Oskar Blues Hires Graduate of Oskar Blues Brew School (Erik Weber)

“I could not be happier,” says new brewer Erik Weber. “This class was key to my access to the amazing people in the craft beer industry, and this is a great opportunity for me to grow with Oskar Blues.”

Weber moved to Fletcher, NC, with his wife and two children, from Erie, Penn., just over a year ago. He is an avid home brewer and has been a stay-at-home dad. His background is in Environmental Science.

“We are thrilled to have found a brewer from the class,” says Noah Tuttle, head brewer at the Brevard brewery. “This goes to show how important education and hands-on training is for folks who want to pursue careers in this incredibly fast-growing industry.”

The course is a collaboration between Oskar Blues Brewery and Blue Ridge Community College, which has a campus nearby. Students have alternated between lecture classes at the college and hands-on learning at the brewery since January.

The IBD is an internationally recognized exam offered at centers throughout the U.S. by the United Kingdom’s Institute of Brewing and Distilling. The exam will be offered at BRCC for the first time in May.

BRCC offers additional Craft Beer Academy Classes, and two other recent Oskar Blues hires, Amy Rubin, Western North Carolina sales rep, and Travis Mannon, packaging guy, are graduates of the Beer Basics class.

“The Brew School has been extremely well received with an enormous backlog of interest,” says Ben Kish, workforce training development director at Blue Ridge Community College. “We had so many students enrolling, we nearly overloaded our registration system. One of the most encouraging points is we are already seeing students being placed in the industry from our program.”

Registration for the Oskar Blues Brew School summer session will again be on-line with dates/times to be announced later in April. The summer schedule for Blue Ridge will be on-line by mid-April with the Oskar Blues Summer Brew School and all the Craft Beer Academy Classes listed.