College major for someone interested in brewery/distillery

[eman33]

What kind of college level courses/major would prepare you to run a brewery/distillery? Besides the business aspect of it. Im talking sort of the chemistry side of it. Is there a major that would help more than another?

[big worm]

two years at kentucky hill top "U" ?? thats a real good question i would think they need any type en-jun-eeres from mechanical to chemical....to be the top distiller or blender i would think the best school is time. math is very helpful
*****edit
now days a law degree

[trthskr4]

Ask Uncle Jesse what kind of degree he has. I wouldn't think you need one for your own distillery, you just have to prove you can make a product that'll get through the testing I think. Of course you can't make a legal product to test until you have your liscense but someone had to make a sample to send in before going further with their license.

[The Chemist]

Well, as said...you don't HAVE to have a degree. But, if you want to go that way, a chemistry major with some concentration in bio/micro biology would be an excellent start. I would think U of Wisconsin-Madison would be a good place to look into. I don't know of anywhere like this in the US:

http://www.ibd.org.uk/qualifications/ex ... s-content/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[zymos]

For brewing, UC Davis is the place.

I tried to get into their grad program there many years back, and had a pretty adversarial relationship with the famous Dr. Lewis.
Me "I don't want to go and work for Budweiser or something like that"
Him "95% of my graduates go on to work for Anhesuer Busch"

He ended up letting me sit in and audit a couple of his classes, but insisted on referring to me as "that tourist form Santa Cruz".

Anyway, its a fantastic program.

I actually ended up going into the wine industry, and got my first job partly because the winemaker was ALSO a UC Davis dropout!

[goose eye]

would duble majer one like chemist said bio an microw an other in business. now is you gonna be disertatein id be ridein business on that path. the way the wind is blowin on product liability it
only a mater of time

as far as budwiser it is a world wide reconizable brand. marketin geniusis cause it cant be the
product.

so im tole

[rad14701]

The foremost reason for premature failure is due a lack of business administration skills, so that area would be well worth investigating regardless of what business you may want to invest your time and money into... I've seen more than a few businesses fail simply because people think that all of the money in the register is theirs to spend, forgetting about things like overhead, inventory, taxes, etc...

[eternalfrost]

do you YOU are interested in...

if your more of a geeky smart guy go the science side of things. chemistry, bio, math
if your more of a 'people person' go towards the more business or management side

if you ever decide to start your own business, find someone else who knows the complimentary side as yourself.

trust me, im a grad student currently. do what you enjoy and are interested in. not just something that you feel will result in a good job or whatever. 90% of people (excluding phd level types) end up doing something totally different then what they study anyways. for example my parents were both graduates in marine biology, now one runs a printing company and the other is a web designer

trust me, you wont make it if you try to fore yourself to do something you dont love

[trthskr4]

trust me, you wont make it if you try to fore yourself to do something you dont love

Boy isn't that the truth, another priceless life lesson from HomeDistiller.org.

[Wohzah]

Oregon State University has a program, one of the few colleges I have seen with one. Also you could look into chemistry or microbiology.

[snuffy]

Michigan State University has a famous distilling program:
http://www.chems.msu.edu/php/faculty.php?user=berglund" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

I think one of the ag universitys in Arkansas has a distilling program.

There is also one on the East Coast, but I can't dredge up the details.