FVCC to offer state's first brewing science program

College and beer go together like peanut butter and jelly, gin and tonic or an India Pale Ale and a spicy Indian curry.

The longtime marriage will be taken to the next level this fall when Flathead Valley Community College kicks off its Brewing Science and Brewery Operations Program, the first of its kind in the state.

The program will take students 21 or older and turn them into skilled employees ready for the workforce in just two years.

Heather Estrada, the head of the agriculture program at the college, will lead the brewing science program.

“The program fell under my purview as it will tie in with agriculture in Montana,” she said. “I will be teaching the malting and hops class.”

The two-year program will begin in the fall, but Estrada and the advisory board are still looking for a full-time brewing professor.

“We have instructors for chemistry, microbiology and agriculture already on hand,” she said. “But we need to get someone with brewing experience.”

An adjunct professor at Tamarack Brewing in Lakeside will be part of a practical brewing lab course.

“They are going to install a 2.5-barrel system, or something small, inside their own brewery,” Estrada said. “There will be a brewing methods course. They are going to go brew. The brewmaster down there could teach that class. We’ve also discussed putting a FVCC tap in the restaurant there.”

A college-produced beer at Tamarack could be a welcome addition to a quickly changing lineup, but Estrada said that eventually the advisory board would look into the feasibility of a campus brewery, much like Olds College has in Estrada’s home province of Alberta.

The advisory board consists of many of the who’s who in brewing and agriculture in the Flathead Valley, including Tom Britz, owner of Glacier Hops Ranch in Whitefish. He said the start of the program was the sign of something bigger.

“The decentralization of the U.S. brewing industry is extremely evident here in Montana,” he said. “We have over 60 craft breweries open, operating or planning to open. Millennials’ habits are very different than baby boomers. They don’t mind paying more for locally produced food and beverages of any type.”

According to Britz, the demand for craft beer — which created 115,000 craft brewing industry jobs in 2014 alone — mirrors the change in the U.S. wine industry in the 1970s when the Gallo brothers started losing market share to smaller vineyards. He said the FVCC program could be a boon for brewing statewide.

“This new program really will help provide not just the local Flathead Valley with qualified employees, but the entire state of Montana,” he said.

Other board members include brewers for and owners of breweries such as Great Northern, Kalispell, Tamarack, Flathead, Big Sky and nascent brewery Backslope of Columbia Falls.

Pat McGlynn, Flathead County’s Montana State University extension agent and member of the board, said she was ecstatic for the program to develop.

“It seemed like a natural evolution for our county,” she said. “And we could develop it for grapes. It’s different, but not all that different from viticulture. There’s a lot more to this program than just brewing beer and concocting recipes.”

The program is broken into several parts.

The first is the science of beer and all the chemistry and microbiology that entails. Next comes running a brewery, with sanitation, packaging and equipment maintenance along with business communication and accounting.

Agriculture is present in the course as well, with knowing how to make the plants germinate at the proper time to prevent undrinkable beer. This includes working with temperamental hops and malted barley. The last component in getting an Associates of Applied Science degree in Brewing Science and Brewery Operations is one that more than a few people can get behind: The appreciation of beer.

“I love beer,” Estrada said. “Every program like this one in the country has long waiting lists. We were pretty sure we could attract some students.”

The first class this fall will take 10 to 12 students. The closest programs like the one at FVCC is a fermentation science program at Oregon State University and a master brewers course at University of California, Davis.

For more information, visit www.fvcc.edu/brewing.

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.