As Virginia’s craft beer industry continues to boom, it means more job openings. To help fill the demand, the University of Richmond is expanding its class options in beer making.
Beer Recipe Formulation. Barrel Works for Brewers. Those are just a couple of new courses at the University of Richmond this spring. The school already has a full certificate in beer brewing, and Garrett Stern says there’s been a lot of interest.
“We can’t quite get in everybody that wants to be in, which is what happens when you have a successful program,” Stern says. “But it also makes us think that there’s space for us to be able to expand and offer things and meet people’s needs where they’re at.”
Stern works at the university’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies. He says people who take the brewing classes include farmers, homebrewers, and people who work the front of house in taprooms but want to get into the brewing side.
Local breweries helped develop the new classes and the Director of Brewing Operations from Strangeways Brewery will be teaching many of the courses.
“There’s starting to be more of an established industry that needs trained workers and we want to help them meet that need in collaboration with them,” says Stern.
University of Richmond isn’t alone in meeting that industry demand. Virginia Tech, VCU and Piedmont Virginia Community College also have brewing classes.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
