Learn brewing with Ankur Napa: his lessons on YouTube
Ankur Napa, Master Brewer and Craft Beer School instructor, has recorded a set of free brewing lessons on the Cheers Chatty YouTube channel. Here is what each covers and the order to watch them in.
Free lessons from a working brewer
Ankur Napa spent nine years as an R&D brewer and Master Brewer with United Breweries, SABMiller and AB InBev before moving into data science. Alongside his Craft Beer School courses he has recorded free lessons on the Cheers Chatty YouTube channel, which the school runs with co-founder Chatty Girija.
They suit anyone starting out: homebrewers, brewpub staff and people thinking about brewing as a career. You can find every video on our YouTube page.
Start with the four-part brewhouse series
The core of his lessons is a four-part series that walks through a brew day in order:
- Part 1: malt, mash and beer types, the ingredients and the main families of beer.
- Part 2: milling, mashing and wort separation, how grain becomes sweet wort.
- Part 3: wort boiling and bitterness control, the boil and how hops add bitterness.
- Part 4: wort clarification, cooling and oxygenation, getting clean, cool wort ready for yeast.
Watch them in order. Each part assumes the one before, so skipping ahead leaves gaps. Our guide to how beer is made is a good written companion.
Malting, explained in Hindi
Ankur also answers what malting is, in Hindi. Malting is the step most beer drinkers never see: barley is steeped, sprouted and kilned so its starch can later be turned into sugar in the mash.
A Hindi explanation matters in Indian brewing. Many brewhouse teams learn from English textbooks but talk on the floor in Hindi. Our guide to the barley malting process covers the same ground in English.
Hops, quality and India
Two conversations with Chatty Girija focus on hops. In hops quality in India Ankur explains what happens to hops on the long, hot road from the farm to an Indian brewpub. In an unplugged session on hops the two talk through the flower itself and why brewers prize it.
For an Indian brewer the practical point is storage. Hops lose bitterness and aroma with heat and air, so cold storage and sealed packs matter even more here than in Europe. Most hops reach India as vacuum-packed or nitrogen-flushed pellets. Once a pack is opened, reseal it, squeeze out the air and put it back in the freezer the same day.
Beyond the brewhouse
Two more videos show the other side of Ankur's work. In How AI is transforming breweries he talks about brewery ERPs, data and AI in plain terms. Inside India's first craft beer school shows a live brewing demo at a Bangalore microbrewery.
He is also the guest on an earlier Cheers Chatty podcast episode, talking about his path from brewing into data. The channel describes itself as India's first beer podcast. Its archive runs back to 2020, with brewer interviews, tastings and food pairings, so there is plenty more to explore once you finish his lessons.
How to learn from a brewing video
A brewing video goes past quickly. To get real value from one, watch it the way you would attend a class. Keep a notebook open. Pause whenever a number appears: a temperature, a time or a gravity. Write it down with its reason. A mash rest at 63 °C is only useful if you also know it favours fermentable sugars.
Then compare each step with your own kit. A commercial brewhouse and a 20 litre homebrew setup do the same things in different ways. Note where yours differs and what you will do instead. After each part, write three questions you still have. Bring them to a class, a brewing forum or a brewer you trust. That habit turns a free video into an actual lesson.
From watching to brewing
Videos give you the shape of a brew day. They cannot give you the feel of a mash that will not run off or the smell of a fermentation going wrong. That comes from brewing, with someone to answer the questions that come up halfway through.
If the series leaves you wanting more structure, the course below picks up where it stops, with live sessions, weekly assignments and a first real recipe.
Common questions
Where can I watch Ankur Napa's brewing lessons?
On the Cheers Chatty YouTube channel. Every video is also listed on the Craft Beer School YouTube page.
Which Ankur Napa video should I watch first?
Start with Part 1 of the brewhouse series on malt, mash and beer types, then watch Parts 2 to 4 in order.
Does Ankur Napa teach in Hindi?
Some lessons are in Hindi, including his explanation of malting. His courses are taught in English.
