TUM Community

In the late 1980s, Dan Gordon became the first American in over 40 years to graduate in Brewing and Beverage Technology from the TUM Campus Weihenstephan in Freising. Reflecting on his time there, he says today: “It was a highlight of my life. The quality of education at TUM and the friends I made there were top-notch.” The connection to his former fellow students and TUM remains important to Dan Gordon. His brewery hosts the “Gordon Biersch Oktoberfest” annually. This year, it will also serve as an alumni reunion, to which Dan Gordon warmly invites all TUM alumni from the Bay Area.

LET’S GO TO WEIHENSTEPHAN

Dan Gordon realized he wanted to study at TUM during his exchange year in Göttingen, which he completed as part of his studies at the University of California in Berkeley. A fellow student in Göttingen told him that Weihenstephan is home to “the most famous university for brewing.” At that time, Dan Gordon had no idea that such a program existed anywhere in the world, let alone in Germany.

However, Weihenstephan is home to the world’s oldest still-operating brewery. For nearly a thousand years, beer has been brewed in the buildings of the former Benedictine monastery. In 1803, the “Electoral Central Tree Nursery Weihenstephan” was founded. Over centuries, the nursery evolved into a modern TUM campus, where students are now trained as brewing and food technologists, bioprocess engineers, and master brewers.

“We often joked about watery American beer back then,” Dan Gordon says, laughing. He was determined to change that reputation after his studies. He wanted to make “watery American beer” better, to turn it into something close to perfection, a beer that people wouldn’t joke about anymore but would laugh while drinking – because it tastes so good. So, after graduating, he returned to the USA and opened the first Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant in Palo Alto, California, a year later.

The preparations for this began during his studies in Weihenstephan. In the last six months, the planning started, and he was in almost daily contact with his business partner Dean Biersch in the USA. During the day, Dan Gordon studied, and in the evenings, he bought brewery equipment. The nine-hour time difference left him no other choice and very little sleep – only four to five hours a day were possible for him back then, Dan Gordon recalls.

GERMAN REINHEITSGEBOT: BREWING ART FROM TUM IN THE USA

Dan Gordon brews his beer according to the centuries-old German Reinheitsgebot, which is rather unusual in the USA. “For me, the Reinheitsgebot is a religion. It makes our beer timeless,” says the TUM alumnus. Brewing beer is a serious matter for him, one that he wants to do well. “A 50-liter homebrew, that’s fun. But thousands of hectoliters? That’s science and work,” he says proudly.

It’s a job he learned at TUM and still enjoys today, both in terms of sales and the operation of technical equipment. And, of course, the beer drinking itself. During his studies, Dan Gordon did an internship at Spaten: “It was a good experience. I learned to drink beer for breakfast,” he says, grinning. The next goal for him and his brewery: 350,000 hectoliters of output and the production of a non-alcoholic beer that tastes just like alcoholic beer. One that also makes his customers laugh because it’s just that good. Naturally, with yeast from Weihenstephan.