Has anyone attended any brewing schools here in Belgium? I was looking into some schools in the US and here in Belgium, the only one I found here was KU Leuven. When I contacted KU Leuven they said they did not have any upcoming dates available. Do most of the brewmasters here in Belgium go to brewing schools, or do they become apprentices and learn on the job?

Hi there, as far as I'm concerned I followed (6 years ago) a very short training (3 days) in Braine l'Alleud http://www.novabirra.com
The guy is very nice and spend a few years in the States. At the end of the training you leave with the ability to brew alone.
Then I spend a certain amount of time reading forums, books and brew at friends as assistant. That was more than enough (theory wise)
I needed to learn further by taking my equipement to the test and learn from my errors.

Yet I'm not sure this is what you need (want). Aren't you already brewing ? If you need advanced classes I'm pretty sure you'll find
a fellow brewer here or maybe give a call to Emmanuelle from Novabirra to know if advanced classes are available.

Cheers

There's Institut Meurice and UCL (the French speaking version of KUL if you will) but I'm not sure they're doing some trainings in English

Most of the quality teaching about brewing in Belgium are years long classes.
Like J-C said, Institut Meurice is one of the most famous. If you look to universities, the UCL and the university in Gembloux have specific formations, but you need to get the bacchalaureat (3 years) in "bio-ingenieur" before you can specialize more specificaly in brexing science.

There are shorter classes, like Nova Birra, but the difference is you don't get an official degree from those.

From what I know Meurice is doing some courses for which you don't need a specific degree, I'm just not sure it's in English. And I know they're doing some in the evenings too.

Salmonell yea i have been brewing a few years now. I was just looking to get a certificate in brewing sciences which would help me have some credentials into either becoming a head brewer in a commercial brewery or maybe even my own brewery one day. I know that i could learn a lot on my own or with others, but i would like to get real official training to further my knowledge in all aspects of the industry. I will have to check out Institut Meurice and see what they offer. Thanks everyone for the information.

Just found today in the forum of our french friends :

https://www.brassageamateur.com/forum/l ... ml#p391883

Hope Google translate will do correctly his job
Regards

Simon Roy wrote:Most of the quality teaching about brewing in Belgium are years long classes.
Like J-C said, Institut Meurice is one of the most famous. If you look to universities, the UCL and the university in Gembloux have specific formations, but you need to get the bacchalaureat (3 years) in "bio-ingenieur" before you can specialize more specificaly in brexing science.

There are shorter classes, like Nova Birra, but the difference is you don't get an official degree from those.

Nova Birra and Meurice or UCL : not the same stuff.