I don't know about most brewer's children and how the children view brewing but mine are not interested. I don't blame them at all. Science can bore even the scientists. I know being a Network Engineer there are things dealing with computers that can put me to sleep. Now, how do you make yeast interesting? You make it funny. And that is actually very easy when you put your mind to it.
I told my children that yeast eat sugar. At this point they pee alcohol and poop CO2. Yes this was probably over simplified and may not even be accurate but who doesn't like a good poop joke. Biological needs have always been the butt of a LOT of jokes. You get a few boys together and have one pass gas and see who doesn't laugh. Everyone will. Educational? Probably not. Getting their attention? Totally worked. I even broke out my fake Irish accent and would say. "lil yeasties are a peein in me mead." Even my brother that is about 38 or 39 thought this was a gut breaker. Yes he laughed his butt off on this one. Now my sister didn't think it was all that funny. She is a teacher in Alaska. And this is what she had to say about my comment.
"Only you could make something so natural seem.... unseemly"
Now did I really? Yes on the surface I sure as hell did and it was not the first time and will NOT be the last time. I have a very colorful sense of humor. But when you see that I actually got my children interested in what was going on and now they come in and watch the little yeast farts bubble up in the glass jug I think what I did was very educational. Funny but educational. Maybe that is the missing denominator. We have stopped making learning fun. It is a chore that most children do not look forward to. Now you take the making of alcohol from yeasty and make the CO2 farts and you will have the attention of every child, and a few adults, right then and there. You will also get giggles. You will get questions that some will really make you think even if you know exactly what is going on. THAT IS GOOD! Most of the time we learn from the people who we are teaching. If you don't you are teaching wrong. In my opinion. And on this blog my opinion is everything. :)
So, in closing do you have to make brewing dull and dusty like old ancient texts left in the tombs of Egypt? No! You should not. It is up to us to grab the imagination of the generation destine to take our place and make it think and make it wonder. When you think and wonder about something long enough you experiment and when you experiment you learn. When you learn you truly live. So by following this I breathed life into my children and in turn they gave me the only medicine that can heal everything. Humor. Go and joke with your kids about thing so complex that they could not possible understand in a way that makes them interested. This will sow the seeds that will reap the next generation of brewers.
Chuck
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