As the craft beer industry enters higher education, Downingtown’s Victory Brewing Company is lending a hand to one particular program, the Brewing Science Certificate at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, writes Rebecca VanderMeulen for Keystone Edge.

The 18-credit program that was introduced two years ago aims to help fill the formal training gap of most current brewery workers.

Marisa Egan, a Victory Brewing chemist, noted that formal training is necessary to help workers understand both the science and process behind beer-making. This will help them troubleshoot situations when something goes wrong.

“People think it’s so easy to put these four ingredients together,” she said. “But trial and error doesn’t really work.”

Egan teaches one of the program’s final classes. Her students are tasked with developing a hypothesis on how changing just one piece of the brewing process will affect the final product. This theory is then tested in the lab using specialized equipment.

“The number of variables that come from each product is amazing,” said Egan. “Beer is so interesting on every level — not just the science of it, but the flavor of it.”

Read more about the education of craft brewers at Keystone Edge here.