Why Focus on Teaching About Beer?

As a logistics company, we handle beer every day. It’s one thing to be good at knowing how to properly store and move a product. It’s another to create an environment that encourages developing a passion and respect for our products. By offering beer education, our employees are able to create skills to sell products, help to educate customers and get excited about what we do.

Fields of expertise

Monthly Craft Meetings

We conduct monthly craft meetings where 1-2 breweries come to present themselves to our employees. We take an hour to learn each brewery’s history, any upcoming news and sample their products to keep them fresh in our minds.

Cicerone Classes

We firmly believe that teaching up-to-date, accurate facts is crucial to create a proper knowledge base for our staff, accounts and neighboring beer lovers. We teach both Level 1 & Level 2 classes, provide samples, off-flavor kits and even host the Level 2 Certified Cicerone exams at our facilities.

Beer School

We created the RHB Brew School in 2014 after purchasing our 15 gallon brewery. We use this educational brewery during our Cicerone classes and also invite community groups such as our local home brew organizations and the Pink Boots Society to come and spend the day brewing.

Mobile Brew School

In 2016 we created our mobile brew school which allows us to brew on a smaller scale at any of our branches. We focus on brewing with warehouse and sales teams so that every employee has an opprotunity to observe the process up close.

Homebrew Competition

There is no better way to learn to home brew than to do it yourself. The best part is that as a company, we did not even need to advertise this fact. Both our beer and wine companies are filled with home brewers because they have a strong passion for it.

Cicerone Status

We feel like the Cicerone program offers great education materials in the area of beer. That is why we require every employee to be a Certified Beer Server in order to set a platform of knowledge. We also have 14 Certified Cicerones and 1 Advanced Cicerone.

Liquid Focus

THERE IS A LOT THAT GOES INTO CREATING OUR FAVORITE BEERS. THESE ARE A FEW OF THE MAIN FOCAL AREAS THAT SHAPE THE FLAVOR, COLOR AND ABV OF EACH BEER.

WHIRLPOOL: The whirlpool is used to clarify the solution by separating out protein and hop particles.

COOLING: The wort is rapidly cooled in order to reach proper fermentation temperatures. If the yeast is added when the wort is too hot, it can reduce the yeast’s effectiveness.

FERMENTATION: Now that the wort is cooled, the yeast can be added. The yeast is used to convert the sugars that were derived from the initial starches to Carbon Dioxide and alcohol. Ales should be fermented at temperatures around 55-75 degrees Fahrenheit for roughly two weeks and Lagers chilled at cooler temperatures around 45-55 degrees for about 4 weeks.

PACKAGING: After the beer has fully matured, you then get to choose how you would like to package it. Popular choices are kegs, bottles & cans.

Handle With Care

Now that the beer has been brewed and packaged, we can set into motion the three P’s: achieve the perfect Pour through Proper storage and Pairing your beer with its ideal dish.

The Do’s

-Store beer at proper temperatures
-Make sure sunlight can not reach your exposed packaged beer to prevent skunking
-Clean your lines every 2 weeks or between each keg
-Use proper glassware that matches the style being served
-Check for beer-clean glassware
-Pour higher ABV beers in smaller glassware
-Ask if the customer would like the residual yeast from a wheat beer included in their glass

The Don’ts

-Use frosted glassware (this prevents a proper sized head from developing and minimizes the amount of aroma’s that the head should disperse)
-Dip the faucet into the beer being poured (creates an excellent environment for bacteria)
-Allow excess beer to flow out of the glass while pouring from a faucet in order to minimize head to fill the glass all the way to the top (1-2 inches of head is crucial)
-Over serve your customers