I've Been Accepted...

Congrats!, I really need to get back to you on grabbing that beer :P

Do it!!

And post a copy of the recipe for that beer! I'm an amateur brewer and would love an extract version (haven't made the jump yet to all-grain).

I'd definitely agree that this is one of life's defining moments. Do what it takes to make it happen. Marriage, career, kids, will all come, but this is one thing that you will never regret.

aussiesmg wrote: How about those of us who can do a whip around and raise a few $ for you, if that works out next time you come to the challenge bring some samples. Would this interest you?

That sounds like an awesome plan! I don't have a paypal account yet, but I'll put one together. I would really appreciate it and would absolutely show up with a keg or case of beer for the challenge to kinda-sorta start to repay people who have helped me out!

Teh E36 M3 wrote: And post a copy of the recipe for that beer! I'm an amateur brewer and would love an extract version (haven't made the jump yet to all-grain).

I've decided to become a bit protective of my recipes. I'll share with cool people, but have decided not to post full recipes online. I'll PM you my extract with grains recipe.

I haven't jumped to all grain yet either. Most of my stuff is all extract with grains. I typically do about a 5# mash in a nylon mesh paint strainer bag. I do not have a mash tun. I mash in my brewpot in my oven. "Warm" keeps the temp at about 150#, and I just fine tune from there.

I've gotten to be a HUGE fan of New Zealand hops, and highly recommend any brewers tracking some down and experimenting. Nelson Sauvin is my favorite hop.

Just let us know the paypal address and those of us who can or just enjoy a drop of the amber gold can help you along the way.

Steve

aussiesmg wrote: Just let us know the paypal address and those of us who can or just enjoy a drop of the amber gold can help you along the way.

I have a regular personal paypal account. I've never done this before, but it looks like I don't need to set up anything fancier to receive payments. The e-mail address to send funds to is:

salanis42@yahoo.com

dollraves wrote: Congrats! Definitely post details on the Porsche and the van. I'm in the Bay area and have a few friends looking for track cars right now.

Car is a Porsche 944Spec '88 924S. Currently asking $8,500. I'm located in Sacramento. Just put the ad up here: http://grm.racingjunk.com/category/1084/NASA_GTS_Challenge/post/2200345/Porsche-944Spec-.html

Van is a 2004 Chevy Astro AWD passenger van with about 100k on the clock. I'm not planning to sell it until after the race car sells. When I do, I'll probably be asking $4,000 for that. Someone who wants to buy both vehicles at once will get a nice discount.

I also have a '94 Miata that I don't know how I feel about parting with. I'll need a vehicle when I get back, but could buy my girlfriend's Accord for cheap. Without a race car, I'd kind of like to at least have one toy.

So...I'm guessing this acceptance is what prompted the avatar? BTW, I'm looking at your new hat.

psteav wrote: So...I'm guessing this acceptance is what prompted the avatar? BTW, I'm looking at your new hat.

No, I've had this avatar for a while. It was prompted by the anniversary of the ratification of the 18th amendment. Incidentally, that's when I brewed my awesome NZ Amber!

How much does this school cost and could you get a small business loan for similar size?

Salanis wrote:

psteav wrote: So...I'm guessing this acceptance is what prompted the avatar? BTW, I'm looking at your new hat.

No, I've had this avatar for a while. It was prompted by the anniversary of the ratification of the 18th amendment. Incidentally, that's when I brewed my awesome NZ Amber!

Regardless, congratulations, Beer Baron. Perhaps you could get to Germany by catapult?

PHeller wrote: How much does this school cost and could you get a small business loan for similar size?

I'm not too partial to discussing money... but tuition and materials is $13,800 EUR, which is about $20k. On top of that, I need to put together living expenses for 6-months abroad, travel, and things like clothes and a laptop. Then some safety net to get back on my feet when I return to the States.

I've pretty much got the money figured out at this point. My mom, after budgeting to be unemployed for another year, just got a job, and is going to give me roughly the tuition cost. I'm working on selling my race car and van, and estimating roughly $10k from that. If I sell my Miata an buy the girlfriend's Accord, that will net me another $2k-$3k (but I'm not sure I like having no toy cars). My grandparents have offered to help me, but I'm not sure how much that will be. I've also got another $9.5k in loans lined up from my bank. I've got a few other angles I'm working that should bring me another $2k without too much trouble, and possibly as much as $5k. I'm pretty confident.

This is not to belittle the offers of help I've gotten from this board, because that has been completely awesome, and I love you folks. This has all been stuff that's been pulled together in the past 24-36 hours. I am still planning to come to challenge in the next couple years and bring a keg or two, even if I don't bring a car.

Asking for loans was interesting. Going up to the loan manager at a bank and saying, "I'm planning to study brewing in Germany and want to see what kind of loan I can get," is a question they will have never been asked before. I got some really interesting facial expressions. The full business loan will come into play when/if I open my own brewery, but that probably won't be for another 3-7 years down the road.

Sounds like you have yourself together. My biggest regret in life was not being able to pull the money together to study in Japan for six months when I had gotten an invitation from a couple of professors at a university when I was 19. Go you for getting this, and getting there!

I've forwarded the Porsche ad around down here, hopefully it will sell quick!

