For those of you that don’t know, I started working on my masters degree a few months ago through the Resurgence Training Center (Re:Train).  Due to the heavy work load, I haven’t had much of a chance to update you on my progress (except through Twitter).  I thought I would give you a short update, and then start sharing with you more about what I’ve been learning through some blog posts (I’m writing a lot for school, so it doesn’t hurt to share it with you here).  I hope that it will be helpful to you as much as it has been to me.

The easiest way I’ve been able to explain my experience at Re:Train is like going from Pre-Algebra to Algebra II.  While the basic concepts are the same (Jesus is God, Jesus is human, humans suck, worship God only, etc.), I have to think about them in ways that I didn’t even know existed before this class.  I feel like I have grown more in the last two months in my knowledge of Jesus and how I interact with Him than I have in the past three years.  It has been amazing.

The classes have been (and are going to be) taught by the best of the best in their fields.  You know you’re dealing with someone really smart when the text book for the class is written by them and they have more degrees than a small Mormon family has children.  I have consistently been in awe these men…but more importantly I have been in awe of Jesus’ work in their lives.  I’m truly blest to sit under their teaching.

Like I said, I hope to share with you what I have learned over the next few weeks what I have been learning in my classes.  My first class I took was Spiritual Formations by Bill Clem.  As part of the homework we had to write a discipleship curriculum for a new believer.  I’ll share this with you through several posts over the next few weeks.  I hope you enjoy them.

Lastly, I want to thank you for your prayers as I’ve been going through Re:Train.  I have had many late nights, drank several gallons of coffee, and typed and read more words than I would like to admit.  It is through your prayers that I have been sustained by the Holy Spirt, and I thank you.

Welcome back all my fellow beer drinkers out there. This next one is just a short tip for those who are looking for the full experience here.† If you remember from BTotD #1, your perception of taste is drastically affected by you sense of smell. From some research that I did on the internet (a quick google search), your sense of smell affects the way something tastes by up to 75%. From some other research that I’ve done (listened to a podcast), it is said that your first smell of a beer is the most important. So how do we make that first smell of a new beer count? Use a coaster.

No this isn’t some random way for me to get you to save your furniture from unsightly rings. You actually cover the TOP of the glass with the coaster. While you are doing the four step beer tasting process (Look, Agitate, Smell, Drink), you cover the top of the glass with a coaster while agitating the beer (the cheap paper coasters from bars, applebees, and the sort work real well and keep you from getting in trouble for making all you coaster smell like beer). Then when you go lift the coaster to smell your beer, all those good smells have been trapped for your smelling pleasure.

One other small tip. Unless you are using a really big glass, only fill the glass about 3/4 of the way full. This gives you room to agitate the beer without covering your coaster with beer. This also gives your beer room to breath. After you’ve tasted the beer, then you fill it up the rest of the way.

So here is your homework. Get a beer that you haven’t tried before (or haven’t tried in a glass before) and taste it straight from the bottle. Then try the coaster method and see how much of a difference it makes.

Until next time, enjoy your beer.

‘So I’ve been listening to a lot of what I have learned about beer has come friends, podcasts, and the beeradvocate.com. One of the greatest tips I learned was from the podcast beerschool.com. It is as follows…it takes three drinks of a beer to really know if you like it.

Before you look at the reason for three drinks, go to the beeradvocate.com article on How to Taste Beer. There are certain steps to drinking a beer (Look, Agitate, Smell, Taste).

This one sounded a little weird to me when I first heard it, but I have found it to be so true. Here is the reason why. Drink one cleans your pallet from all the weird tastes that are already in it (for instance I have the coffee taste in my mouth right now). Drink two is for the retro-olfaction process.† This is where you swish the beer around in your mouth and exhale after you drink the beer.

“This process of exhaling is called “retro-olfaction” and will release retained stimulations at the mucus and mouthfeel level, but at a higher temperature.” – beeradvocate.com

Drink Three gives you your final overall taste of the beer giving you a full experience of what the beer really tastes like.

Like I said I thought this was crazy talk. But as I started doing this, I noticed that certain beers that I thought I didn’t like after one drink I started to like after three.† As a side note, this works for any drink: beer, wine, Dr. Pepper.

So here is your homework for this tip. Take a beer that you had discredited before and give it the three drink chance. You never know you might find that you’ve found your new favorite beer.

Until next time, enjoy your beer.

So it has been a little while since I posted my first Beer Tip of the Day. So, I thought I better put up another one. Things have been a little hectic and nobody really responded to my first one. I’m also going to add a new feature to the BTotD…homework. So if you like what you are reading let me know and I’ll try to do these more often. So here is today Beer Tip. There is a certain way that you are suppose to pour beer into a glass.

In the last BToD, I told you why you need to drink you beer from a glass, but how are you suppose to pour your beer into that glass?

Good question!!! Here is how:

1. Hold you glass at a 45° angle.
2. Pour your beer aiming at the middle of the wall of the glass.
3. When the glass is half way full, turn the glass to a 90° angle.
4. Continue to pour the beer until the glass if full.

See a video here.

This will give your beer the right mixture of air and beer releasing all these wonderful smells that come along with great beer. These are some just general steps and each glass and beer are a little different (I don’t turn my glass to a 90° angle until the glass is 3/4 full). It will take a little bit of practice, but you’ll get it down.

Homework: Commit to pouring your next 6 beer’s in a glass and seeing how much the flavor changes.Until next time, enjoy your beer.