Developed by and for the growing craft beer industry, the Brewing Academy
of Montana features a student-operated 4-barrel brewery, with a dedicated classroom and lab, for the ultimate hands-on education in brewing. We sell
the beer we make, and our graduates get jobs!
Offering two educational tracks--
Brewery Technician Certificate C.T.S., 29 credits
New for the Fall of 2021: a two-semester Certificate C.T.S. option for the fast-track, mechanically-inclined brewer. Learn the equipment and the process, and get your foot in the door at a professional brewery in under a year. With 11-credits of BREW-rubric classes per week, including 10+ hours in the brewing lab, and at least an hour of sensory practice each week, this is immersion-style learning at its finest.
Brewing Science and Brewery Operations A.A.S., 61 credits
Our four-semester, A.A.S. in Brewing Science and Brewery Operations builds off C.T.S. coursework, (i.e. all C.T.S. classes satisfy A.A.S. requirements), advancing the scientific and theoretical understanding of the brewing process. It includes a partnered internship with a local or regional brewery. Students design custom recipes, perform advanced quality control/quality assurance, and tie together the scientific, artistic, historical, and mechanical disciplines of brewing in a dynamic setting.
Facebook and Instagram link to Brewing Academy of Montana - BAM,
Facebook - @fvccbam
Faculty Bio: Program Director and Lead Brewing Instructor Joe Byers graduated from Eastern Washington University in 2008 with a B.S. in Biochemistry, with Magna Cum Laude and the Chemistry Department’s Graduating Senior Award. He began as assistant brewer at Tamarack Brewing Company, in Lakeside, Montana, in the Spring of 2010, and was promoted to Head Brewer in the summer of 2012. He remained there through 2015, growing production from about 2,000 to 5,000 barrels per year, commissioning a canning line, and collecting some hardware that still hangs in the taproom. He has been the Program Director of the Brewing Academy of Montana since late 2015 when the program was established. He remains active in the local brewery scene, periodically doing consulting and contract brewing work.
“I want you to make great beer!" - Joe Byers, Program Director, Brewing Academy of Montana.
Contact me at (406) 756-4359 or jbyers@fvcc.edu