Craft beer is big business in New Hampshire — in 2014, the nonprofit Brewer’s Association reported that craft breweries had a $248 million economic impact on the state. Soon, the industry will have an educational impact on the state, too.
The University of New Hampshire recently announced a slate of new craft beer-related programs. The initiatives include a new brewing minor in the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, an analytical testing lab, an on-site pilot brewing system, and a professional development certificate offered through the UNH Cooperative Extension.
“This came from a need to be responsive to a growing industry,” said Marc Sedam. He’s the managing director of UNHInnovation, the campus office that connects businesses in the state with university resources. “We’ve seen that the brewing industry in the U.S. is growing like crazy, and in New Hampshire, it’s growing even crazier than the rest of the U.S.”
The brewing minor program is in development, Sedam said, and is set to begin in the fall of 2017. The analytical lab may be open as early as the end of this summer, and the brewing lab will be open in early 2017.
“Whenever you make beer, if you want to sell it, you have to send it out for testing,” Sedam said. Outside labs use analytical tests to determine how much alcohol is in a beer, among other details. There’s only one analytical lab on the East Coast, Sedam said, and that means New Hampshire breweries have a long wait before test results come back. An in-state lab would be “really responsive to the industry,” he said.
Additionally, the brewing system provides a place for students to get hands-on experience. Sedam said it will also be available for rent to local brewers for testing and experimentation.
“If you own a brewery, first you hire a brewer, then you hire a sales rep … and the next person you hire is a lab tech. We thought, why don’t we produce the students that can fill those roles,” he said.
“We’ll be very excited as we grow to bring in students that can come in with that level of experience.” — Nicole Carrier, co-owner of Throwback Brewery
Scott Schaier is the executive director of the Beer Distributors of NH and vice president of Brew NH, a nonprofit that promotes the state’s brewing industry. As UNH’s beer programs develop, Schaier said Brew NH will help connect the university to brewers in the state.
“We’re more or less going to be like a beer sherpa; (UNH) has questions and needs guidance, and we can answer those questions,” either directly or by putting in touch with partners, Schaier said.
Schaier said the professional certification program will be one of the first of its kind in New England. “In the last 10 years, we’ve gone from 14 or 15 breweries to 55 breweries. There’s going to be a need for quality folks to be assistant brewers or to do apprenticeship programs and internship programs. In New Hampshire, people love to be able to fill those positions from within the state,” he said.
That’s exactly what Nicole Carrier, one of the co-owners of Throwback Brewery, is hoping to do.
“One thing is just getting talent that’s trained in all aspects of brewing — the sciences, but even more, the business side, plus having that hands-on experience with the brew house. We’ll be very excited as we grow to bring in students that can come in with that level of experience,” she said. The UNH program will have another connection to Throwback — the university purchased equipment from Throwback’s previous brewhouse for the pilot lab.
As the craft beer industry grows, Carrier expects it will be more difficult to find experienced employees to work in breweries. Homebrewers might have some of the required experience, but may be at a disadvantage when it comes to understanding the ins and outs of commercial brewing.
“There are things you don’t even think about, mostly centered around quality assurance — water quality, yeast management, those types of skills,” she said.