SAN MARCOS — The craft beer capital of America —San Diego — has a new scholarly epicenter at California State University-San Marcos.
Known as “Engibeering” (a California State University trademark), the science-based program includes elements of history, business and social studies.
Classes began on March 19 and a program certificate requires 12 to 16 credit hours.
With over 155 craft breweries in San Diego County and dozens of them in North County, advocates of the program say Cal State San Marcos will serve as a strategic home to study the burgeoning industry.
The program is the third of its sort in San Diego County (and the first in North County), following on the heels of San Diego State University and University of California-San Diego.
“San Diego has a thriving craft brewing industry, and it needs more qualified workers,” Jackie Trischman, faculty co-director of the program and a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Cal State San Marcos, said in a press release. “This program prepares students for every aspect of a brewing operation, from buying the materials and brewing to bottling and selling.”
Classes will also have instructors who work for the industry itself. One of those teachers: Rip Current Brewing founder and CEO Paul Sangster, who also served as the 2018 president of the San Diego Brewers Guild.
Other instructors include Kyle Adams, general manager at Prohibition Brewing Company; James Petti, head brewer and co-owner of Wavelength Brewing Company; and Mike Stevenson, co-owner and head brewer at Culver Beer Company.
The university emphasized the importance of learning from that combined deep bench of experience within the field.
The program will also offer students a chance to intern at a local brewery.
“You’ll be learning from and networking with local brewery owners and experts associated with the beer industry, and will see behind-the-scenes of breweries of all sizes,” reads the program’s website. “As part of this program, you will complete an internship at a local brewery to gain real experience to help start or advance your career in this exciting and growing industry.”
For students not seeking a certificate, they can still enroll in any of the entry-level courses: Sensory Evaluation of Beer, From Sumer to San Diego: The Evolution of Beer Across Time and Space; and Craft Beer Recipe Development Lab.
Engibeering’s commencement comes just two years after the school launched the Brewchive, an archival collection of historical beer-related documents.
The collection focuses on the modern era of beer industry development in San Diego County from 1987 through the present day.
According to the university, both the Engibeering program and the Brewchive go hand-in-hand.
“An archive of San Diego brewing industry practice supports research by business majors (marketing and business planning), science majors (recipe development and industry technology), history students (archival research experience and exhibits), as well as scholars and the public,” the university notes.
The first days of Engibeering and the early days of the Brewchive come just as the city of San Diego’s East Village neighborhood in the downtown-area has announced that it may soon open a 12,000-square-foot Museum of Beer.