OLDS, Alta. — Many former college and university students studied beer while they pursued their degrees, but Olds College decided to get serious about the brew.
Working with Niagara College in Eastern Canada, the agriculture college offers a two year brew master diploma that accepts 26 students a year. They learn not only how to make beer but also how to market it.
This winter, the women enrolled in the program decided to develop a special edition pale ale marketed as Calamity Jane. The result was an 800 litre special run craft beer.
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Launched March 5, it is the first women’s brewed beer from the college, which students hope to sell locally and in Calgary and Edmonton.
“We wanted to appeal to beer geeks like us but the general population as well,” said Lisa Drapaka, a second year student from Edmonton.
Revenue generated from sales will support International Women’s Day March 8 and a charity called Pink Boots Society, which supports women in the industry and provides scholarships and education programs.
The eight women in the program started work earlier this winter and finished by mid-February.
“We think it is very special because the women in the program came up with the recipe, we brewed it and we filtered it and we packaged it,” she said. “It turned out great, we think.”
The label features a woman in western wear with a gun. The model was the sister of one of the brewers.
Women brewers are not common, and the students hope to go into the marketing end of the business, although some graduates hope to start their own breweries.
Development of the brew master course germinated for years and was finally approved by a teetotal vice-president who liked the novelty of it, said program co-ordinator Peter Johnston-Berresford.
The course teaches brewing, business skills, marketing, analytical chemistry and equipment design.
Students work in a brewing area, laboratory, retail storefront and pub, which are attached to the Pomeroy Hotel on campus property.
The program has received support from Rahr Malting and the Alberta wheat and barley commissions, which have provided scholarships to students across Canada.
The United States has 3,200 breweries, while Canada is about a tenth the size.
“There are lots of employment opportunities, and that doesn’t include the ancillary trades,” Johnston-Berresford said.
