BREW NEWS: UP adds business strategy courses for craft brewers; Oregon Brewshed Alliance aims to “safeguard” water, forest; OSU research brewery gets $1M donation.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
The Pamplin School of Business at the University of Portland is offering a graduate certificate program for craft beer businessmen.
Classes will be held online.
From OregonLive.com:
“The craft beer industry is well-served by programs and technical schools when it comes to fermentation science,” said business school dean Robin Anderson. “We believe there is a need for graduate-level business training and strategic thinking now that the industry has grown up a bit and we are going to lead the way.”
The core of the Master Strategist Certificate program is an online learning community – craftingastrategy.com – that includes brewery owners on three continents, professional investors, NGOs, academics, bankers, lawyers and other industry professionals committed to the craft beer industry.
Completing all three courses will merit a Master Strategist Certification.
RELATED NEWS: 6 highlights from the Craft Brewers Conference
Oregon Wild, brewers aims to ‘safeguard’ water, forest
Conservation group Oregon Wild has partnered with major Oregon brewers to form the Oregon Brewshed Alliance, which aims to “safeguard our clean water, sustain our economy and maintain a thriving business industry.”
The brewers on board so far are Widmer Bros., Migration Brewing, Hopworks Urban Brewery and Fort George Brewery, Portland Business Journal reports.
Oregon Wild describes the group’s mission this way: “Here in Oregon we enjoy recreation on pristine wildlands and impeccable craft brews – sometimes both simultaneously. But without protected watersheds and clean water, neither the wild landscapes nor the hoppy, malty beverages we enjoy could thrive. Beer is over 90 percent water after all, and that water is a product of the land it flows through, so our Northwest microbrews are intimately connected with our Northwest land.”
Essentially, the group will advocate for the protection of forests and watersheds. Expect a series of pint nights along with special brews and beer fests to mark the new group.
OSU research brewery gets $1M donation
The fermentation science program at Oregon State University was the beneficiary of a $1 million donation from the CEO of the owners of Portland-based BridgePort Brewing Company.
From OregonLive.com:
The gift from [chairman and chief executive officer of the Gambrinus Company, which owns BridgePort, Carlos] Alvarez will fund the purchase of a new research brewery to be housed in Oregon State’s Wiegand Hall Pilot Plant Facility, where fermentation science students participate in each step of the brewing and packaging process.
“We are incredibly grateful and excited about building on this great relationship with BridgePort and Gambrinus,” said Tom Shellhammer, OSU’s Nor’Wester Professor of Fermentation Science. “At Oregon State we are very proud to offer students a ‘grain-to-glass’ education that covers every aspect of the beer-making process. Furthermore, we carry out cutting-edge, globally-relevant brewing science research. This state-of-the-art facility will allow us to provide an experiential education that is truly world-class, while also enhancing research that benefits industry.”
Oregon State has one of the nation’s two fermentation science programs.
