Kind of an interesting article on German beer and the Institute for Brewing Technology in Weihenstephan. Although the title of the article would seem to indicate more, well, science, it’s more about the Institute and the kind of people who are enrolling…

It was the almost 1,000 years of brewing tradition that convinced Texan Ben Bailey to struggle through five extra years of German lessons so he could be accepted into Weihenstephan’s ranks.

"I could go to any brewery in the USA and say that I studied in Weihenstephan and they would know what I can do," he said. "At the University of California Davis you can take a few brewery seminars, but there is no complete program and here everything is concentrated on brewery."

Although a good fact I pulled from the article is the anniversary of the Reinheitsgebot was April 23 (passed on that day in 1516). Yeah, I know, I’m a few days late on that, but I didn’t have any German beer handy anyway :).