Discover the Best Brewing Classes in NYC
If you’re interested in creating great coffee, tea, beer, or kombucha, brewing classes may be a great investment for you. Brewing consists of choosing appropriate ingredients, preparing and mixing them properly, and serving the drink when it’s done. It’s a skill you can learn at home in your New York City apartment or through in-depth training. The best brewing classes in NYC teach you these skills with a hands-on and immersive learning experience.
Why You Should Learn Brewing in NYC
Learning about brewing can benefit you in two main ways. First, it can teach you a fun and productive new hobby with many uses. For example, you can brew delicious beers and give them to friends and family members as gifts. You can also save yourself money on beer, tea, and coffee purchases by brewing drinks more suited to your taste.
Secondly, you can use brewing skills to make money in a few ways. For example, you can join NYC’s impressive coffee shop scene as a barista or even open a coffee shop to serve your community. If you already have a good job and don’t want to change it, you can brew beer, coffee, and tea and sell it online as a side hustle. In this way, you can earn extra money to make NYC life more affordable.
In-Person Brewing Classes & Schools in NYC
Learning brewing with an in-person professor can help you master this skill more effectively and ensure you understand each brewing step. Thankfully, New York City provides many high-quality classes and schools you can use to improve your abilities and become a better and more effective brewer. Each of these programs focus on different subjects.
For example, some classes provide training for beginner-level brewers, including people with no experience. These courses cover basic brewing steps, as well as taste-testing techniques, you can use to produce better drinks. More advanced programs help you prepare for a brewing career and expand your knowledge into more complex topics, like hops management.
Before choosing an in-person brewing class in NYC, it’s important to understand the class’s scope and length, as well as class size and cost. The following programs include some of the most popular and effective brewing training options in New York City. Read through each listing to decide which best fits your skills and interests.
Brewshop 101: Home Brewing Essentials
Brewshop 101: Home Brewing Essential is a Bitters & Esters course that teaches you how to make beer at home. It includes an average class size of 12 and an age minimum of 21 for all attendees. People of all skill levels can attend, but the class is focused on beginners. During your training, you get hands-on support from a professor with years of brewing experience.
Subjects covered include beer ingredients and brewing, taste testing, fermenting, and storing your beer. When you’re finished, you’ll have brewed a five-gallon batch of beer. You’ll handle each step yourself, including the initial brewing, storing, flavoring, and fermenting tracking processes. In this way, you get the knowledge needed to understand this complex process.
Brewshop 501: All-Grain Brewing
Brewshop 501: All-Grain Brewing is an expansion of Bitter & Esters’ previous workshop and covers grain-focused topics. Taking place in Prospect Heights, this course accepts up to 12 people who are 21 years or older. It requires an immediate skill level, which you can gain by completing the previous Brewshop 101 course.
During this class, you’ll learn about mashing, lautering, and sparing, as well as the chemical pathways these processes produce. You’ll also study water chemistry, malt diastatic power, and how to troubleshoot while you mash. These in-depth subjects ensure that you can handle more complex and challenging brewing steps and produce higher-quality results.
Recipe Design: Theory & Practice
Recipe Design: Theory & Practice is Bitter & Esters’ advanced brewing workshop, one that focuses on more complex brewing techniques. Therefore, it’s best to complete their previous courses before attending this 12-person class. Note that you must provide a COVID-19 vaccination card for every class by Bitter & Esters or you’ll be denied attendance.
In this course, you’ll learn how to write new beer recipes and better understand beer-making ingredients. For example, you’ll learn about malts, hops, yeasts, and adjuncts and how they affect your beer quality. When you complete this program, you’ll understand how brewmasters produce delicious blends and can make them at home for yourself and friends.
Flower Tea & Chocolate Tasting Class
Flower Tea & Chocolate Tasting Class is a joint workshop produced by Raaka Chocolate and The Qi. Taking place in Red Hook, this six-person course teaches people of all skill levels how to brew delicious tea and pair them with chocolates. You’ll get in-depth help from a skilled professor who will improve your tea brewing skills and produce better results.
In each class, you’ll learn how to brew three delicious teas and find the chocolates that pair the best with each. Other covered subjects include tea flavor profiles and how aroma and texture affect your chocolate pairings. Once you’re finished, you should feel comfortable holding tea socials and parties, including hosting fun events in your area.
Beer, Burgers & BBQ
Beer, Burgers & BBQ is a program by Dickson’s Farmstand Meats in Chelsea that focuses on finding beers that go well with barbecued meats. Joe and Lauren Grimm, owners of Grimm Artisanal Ales, provide samples of their delicious beers and teach you how to source ingredients to brew similar blends. All skill levels are welcome in this course, as is anyone over 18.