And, when you're back, you and your kegs have an open invitation to caravan with me to any Challenge. ;)

Congrats, man, that's awesome. I may be the resident GRM brewer, but you'll be able to talk circles around me soon, I don't have any formal training other than reading some brewing texts! Once you get a brewing job, you will come home back-aching, coughing up grain dust, pulling hop pellets out of your shoes, cleaning gunk from under your fingernails, but you will pop open a beer and know that you brewed it. And that makes it worth it.

go for it! (I like dark beers if you are looking for new products to experiment with)

Twin_Cam wrote: Congrats, man, that's awesome. I may be the resident GRM brewer, but you'll be able to talk circles around me soon, I don't have any formal training other than reading some brewing texts! Once you get a brewing job, you will come home back-aching, coughing up grain dust, pulling hop pellets out of your shoes, cleaning gunk from under your fingernails, but you will pop open a beer and know that you brewed it. And that makes it worth it.

Haha! Thanks for the encouragement. I'm looking forward to honest, dirty, and genuinely creative work.

I've mentioned to people that I've met two professions where everyone who works in them says they have the greatest job in the world and wouldn't trade it for anything: firefighters and brewers.

I'd like to go far with it, and wasn't sure whether the answer is to start with practical or formal training. I've pretty much decided that I need both, and the order I get them in doesn't matter too much. The formal training opportunity came first, so that's what I'm doing first. Interestingly, I now get taken a lot more seriously by local breweries when I come in saying I'd like a part time position while waiting to go to brewing school in Germany.

I'm going to start making introduction of myself with breweries around the country, saying that I'd love to have a position with them when I return. I'm going down to San Diego in June, and plan to hit about ten breweries while there (Stone and Lost Abbey are my top 2 in that area). Oh, and I found out that my Great Aunt goes to church with one of the founders of North Coast.

Cool, that sounds like a great program! Congrats!

I'm not really sure where I'm going to be in January but if I'm still here I'll buy you a - well, I guess you're going to have the beer part well covered won't you? - whisky.

The big German brewers can be a bit stodgy but there are a lot of little independent ones that aren't afraid to be creative with their recipes. I don't think you'll find any of them in the US though, they're usually hard to find in the next town over.

Berlin is an awesome town, I really like it. Feel free to hit me up if you need someone on the ground to check out apartments for you or whatever.

Jay wrote: Cool, that sounds like a great program! Congrats! I'm not really sure where I'm going to be in January but if I'm still here I'll buy you a - well, I guess you're going to have the beer part well covered won't you? - whisky. The big German brewers can be a bit stodgy but there are a lot of little independent ones that aren't afraid to be creative with their recipes. I don't think you'll find any of them in the US though, they're usually hard to find in the next town over. Berlin is an awesome town, I really like it. Feel free to hit me up if you need someone on the ground to check out apartments for you or whatever.

Oh, awesome! Glad to see there's another GRM guy in that area.

I'd been figuring that a lot of the German brewers will be set in their ways, and those ways may not quite jive with the more radical West Coast approach to brewing. I still figure I'll have a lot to learn from their science, precision, and quality control though.

I will absolutely hit you up about checking out apartments! That would be a huge favor for me that I've been wondering about. The school sent me some suggested locations that have fairly convenient pre-furnished rooms. It would still be helpful to have someone help scout locations for me though. I'm also working on getting used to the different address formats, in trying to find something located conveniently to the school. It looks like I shouldn't have too much trouble finding a convenient underground line though.

The transit network in Berlin is first class. I never bother to take my car into the city anymore, I just hop on a train. (I live in a nearby town, about 20 minutes away.) I can't think of any areas you really, really want to avoid. The school is in Wedding, which is fairly quiet and gentrified with lots of young families... Nearby Tiergarten & Charlottenburg are the same. (That doesn't mean there's nothing to do though, especially as you can get anywhere you want easily using the transit system!) Kreuzberg is the party town & nightlife area, with lots of immigrants and students, but it can be a little rough around the edges (I'd have no problem walking through it at night though.) Prenzlauerberg is the same idea but more swanky and upscale.

One thing to watch out for when cruising the adverts is that all of them will ask for a "caution" - which is a security deposit which you get back. For some places, especially ones being rented by a big management company (an unfortunately large part of the market in Berlin), they will also ask for a "provision" which is just a bilk-fee, and can be up to like €600 or more. Not worth it unless you plan to stay several years. Fortunately a lot of them are listed "provisionfrei" these days.

Warmmiete (warm rent) means with utilities, kaltmiete is just the base price without.

This won't really be a problem if you're looking at furnished places, but an unfurnished apartment quite frequently WILL NOT come with a kitchen or light fixtures! The previous tenants will take the stove & appliances with them when they move! Look for ones that include an "einbaukuche" (built in kitchen) to avoid this.

It's actually surprisingly cheap here compared to other major European cities (or even to other places in Germany like Düsseldorf). You should be able to get something pretty nice for €500/month for an unfurnished place or €700 furnished.

I've PM'ed you. I'm looking pretty small. I figure I'm going to mostly be studying and travelling around, so pretty much just need a small studio to sleep, shower, and eat breakfast in. I'm thinking of this more like a college dorm room than a full apartment. I'm finding furnished places that fit my needs for €300/month - €600/month.