The Connection Between Agriculture and Brewing: How US Universities Teach Sustainable Beer Production

In recent years, there has been an explosion in craft and mass-market beer brewing. It was a thriving industry long before the pandemic, but many individuals seemed more willing to get into this hobby during lockdowns when they needed something to do. 

Some view it as a hobby, and others as a viable way to start a career. However, some don’t realize that you don’t have to be self-taught when it comes to brewing. Finding a university where you can take classes in this particular niche is possible.

This might surprise you, but it really shouldn’t. There are more diverse ways of getting an education or doing take-home work than ever. If a student thinks, “I wish someone could help me with my essay,” there are options for hiring top writers who avoid plagiarism and can produce essays that earn exceptional grades from any professor.

In short, where it once would have been unheard of to find a reputable institution of higher learning where you could learn about the brewing arts and sustainable beer-crafting practices, there are now dozens of schools that offer those very things. With technology that enables more immersive learning, you don’t even have to attend classes in person if it’s not convenient for you.  

Let’s take a moment right now to talk about beer production, agriculture, and what you can learn about them in a classroom setting. If these topics are of interest to you, you may be excited to learn that you’re living in a veritable Golden Age.

What Schools Have Classes Covering Beer Production?

First, it’s helpful to know what universities are leading the charge when it comes to this rather niche subject. There are many, but some of the most noteworthy include:

• Sacred Heart
• Wake Tech
• The University of Arkansas
• Point Park
• Northern Colorado
• Auburn
• The University of California at San Diego

These institutions all offer either classes, certificate programs, or even degrees in the beer-making arts. These aren’t just classes where you get together with the instructor and try a taster’s choice menu of some of the local IPAs, though. They are more commonly science-based instructional courses that are designed to pull this out of hobby status, based in garages and basements, and turn it into a legitimate profession in which graduates from the program can comfortably earn a living.

What is the Connection Between Agriculture and the Creation of Alcoholic Beverages?

Now that you know about several possible schools where you might continue this specific interest, we should talk about how agricultural experience might be useful if you plan to build a career out of it, or at least make it the main focus of your occupation. If you start to learn even a little about what goes into the Brewmaster's art, this connection starts to become obvious. To make beer, you need:

• Water
• Yeast
• Hops
• Barley

Water is vital if you are going to be growing virtually any kind of crop. Yeast is also a must-have, as it is used for fermentation. It is the hops that add flavor and an appropriate level of bitterness to any lager, ale, etc. The main ingredient, though, is barley, as it is used to make the malt from which the beverage itself originates.

Any brewer knows that they are reliant on farmers for a consistent supply of high-quality hops and grains. What a farmer grows gives a fermented beverage its piquancy, texture, and aroma.  

Can You Grow These Grains on Your Own?

It might seem as though anyone can grow something like hops or barley if they have the technical know-how. However, even if a school happens to teach you the required techniques, or if you learn them on your own, that does not necessarily mean you’ll have the space in which to work. 

You need:

• Enough space to plant the seeds
• An appropriate climate in which they’ll grow
• An irrigation system that provides what you’re growing with a sufficient water source 

All of these are fundamentals that you will presumably learn about in one of the classes at the universities we mentioned earlier. However, just because you learn about how these grains come into existence, that doesn’t necessarily translate to you having the capability to produce them.

With that in mind, you can see how learning about beer-making in a formal setting would be appropriate. Part of what you will be learning about is the fundamental connection that exists between a brewmaster and a farmer. It is not the sort of relationship that you can ignore if you hope to start your own company and make inroads into an ultra-competitive alcoholic beverage market. 

Where Sustainability Fits In

Up to this point, we have only talked about the classes you might take where you will presumably learn about the actual craft of alcoholic beverage production. We have not yet mentioned sustainability. 

If you are the least bit interested in agricultural processes, then you should learn what it is to be environmentally conscious. When the word “sustainable,” is used, that is what is meant. 

In the most basic instructional courses at a college, you will probably learn that farmers and the brewers with whom they partner need to be kind to the Earth, especially at a time when climate change is wreaking such widespread havoc. That involves:

• Taking brewing courses that include science-based, hands-on techniques for producing crops without stripping the land or otherwise making it unusable in the future
• Taking business courses that focus on quality control, operations, marketing, sales, and accounting
• Learning about life-cycle analysis and environmental sciences
• Taking classes with a particular focus on physics, fermentation do’s and don’ts, microbiology, biology, and chemistry

The reality is that alcoholic beverages are relatively easy to make. That does not necessarily mean that they are easy to make well, or that you will be able to repeat the process on a larger scale if you want to make this your career. It is the plethora of interrelated concepts that are mentioned above that a beer-making class at an institution of higher learning will likely try to inform you of. 

Key Takeaways for Brewing Education

After reading all of this, you may start to feel like you’d prefer to keep making small batches of ales or porters in your cellar rather than scaling this hobby and turning it into your career. If so, that’s fine. There’s nothing that says you need to turn a fun pastime into your primary method of supporting yourself.

However, if you are still interested in launching the next Coors or Budweiser brand, that’s probably going to start with attending one of the schools we mentioned earlier. Many other ones provide such degrees or instructional courses, however, these are among some of the best-known ones.

Civilization has been brewing grains and savoring the results for thousands of years at least. If you decide to enter this niche, you will be following a well-established tradition of revenue generation. Just remember that sustainability and science are vital to this venture. Respect the planet, and it will gladly yield its bounty.