;)
The degree I should have done
Posted by Trenchfoot in Beer, Wine
A university in the North Carolina is aiming to sell its own beer and offer a degree in brewing after a class in the subject last year proved extremely successful.
The Winston-Salem Journal reports:
Appalachian State University trustees voted unanimously yesterday to pursue state and federal permits to establish a brewery that would allow the university to sell beer made by professors and students in brewery classes.
Ivory Tower Brewery, in the basement of the Broyhill Inn and Conference Center, is a small nonprofit brewery operated by university professors who taught an honors class in beer brewing to 12 students last spring.
The class covered the chemical, biological and production process of brewing malted beverages, including the science of how to combine hops, malt and yeast to produce styles and flavors of beer.
They are hoping that the profits from the sale of the wine and beer would be ploughed back into buying supplies and equipment making the four year degree in “Fermentation Sciences” self-sustaining.
There are, of course, many other places you can study the art and science of brewing. The most well known being Siebel Institute of Technology in the States and the Institute of Brewing and Distilling here in the UK. Most breweries will emply a “Brewmaster” who will usually have trained at such a place. However, the only other mainstream University I know of offering a brewing dergree is Herriot Watt University in Scotland which offers a 4 year BSc (hons) and a 1 year MSc programme in “Brewing and Distilling”. I dare say there are others around as well.
I think I will write some letters to academics here at Oxford University suggesting they start a venture like the one at Appalachian State University. What with the current threats to university funding, I think some departments may be interested in a programme that would actually be income-generating. Plus I haven’t written any letters for a long time – I need to get back into that…
;)
;)
;)
