On November 20, 2025, the Siebel Institute of Technology, the oldest continuously operating professional brewing school in the Americas, announced that it would be leaving it’s long time home in Chicago and moving to Montreal.
The school said the decision to move came after “a comprehensive review of operational costs, industry trends, increased student visa challenges to enter the United States.”
John Hannafan, the General Manager and Director of Education, for the school made the reason for the move abundantly clear: “Recent regulatory changes in the U.S. have made it much more challenging for many of our international students, who have become the majority of our student body, to attend classes in person. This relocation of North America classroom operations to Montreal allows us to pivot without sacrificing the student experience.”
The school has been owned by Lallemand, the yeast company, since the year 2000 and that company is based in Canada. So it’s not to say that the company never would have moved the school, but the current political reality in the US heavily influenced this decision.
The move takes place on January 1, 2026 and to show how quickly things happened, when I reached out to Keith Lemcke, the one time vice president of the school and more recently marketing manager said he was already gone from the office and his last official day was on November 26.
It’s hard to quantify just how important the Siebel Institute has been for beer in America. There’s been a post floating online about how every favorite beer you’ve ever had here in the US was directly influenced by a Siebel graduate.
Breweries in the windy city are grappling with the loss, as the school has long been a conduit of new friendships, collaboration, and education by proximity and city association.
To help make sense of it all, Randy Mosher joined All About Beer editor John Holl to discuss the move. Mosher is a celebrated author, speaker, and educator. He has been involved with Siebel for decades and lives in Chicago.
Hear the whole conversation on the Drink Beer, Think Beer podcast.
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John Holl is the editor of All About Beer Magazine.
JohnHoll@allaboutbeer.com