During each class, you’ll receive delicious BBQ meats, burgers, fries, and other meats that pair well with beer. This informal approach gives this class a friendlier atmosphere, during which you’re likely to make at least a few new brewing buddies. While not the most in-depth brewing course in NYC, it’s a fun alternative to more serious classes.
Home Brewing
Home Brewing is a Cafe Grumpy course that teaches you how to produce high-quality, personalized coffee blends at home. You’ll learn multiple subjects, including grinding beans properly and using pour-over brewers. Other subjects include coffee extraction and bean storage taught by a hands-on professor who will immerse you in this unique and beneficial skill.
This class also covers how to select brewing appliances for your home, including espresso and cappuccino machines. You’ll learn what each machine does and how to use them effectively. After finishing, you can use these skills at home to produce delicious coffee blends or transition to a brewing career in a coffee shop or restaurant.
Cooking with Beer
Cooking With Beer is a course hosted by Taste Bud Kitchens in Chelsea. It teaches you how to use beer to improve your food, including basting your meats with your favorite brews. This program typically hosts about 20 people of all skill levels with a minimum age of 21. Beyond that restriction, anyone is welcome to attend.
During this course, you’ll learn how to use delicious homemade brews to produce chicken, macaroni and cheese, and salad meals, as well as beer-infused cupcakes. While you’ll eat these foods in the class, you also take home a recipe card for each so you can make them later. In this way, you can produce them later for friends and family members.
Virtual Brewing Classes & Schools
If in-person classes don’t appeal to you, virtual courses are available for your training needs. These programs include live-in-person professors who will walk you through each brewing step. Even better, you can learn all these skills from home without having to brave NYC’s rowdy streets. Furthermore, you can usually find far more classes online than in-person.
That said, virtual classes have downsides. For example, you must provide your own materials and equipment, including brewing ingredients and machines. You’ll also get fewer hands-on time with your professor because you might not even be in the same state as them. That said, online courses often cost less than in-person sessions, which makes them a great budget option.
The best online brewing classes work well for busy people in NYC who don’t have time for in-person learning. Thankfully, you can choose from many options that make mastering brewing easier. While online video lessons on sites like YouTube may help you touch up your skills, the following professional classes will improve your brewing even more.
Afternoon Tea
Afternoon Tea teaches you all about British tea making, including how to brew different varieties properly. You’ll also learn about tea history, including where it originated, how serving etiquette began, and the best ways of serving tea to your friends and family.
Furthermore, this class covers scone baking, including preparing the dough and mixing it properly with jam and other ingredients. Class size is about 15 and they welcome people of all levels, even children as young as six if they’re accompanied by a parent.
Chai Making
Chai Making is a Food Craft class that covers authentic chai brewing techniques in a small, 10-person setting. You must be 18 or older to attend and have a computer with high-speed internet that can handle high-definition videos.
Covered subjects include chai spices and their health benefits, as well as proper brewing and mixing techniques. Each course comes with a brewing kit that includes all the ingredients you’ll need to start. When you’re done, you’ll know how to make chai tea from scratch.
Cocktail & Mocktail
Cocktail & Mocktail covers brewing methods for alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails. With a class size of about 10, you’ll get a lot of personalized attention during each session. Covered subjects include cocktail ingredients and the preparation steps for three delicious drinks.
You’ll also learn the best measuring and serving techniques for each drink you make. Note that you’ll receive a brewing kit in the mail before the program begins. While this does increase the class’ price, it ensures you have what you need to begin learning brewing.
Private Group Brewing Classes in NYC
The best brewing classes for private groups in NYC provide many unique benefits. For example, you can book them for family reunions and teach your loved ones how to brew beer, coffee, tea, or kombucha. Or you can use them as a team-building opportunity for your employees. Thankfully, CourseHorse has plenty of private brewing programs for you to consider.
For example, Virtual Coffee Tasting allows up to 500 people to learn how to brew coffee and other subjects like the differences between coffee beans and how to choose them based on taste. Virtual Belgian Beer Tasting covers the flavors and textures of multiple beers, which helps up to 500 people learn about subjects like the differences between pale and dark ales.
Booking with CourseHorse provides many advantages. First, their platform is encoded for extra security, making your financial transactions safe. Secondly, all classes and organizers are carefully vetted to ensure they provide a high-quality experience. Even better, CourseHorse never charges a booking fee and lets you change class size up to the day of the event.
If you don’t see a class that appeals to you on CourseHorse’s platform, contact them to ask about any upcoming courses. They can also set up a lesson for your group, including more in-depth and hands-on beer-brewing experiences. Before working with CourseHorse, let them know your team’s computer platforms for online courses so they can adjust accordingly.
