I joined the PFC! And what a heck does that mean?
Today, I want to share with you another step I’ve taken toward deepening my knowledge of beer. As you know, besides being passionate about beer, I have already completed the "Level 2 Beer Award" from WSET and passed the online BJCP exam to become a judge—but we are just getting started. In the very first post of this blog, I mentioned some people in the beer world who helped awaken the beer geek inside me. One of these people is PhD Jamal Awadallak (yes, he has a PhD in Chemical Engineering), who runs the Beer School YouTube channel (so sorry, only Portuguese content). I was already following him on Instagram and had watched many of his free videos on YouTube. Besides all the free content he produces, he is also responsible for the "Programa Formação Cervejeira", or PFC for those familiar with. That would be Portuguese for "Brewing Training Program" or something close to that.
For an outsider, PFC is another course available on Hotmart that promises to take us from beginner to advanced brewers. Of course, it’s a paid course taught by Jamal. My main focus right now is becoming a BJCP judge, so I initially thought this investment didn’t make much sense. However, in November last year, Jamal gave a sort of demonstration of how the course works through what he calls the "Ciclo de Aprimoramento Cervejeiro" (CAC), that would be something like “Brewer Improvement Cycle”. In this demo he used the English style "Strong Bitter" as an example. Naturally, in the full course, we complete these improvement cycles at our own pace and can go much deeper. But just in that one-week demonstration, I not only learned about the style itself (which helps with judging) but also about recipes, ingredients, processes, and methods—all extremely useful for me as a homebrewer. On top of that, part of judging beers is giving feedback on how to improve beers, and you can only do that effectively if you understand recipes, ingredients, and brewing processes. So, this seemed like a perfect match—except for one problem: budget! 😂
Jamal on action at the "PFC" webpage. Click the image to be redirected. Again, Portuguese content only. But, in fact, the automatic subtitles of Youtube are working quite good nowadays.
As you all know, I’ve been unemployed for about a year now, so any financial investment needs to be carefully considered. With that in mind, I initially set the idea aside, even though I saw great value in the content—I simply couldn’t afford it at that moment. But Jamal proved to be a great salesman! He not only included lifetime access to all future updates (usually, the content is available for one year) but also added his well-known Czech Lagers course ( even with classes given by Czechs) and the acess to a new platform that would be the follow-up of the PFC program, which hadn’t even been released yet. It truly seemed like an unmissable opportunity—and besides, it was November, and Christmas was right around the corner! 😂 Being the good boy that I am, I received the PFC course as a Christmas gift from my beloved (😘)—a gift that also covered my birthday and all festive occasions of 2025!
This journey has been full of learning experiences, and that’s not even counting the extra perks. Since joining PFC at the end of November, I’ve realized it’s much more than just a Hotmart course. There’s a whole community of brewers interacting daily, discussing strategies, ingredients, equipment, and solutions to brewing challenges. It’s basically beer talk 24/7! The community is naturally more active in the Brazilian time zone, but there are members at Germany, Canada, the United States, and now, Greece too—🙋♂️ (that’s me!). I’ve only completed the first module of the course so far, but I’m really excited. The best part? To learn, we have to brew beer. That means we’ll soon be enjoying the fruits of this knowledge! I feel almost like I did when I brewed my very first beer—eager to taste it! But patience is a brewer’s best friend, so I’ll wait. You can also wait for more posts on that, because I will for sure share my achievements!
Take care, and see you next time! 🍻
