Beer Education | Aunty Jacks - Ballarat's Brewery

Craft Beer Centre for Excellence

At Aunty Jacks we run a variety of beer and brewing events and courses. These are designed to enjoy the variety of different flavours and styles of beer in and entertaining fashion. We can provide flavour training, training in beer service and styles and for those that want it – the science of beer!

All good fun, and can be educational too!

We can also provide bespoke beer and brewing training for your personal or employees’ needs. For example, team building or Cicerone® training.

Brewing Courses & Activities

Brew for a Day

Ever wanted to brew your own beer…. on a commercial brewery? Come and spend a day with our team where you will produce 1000 L of wort and start the fermentation process.

While we’re brewing we’ll discuss the process emphasising where all the flavours come from. To finish the day, we will undertake some taste testing, followed by a cleansing pint! Our team will finish the beer and keg it off, ready for the launch 4-6 weeks later.
For more information contact us, or check secure a spot here

Beer Styles and Beer Service Bootcamp

This 2-day course covers the characteristics, history and production of a range of different beer styles. We also cover important aspects of handling and serving beer. Informal seminars/discussions are complemented with tastings of individual beer styles.

It is two days of beer fun, but is also designed to provide the information and learning materials required to complete the Cicerone Certified Beer Server® exam. It is presented by our brewers Peter Aldred, Certified Cicerone® and/or Matt Ives, Certified Beer Server®, and occasional guests.

For more information contact us, or check upcoming dates here

The Science of Beer and Brewing

Want to know more about what’s happening in your brewing? This course covers the science and practical aspects of brewing. We will discuss the raw materials and their production; the science of wort production; different yeasts and the fermentation process; and how all of these influence beer flavour. We will also discuss various styles of beer, discuss beer evaluation and taste a range of beer faults.

This course is ideal for those that want to advance the brewing knowledge. During this 4 day course, you will brew on our 1000 L brewery. This course also comprises one of the components of the FBP30121 Certificate III in Food Processing (Brewing) in collaboration with Federation University.
For more information contact us, or check here.

Beer Judging and Evaluation

You will spend a day tasting and discussing the different flavours in beers – where they originate from, which beer styles you’ll find them in, and which shouldn’t be there at all! We’ll take a deep dive into at least 8 different flavours, taste at least 15 different beers from around the world, and challenge your sense of smell and taste, in a great fun environment. Bring your nose, taste buds and sense of humour.
This course has been developed to enhance individuals’ knowledge of flavours in beer, including a range of common beer faults. It is useful for anyone working in the beer industry, beer enthusiasts, homebrewers or as practical preparation for the Certified Cicerone® exam.

For more information contact us, or check for upcoming courses here

Tales & Ales

Spend a pleasant afternoon tasting a range of local and/or international beers. We will discuss the flavours, history and production of the beers in a casual environment. Bring your thirst and sense of humour.

Bookings by request, subject to availability. For more information contact us, or check our events page.

Cicerone Server Readiness Courses

The Cicerone Certification Program offers four levels of certification, beginning with the fundamentals and progressing to the most complex and demanding.

For more information click here

MEET THE Expert

Meet Peter, Aunty Jacks’ doctor… of beer.

Dr Peter Aldred is certified under the Cicerone Certification Program and is an experienced beer judge, having judged at the Brewers Association World Beer Cup, Great American Beer Festival, the Australian International Beer Awards, The Australian Craft Beer Awards and the Brewers Guild of New Zealand awards.

He is formerly Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of Brewing at Federation University Australia, where he was responsible for delivering the University’s acclaimed brewing programs and was Head Brewer at the University’s microbrewery.

On top of his impressive resume, Peter holds a BSc(Hons) and a PhD in Biochemistry from The University of Melbourne and a Diploma of Brewing from The Institute of Brewing & Distilling. He was also a member of the Australian International Beer Awards Technical Advisory Committee, and Chief Steward of the Australian International Beer Awards.

Do you know what all that experience and accolades add up to? Someone who brews some seriously good beer.

BEER BASICS

Beer has a long history. But the basic formula has remained the same for centuries; a careful combination of water, malt, hops, and yeast. There’s obviously a million ways to craft a brew, but here are the basics of how these humble ingredients come together to make one of man’s favourite beverages.

MALT

Malting is a process that prepares grain starches for quicker conversion into sugar (more starch, more sugar). Grains are then dried or roasted to stop the malting process. In short, the longer it’s roasted, the darker the resulting beer.

HOPS

Hops are a magical ingredient with regional variations in flavour and characteristic. Most often associated with bitterness, they’re generally added to the boil stage of brewing to balance the sweetness of the malt.

YEAST

Yeast plays an important role in brewing. Put simply, the yeast eats the sugars in the wort (liquid made from boiling malted grain), and produces alcohol. You could say that yeast turns breakfast into beer.