While large four-year institutions like the University of California San Diego and San Diego State University offer courses on aspects of the brewing industry, one of the most interesting programs is found at a community college.
MiraCosta’s BrewTech is one of only four programs in the United States to be recognized by the Master Brewers Association of the Americas.
“Our focus is from grain to glass,” said Carisa Chavez, director of the 18-week program, where hands-on experience in an on-campus brewery is augmented by robust internships. “We get you in, we get you brewing, we get you out.”
Students, placed in six-person teams, spend 100 hours in the campus lab, brewing up to 12 beers. They also embark on 80-hour internships at Southern California breweries, such as Pure Project, Belching Beaver, Booze Brothers and Culver Beer Co.
This sort of workplace exposure is invaluable, said Angela O’Brien, a fall 2020 BrewTech student.
“During the course, I started out as an intern” at Booze Brothers, she said. “I just never left.”
Offered a full-time job at that Vista brewery in January 2021, she is now operations manager there.
Carrigan Henkel also owes his current job to BrewTech. Enrolled in the original class in spring 2019, he met another student, Shawn Haven, who hoped to found his own brewery. Haven’s dream was realized earlier this year when he opened Los Molinos Beer Co. in San Clemente.
Los Molinos’ head brewer? Carrigan Henkel.
“I got all the experience I needed from MiraCosta,” Henkel said. “And the opportunity came from there as well.”
In the process of moving from its original Oceanside site to a new lab in Carlsbad, BrewTech is now taking applications for its 2023 courses.
BrewTech stresses “hard skills,” like the chemistry of brewing, and “soft skills,” such as workplace safety, punctuality and inter-personal communications.
“We want to get them to show up on time — and stay off their cell phones,” Chavez said.
Cell phones? Chavez sighed, then nodded. “That’s huge.”
Anniversary gifts
Scuttled by the pandemic for two years, Stone’s anniversary party made a triumphant return last month. Three standouts from the 14 beers I sampled during the Aug. 28 festivities at the brewery’s Liberty Station bistro:
- I never understood why the original Stone Pale Ale (5.4 percent) was discontinued. Drinking it here, where it enjoyed a brief revival, confirmed my belief that this terrific beer is a worthy rival to Sierra Nevada Pale.
- Wild Barrel’s Vice Peach Prickly Pear (5.2 percent) may be the summer’s most refreshing beer. The just-plucked peach flavor is marvelous, especially when this fructose is moderated by ample carbonation.
- Cali Squeeze Blood Orange (5.4 percent) is a tasty addition to the ranks of blood orange brew. Firestone Walker’s hefeweizen, unlike the more common blood orange IPAs, is soft on the tongue thanks to the use of malted wheat. Sweet, tart and lovely. But “Cali”? Must we?
The next round
Tomorrow: Proof that everyone hosts beer festivals, Beer By the Bay comes to us courtesy of the Coronado Women’s Club. 1201 First St., Coronado, 1 to 5 p.m.
Sept. 26: Wander Women Project is leading its next small-group tour of three local breweries. Sign up at wanderwomenproject.com.
Nov. 4-13: Get an early jump on your San Diego Beer Week plans. The S.D. Brewers Guild site — sdbeer.com — is already rolling out details on special events.
Quick sips: Tastes of notable beers
(Note: I drank these three beers during our recent descent into climate hell. Perhaps that fired-up these hot takes.)
Beer: San Diego State Ale
From: AleSmith Brewing, San Diego
Style: Golden ale
Alcohol by volume: 4.7 percent
Drink or dump: Dump. A rare miss from AleSmith, one of my favorite breweries. State is easy-drinking, as advertised, but undistinguished. Bland and one-dimensional, this one scrapes by with a C-minus.
Beer: Mosaic Minded
From: Booze Brothers Brewing, Vista
Style: Pale ale
Alcohol by volume: 5.5 percent
Drink or dump: Dump. Like many beer styles, pale ales are overshadowed by brawnier, more assertive India pale ales. While that’s a shame, the pale cause isn’t helped by Mosaic Minded, whose fruity Mosaic hops can’t hide a stale malt base.
Beer: Floating Holiday
From: Allagash, Portland, Maine
Style: Blonde ale
Alcohol by volume: 5.2 percent
Drink or dump: Dump. This blonde ale has some gose characteristics — dash of salt, squeeze of fruit (in this case, lemon), Belgian-adjacent spicing. But the flavors don’t shine, serving only to sink this Holiday.
Rowe is a freelance writer.
