Kwantlen Launches B.C.’s First Brew U

From left: Nick Bolton, Big Ridge Brewing Co.’s head brewer, and dean Elizabeth Worobec, faculty of science and horticulture, and Ken Beattie, executive director of the BC Craft Brewers Guild, celebrating the program’s announcement

Kwantlen is on the hunt for future brew masters for the first science of brewing program in B.C.

U Brew, meet Brew U: a two-year degree for future brew masters who want in on B.C.’s booming local beer industry.
 
Kwantlen Polytechnic University will offer a diploma in brewing and brewery operations at its Langley campus starting in September 2014. The two-year program will accept 35 students in its first cohort who will learn both the science and business of brewing.
 
The first of its kind in B.C., Kwantlen’s program will offer students summer work placements at local breweries, and courses on the psychology of sensory evaluation, finishing and packaging.
 
B.C.’s microbreweries are increasingly big business with craft beer sales up almost 20 per cent in 2012 alone. But Kwantlen’s goal is clear: finding jobs for future students. In designing the program, Worobec worked with a number of brewmasters and consultants in the Lower Mainland, and set the cap according to the needs of local breweries: “They know what they want their graduates to look like.”
 
“Our members require skilled individuals with a passion for, understanding of and training in the business of brewing beer,” said Ken Beattie, executive director of B.C.’s Craft Brewer’s Guild, and a member of the program’s advisory committee/ “KPU’s program ensures that our independently owned businesses will have direct access to a skilled and passionate work force.”
 
But first, Worobec is on the hunt for a brew master and instructors to lead the program. Think you’re qualified? You’ll need a few years experience, (preferably) a post-secondary degree, and know a little bit more than the difference between an ale and a lager.