Give the Gift of Learning this Season

The holidays bring out our generosity as we seek to find the perfect gift for our families and friends. There is always a point during the season, for me at least, when I am stumped on what to get for the person on my list who has everything.

Rather than buy one more item to clutter an already overflowing closet, how about giving an experience? That could mean movie tickets, dinner out, a spa day, or, because this is UNLV Continuing Education after all, how about a class? CE’s new Spring 2015 course catalog is packed full with classes to take just for fun that will appeal to a broad range of people on your list.

My parameters for this list were as follows. The class had to start in January or February so the recipient wouldn’t have long to wait. The price point had to be under $150 (except for the one where you get to take the controls of a plane or helicopter—totally worth a little budget busting!). The class had to look either very useful or very fun. It wasn’t possible for me to include everything that looked awesome, so no more than one class per section of the catalog; I cheated by adding a runner up in the music category because self-imposed rules were made to be broken.

New Drivers: Car Care 101 (begins Feb. 11, $39)
Stop car trouble before it starts by doing your own preventative maintenance. At the very least, they will appear marginally intelligent when they have to talk to the repair technician!

Thrill-Seeker: Introductory Airplane or Helicopter Flight (Scheduled at your convenience, $169)
I’m intrigued by this one. After a one-on-one ground school briefing, the student will take the controls of a Cessna 172 airplane or Robinson R22 helicopter while flying high above Las Vegas. This is a special offer through the host of our new Private Pilot Certification program.

Pet Lover: Pet First Aid & CPR (begins Feb. 26, $89)
The thought of mouth-to-mouth with a dog is gross, but I’d do it if it were a matter of life or death. More likely, pet-parents ought to know what to do when their furry friend slices a paw on a knife while stealing food from the counter.

Shutterbug: Cell Phone Photography (begins Feb. 28, $59)
Instagram can rescue many-a marginal photo, but imagine the time you could save by getting the right shot in the first place.

Budding Artist: Paint Like the Old World Masters (Jan. 24, $149)
Paint Like the Old World Masters is my top choice to gift to an artist because it offers something for both novice and proficient artists. Your artist friends may have read about camera obscura and underpainting, but have they ever tried it? There are so many other amazing choices among our art offerings—acrylics, collage, silk painting, and watercolors also begin in January or February.

Music Lover: Beginning Guitar (begins Feb. 3, $99) 

Runner up: Blowin' the Blues Harmonica (begins Jan. 21, $139)
Wouldn’t it be cool to have someone who could play the guitar or harmonica around the campfire next summer? If someone gave this gift to me, I’d know it was because they would rather hear me play than sing.

Drinking Buddy: Home Brew Workshop (Feb. 19, $69)
If you gift this class to a friend and he or she gets really good at crafting home brews, guess who will probably get invited to come over for taste tests?

Gift certificates for Continuing Education classes are available in any denomination. Call 702-895-3394 or stop by the Paradise campus office to inquire.

For the Love of Beer as a Hobby or Career

For the Love of Beer as a Hobby or Career

From simple kits that allow you to mix and ferment to growing your own grains, home brewing is a rewarding hobby that can be as easy or as complex as you would like. It can be just as rewarding as a career. No matter which, it is important to remember to enjoy the process. Many aspects of brewing such as standing over a hot kettle with a countdown timer waiting to add an ingredient at the perfect time can be pretty tense.

Charlie Papazian, the author of The Complete Joy of Home Brewing, coined the mantra "Relax. Don’t Worry. Have a Home Brew.” He offers great insight.

Relax

Basic beer starts with four simple ingredients: malted grains, hops, yeast, and water. The malted grains are converted to sugar and, in a process called fermentation, yeast eats sugar to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide. It is that easy. Each of these ingredients can be altered to create vastly different beer styles.

Malted Grains

Cereal grains are malted in order to develop enzymes that can convert the grain’s starches into sugars. Roasting the grains leads to darker beers. These grains are then crushed in hot water to convert starches to sugars. Beginning home brewers tend to bypass this process by using a malt extract. These extracts come in many varieties and can be pre-hopped thus simplifying the brewing process by eliminating the need for hop additions.

Hops

Hops are cone shaped flowers from the hop plant that are used to flavor, aroma, and preserve beer. Hops add the bitterness that can be used to balance out the sweetness from malt. Beginners tend to use dried hops that have been processed into pellets.

Yeast

Brewer’s yeast is a fungus that consumes sugars and creates alcohol and CO2. There are many strains of yeast that vastly affect the style of beer produced. There are two types of brewer’s yeast -- ale yeast and lager yeast. Ale yeast thrives at higher temperatures (60-85°F) whereas lager yeast thrives at lower temperatures (40-55°F).

Water

Water is an often overlooked, but critical ingredient to the brewing process. Minerals in water can affect the rate of starch-sugar conversion, and traditionally added regional characteristics to beer. As a general rule if the water tastes good, it should make a good beer.

Don't Worry, Have a Home Brew

When combined, the four ingredients will make beer. Your beers will not be perfect, but that is part of the fun. Flawless beers can be purchased at a store. Your beer might be cloudy, flat, over-carbonated or have any number of off-flavors, but it will be beer.  Stick with it and each batch will be better than the next.

While brewing can be a fairly simple process it helps to have a friend guide you through the first time. UNLV Continuing Education and UBottleIt are teaming up to offer a Home Brew Workshop for Beer Lovers September 18.

Interested in becoming a beer expert? Check out the Beer Steward & Connoisseur Certificate Program