Pictured Above: USF St. Petersburg’s Brewing Arts certificate program combines foundational brewing knowledge with hands-on training to prepare students for a career in the billion dollar craft beer industry.
Courtesy of Jessica Block
By Annalise Anderson
USF St. Petersburg’s Brewing Arts certificate program contributes to the booming craft beer industry that has quickly made its way to Florida. With 15 to 20 students in each cohort, the 23-week program blends structural brewing knowledge and hands-on training in a brewery.
Launched in 2015, the program began during a collaboration between then-adjunct chemistry professor Jim Leonard and Mike Harting, owner of 3 Daughters Brewing, when Leonard helped to set up a laboratory in the brewery. The previous dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Frank Biafora, worked with Leonard and Harting to develop the program.
“I really was looking for a way for folks who wanted to open up breweries to garner information,” Harting said. “Our industry is new and there’s not a lot of programs out there, there’s not a lot of mentors out there yet.”
Now, there are nearly 20 participating craft breweries in the program located across Florida. Yuengling, America’s oldest and largest family-owned brewery, is also a sponsor and supports two program scholarships every year.
There are two cohorts each year, beginning in February and August. Instructors include both professionals and academics in the craft beer field, many of whom are employed by or owners of local breweries.
Due to classes being online and the flexibility of the hands-on portion, students can enroll in the program without being local to St. Petersburg and often work full-time jobs during their studies.
According to Jennifer Sedillo, the Brewing Arts Program director, students from across the U.S. and even Canada, Colombia and Ukraine have successfully enrolled in the program.
Current student and Tampa resident Lisa Metheny enrolled in the program last August with little knowledge about brewing craft beer.
Annalise Anderson | The Crow’s Nest
“I did not have much experience in craft beer, except as a consumer and I had brewed one batch of beer at home, a few months before I started the program,” Metheny said in an email to The Crow’s Nest. “I spent 20 years in the alcohol beverage industry, primarily in wine. However, my experience was in sales, marketing, management, training and recruiting. I was interested in learning how the beer was made and having the opportunity to learn in a hands-on setting with the internship portion.”
Metheny said she had a positive experience with the online portion and is enjoying her time as an intern at 3 Daughters Brewing completing the final steps of the program.
“I have helped to brew a few small batch items. My favorite was a king cake brew which will be served at the upcoming crawfish boil event at 3 Daughters,” Metheny said.
Originally created for an assignment, Metheny’s own recipe for a dark chocolate key lime pie ale will be brewed on the brewery’s commercial-scale system and will be on tap in a few weeks.
Kevin Milkey, a spring 2019 graduate, is a well-known philanthropist in the Tampa Bay area and the owner of Grand Central Brewhouse, which opened in December. While Milkey is not a brewer at his facility, he said that the program provided him with the “foundational knowledge” to open the brewery.
Annalise Anderson | The Crow’s Nest
Johnnie Levin, a spring 2018 graduate, has now opened her own brewery, Front Page Brewing, in Bartow. Ready to explore a new career, Levin enrolled in the program to see if brewing as a good fit. Within the first month of the program, Levin said she felt “at home.”
Courtesy of Steven Ryzewski
“I had basically retired from the corporate world and had joined my husband in his business. That really wasn’t for me and I was looking for something else to do that aligned with my interests,” Levin said in an email to The Crow’s Nest. “We had been talking for a while about our town needing its own craft brewery and the Brewing Arts program was a good way to see if opening my own brewery would be something I wanted to pursue.
“The ‘craft’ in craft beer is an art and a passion for most and they don’t mind sharing their knowledge, enthusiasm – and sometimes even supplies and ingredients. The business side of it can be challenging and frustrating, especially right now, but those that work in a brewery and/or taproom are a passionate bunch of people that want to see folks enjoy their product, for their place of business to succeed and for the industry to grow.”
Khris Johnson, owner of Green Bench Brewing and USF alumnus, said that his time as an instructor of the program has been “extremely rewarding and fulfilling.”
Annalise Anderson | The Crow’s Nest
“I enjoy teaching and without the program I would never be able to reach as many people as I’ve had the pleasure of instructing,” Johnson said in an email to The Crow’s Nest. “It makes me very proud when fellow breweries hire our students or when our students move on to opening their own… Ultimately, it gives me confidence in our area’s brewing quality, safety and sustainability.”
