Alberta college taps Ontario school for beer knowledge

OLDS, AB—Olds College is going to adopt the brewmaster program that Niagara College has been running for two years at Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON.

The two institutions announced a deal yesterday to develop Canada’s only post-secondary brewmaster program in Alberta.

Olds College will offer the same courses and use the same brewing equipment to teach students how to run a beer-making operation.

"This is an historic day for Olds College as not only do we become the first teaching brewery in Western Canada, but this brewmaster program also marks our first new, two-year diploma program in the past five years," said Olds president Tom Thompson in a release.

"When we created our Canadian Food and Wine Institute, our objective was to create a Canadian presence focused on food, wine and beer, and academic programming that can serve as a model for applied education" said Steve Hudson, acting president of Niagara College.

"We are delighted that Olds College approached us to establish this collaborative relationship. The program has elements of agriculture, business and hospitality. It is an exceptional program, and will only grow stronger drawing on Olds' strong agricultural background and Niagara's strengths in hospitality."

The Olds College teaching brewery, which is scheduled to take in its first students in September next year, will be located in the Pomeroy Inn and Suites, a hotel and conference centre currently being built on campus.

After developing a teaching winery, Niagara College followed it up with the two-year Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management Diploma program in 2010, which will graduate its first class of about 20 students in June this year.

With the rapid growth of craft breweries across Canada, brewmasters are now in demand.