Build Your Beer Brewing Brain At RCC
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Video: Brains Of Brewing Beer: A New RCC Program
Wentworth, NC — A community college in Triad is helping students get in on the fastest growing sector of the beer business.
Right behind the baseball field at Rockingham Community College, you’ll find the hops field.
“In Rockingham County, we have an abundant supply of farmland, have an excellent water supply. We are right at the perfect temperature and humidity that hops need to grow,” said Bradley Overby, Lead Horticulture Instructor at Rockingham Community College.
Rockingham Community College decided to use the perfect storm of conditions to expand the school’s mission.
“Prepare people for jobs and to be a leader in economic development. And there’s just untold opportunities with the craft beer, craft beverages in North Carolina,” said Laura Coffee, Dean of Continuing Education.
Coffee said last February, they started offering a few craft beer brewing classes, and students wanted more.
So this spring, Rockingham Community College’s “Beer School” will focus on chemistry. The school will also offer a tasting room workshop.
“How to be more profitable in your tasting room, but also how to get some skills, so you can be hired if you’re interested in running as tasting room or working in one, as far as what the laws are, presenting and what glasses you use for what,” said Coffee.
Rockingham Community College is also converting an old storefront on Washington Street in downtown Eden into a hands-on educational brewery.
“We will have a sampling and tasting room where people can come and try some of the Rockingham beers,” said Coffee.
Next fall, the school will offer a Brewing, Distillation, and Fermentation Technology Program, the first associates degree program of its kind on the east coast.
“There is a need for some technical expertise and for people to continue learning, as they begin to brew or open their businesses to share ideas and improve in their skills,” said Coffee.
“Everything that’s needed for beer, can be grown actually within this county,” said Overby.
So far, more than 100 people have completed brewing classes at Rockingham Community College. And officials are hoping the new degree program will attract more students, even those who live outside of North Carolina.
“I think there’s a real awareness that this is an area of great potential,” said Coffee. “From the plow to the pint.”
If you want to sign up for spring courses, or the associates degree program, you can visit http://www.rockinghamcc.edu/.
Classes cost anywhere from $45 to $175.
