, styles and varieties of beers, I finally found a few I liked. I learned that the beers I tried in the past were either poor quality or too hop focused as the main flavor profile. I learned that I like sweet stouts or milk stouts. One example is a milk stout nitro from the Left Hand Brewing Company which we tried in class.  The barley malt used in this beer is very dark, which gives it its dark color and coffee-like flavor and aroma. I like this because it helps to mask the dryness from the hops.

Overall, this class helped me mix my culinary knowledge of flavors in food with flavors and aromas in beer, wine and spirits. I can’t wait to take the mixology class next quarter!