(upbeat country music) (students and instructor chattering off microphone) These students at MiraCosta College in San Diego County might look like they're enjoying a thirst-quenching beer during class, but they're actually getting one step closer to becoming certified production brewers.

That's because they're in the Craft Brewing Technician Program, also known as Brew Tech.

(upbeat country music) - This is a very mature industry, the beverage industry in all of California, especially in San Diego.

- [Narrator] Mike Stevenson is the lead instructor of the program, and a brewery owner.

He's helping students break into a tough industry by sharing his expertise.

- When I got into the industry about 10 years ago, it was kind of easy to just walk in a brewery, and be, "I'll work for free, get trained, trained up, and hopefully you'll hire me at the end of that."

Some breweries are over 30-years-old now, and it's not just kind of a garage space brewery anymore, so there's a constant need to backfill the entry level roles, and that's what we're trying to provide to the industry.

- [Narrator] Located in a county known for its craft brewing scene, this intensive 15-week program, taught by brewers already in the industry, train students on all aspects of brewing, including craft beer production, recipe development, fermentation processes, seller practices, and packaging.

After finishing classwork and labs, students complete an 80-hour internship at a brewery to graduate from the program.

- The benefit of our program compared to other programs in the area is we only take up to 18 students a cohort, or 36 students a year, so our classes are very, very small, and very hands-on.

- [Narrator] But don't let the cohort sizes fool you.

These students get a lot done.

Using brew tech's industrial professional-style tanks, and other brewing equipment, along with ingredients donated by industry partners, cohorts produce up to 12 types of beer, from IPAs to ales.

They call it "TCI on Tap", and they can't drink it all alone.

- Because we produce so much beer in the lab, we produce about 300 gallons a cohort, so being able to spread the love, and go to a local brewery, and hand them a four pack of cans, and be like, "We made this at MiraCosta College", it just kind of makes it full circle, they give you enjoy the product that the students are producing, and just gives us a quite a bit more credibility in the area.

- [Narrator] And the program doesn't stop at sharing their beer locally.

They compete nationally against other college and university brewing and fermentation programs in the US College Beer Championship, where MiraCosta College won the Grand National Championship title in 2021.

And they've been among the top three finishers every year since.

- I've heard so much about this program, it has a great reputation, there's a lot that you really need to learn experientially, and we're working with, you know, some very experienced successful production brewers here, and it's been a lot of fun.

- [Narrator] Melissa Greenfield has only been in the brew tech program for five weeks, and she's already familiar with commercial-scale brewing equipment.

- It's been really exciting to see all of this process firsthand, and you know, learn how to work with some very sophisticated equipment.

You know, a lot of those programs don't give you the hands-on production experience, a lot of it is more, you know, hypothetical, you know, on books on, you know, on paper.

- Let's get one of you off the computer to do a tasting, and we're gonna pass it off to Gary here.

So ... My ideal student is somebody that wants an entry-level role at a big production brewery.

They walk out with a Brewers' Association Safety Certificate, they have this experience behind us, they have a work experience, whether that be an internship, or a trained-to-hire situation, so they start off with nothing on their resume, and they end up with like seven or eight different line items.

- [Narrator] This is the only brewing program in California recognized by the Master Brewers Association of America.

More than 85% of its graduates are employed in the industry, both locally and worldwide.

- If you wanna be in the brewing industry, and actively like in production, this is the best program for that, because you learn what you're gonna be doing on a daily basis.

- [Narrator] Before becoming brew tech alumni, Diane Hilz, and her husband, Sean, were home brewers.

After graduating from the program, they opened the Roadies Brewing Company in the Southern California city of Vista.

It was a dream come true.

- This program will get you a faster track pace to getting into that brew house, and being that head brewer.

We have a 10-barrel brew house, and we have a small staff, I think we've got nine, nine people on staff, so we're six months in, and really enjoying it.

We plan to support the program, and help it to grow.

- [Narrator] Like Diane and Sean, other alumni and industry partners are eager to help brew tech grow, as well.

They donate high-quality raw materials, like hops and malted barley for ingredients, or detergents and sanitizers for cleaning.

Some breweries give students internships, or make it a point to hire alumni, creating a vibrant growing network.

- It's just a community of knowledge, and like, and help that if you ever, if I ever need anything, I can always ask Mike, "Hey, something's going wrong", or "This isn't working out", or "Hey, do you know this person that I need?"

Or something like that, it's just a very giving back community.

It's super collaborative.

Absolutely.

- So now we have these pipelines, and that's been our goal for the past 10 cohorts was establishing these pipelines, and getting industry interested in this program, and now we get contacted pretty often to see if we have anybody available.

You know, this week, I got two different emails saying "Who is available?

We need somebody right now", which is a dream come true.

(gentle country music ending)