Auburn has just graduated its first class from the new brewing sciences and operations program.
Dave Ketchen, department of management professor, said he is happy to see this program come to life after all of the faculty’s hard work.
“The faculty spent a long time creating course materials and filming our online videos, so our first graduation was a landmark day along a rewarding journey,” Ketchen said.
Martin O’Neill, head of department of nutrition, dietetics and hospitality management, said the concept for this program first came from a visible increase in interest in the brewing industry.
“We were looking at the boom in craft brewing and saw that, most obviously, there wasn’t a corresponding increase in education,” O’Neill said.
O’Neill said he is also pleased to see his first graduating class go on to use the skills they have fostered in the program.
“Our approach is to crawl before you walk before you run and then finally to see your first class sort of walk is very gratifying…It’s also very gratifying when you spend a year interacting with these people,” O’Neill said.
Robert E. Lee, Omaha Brewing Company marketing director, was among the recent graduates and said the skills he learned helped him with his daily tasks at work.
“I would watch the lectures and I would be able to go to the brewery the next day and be like, ‘Oh, I saw that in the lecture,’” Lee said. “Everything that I learned in the program goes hand-in-hand with what I do everyday on the job.”
O’Neill said the program touches on many different areas of the brewing industry, and he said he believes that’s what makes it unique.
“It’s a very unique program,” O’Neill said. “It’s unique because it is very focused not only on science, but on the business of brewing. It’s business, it’s agriculture, it’s science, it’s brewing, it’s operations. It’s all of that.”
Lee, a former editor for The Auburn Plainsman, said he didn’t forsee himself entering this business at first; after graduating undergrad with a journalism degree, he went to work for his family’s brewery for six months.
“When I graduated Auburn in journalism, I had no idea I was going to be making beer,” Lee said. “It was an opportunity that arose that was the right place at the right time.”
Lee said he is happy to be able to use both the journalism and brewing skills he learned at Auburn.
“I also do the social media and any marketing we’re doing right now,” Lee said. “I’m doing all of that kind of stuff, so I still get to use my degree from Auburn to some extent.”
The program involves valuable brewing collaborations that will continue to allow the program to grow, according to Ketchen.
“We want to have the premier program for training brewers and brewery owners in the country,” Ketchen said. “The help we are receiving from Oskar Blues has us well-positioned to reach that goal.”
Lee said he enjoyed his time at Auburn, particularly in the Brewing Sciences and Operations program. He said he would recommend applying to anyone with an interest in working in a brewery, opening a brewery or who works at a brewery now.
Ketchen sees a hopeful future for current and future graduates from the Brewing Sciences and Operations program.
“I am most excited to see several of our graduates opening breweries around the country in the near future,” Ketchen said. “One of them might even be built in Auburn.”
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