The interdisciplinary coursework at Appalachian State prepares students for chemistry-type career fields, while simultaneously providing them with extensive business, marketing, and entrepreneurial proficiencies. The academics and professors within the program—for now a small group comprised of former industry professionals turned educators who designed and wrote the curriculum—that students are imparted with not just knowledge of fermentation sciences, but of business, too.

Rusty Kuhfeld, Appalachian State University

Led by Seth Cohen, who earned a doctorate in food science and tech from Oregon State University, Corvallis, the program began about two years ago with more than $250,000 raised in state and federal grants. The first wave of about 70 students in the program will graduate by the end of the year. When Cohen came to Appalachian State he and the collaborating staff “looked at the curriculum and proposal and found that it would be probably much more advantageous and relevant to develop it into a fermentation sciences program and not limit it to enology or wine chemistry,” he said.

Before Cohen started the program, fermentation sciences departments were scarce or non-existent on the East coast. Only Cornell University had one, and it was strictly within its food science program. (On the West coast, Oregon State University has one, too) But there was an increasing need for experts in the field. According to a 2013 report by the Demeter Group, an investment bank and advisory firm to wine, spirits, beer and food industries, the annual growth rate of the craft brewing industry has increased 10 percent annually between 2007 and 2012. The report also listed North Carolina as a high-growth state with a 23 percent increase in craft breweries in 2011, driven largely by such top craft beer companies as Sierra Nevada and New Belgium, which are building facilities in the state. Both will bring a joint estimated production of 700,000 barrels with space for additional growth in and around Asheville, North Carolina.

Cohen and his staff have worked into the program such classes as “Principles of Fermentation Sciences,” “Social Implications of Fermented Beverages,” “Facility Design and Operation,” and “Sensory Analysis of Wine and Beer." These courses are paired with basic chemistry classes, taught by Eric Allain, a biochemist.



Allain said students are interested in these chemistry classes draw because of the way science is taught in relation to brewing and fermenting. “I think that really ties into something that the students can relate to and frankly they just learn it a lot easier,” Allain said. “We kind of disguise the science a little bit and, if you want to put it this way, trick the students into learning it.”

Students become more engaged in sciences because of this approach to food and beverages, said Cohen. “It also ends up being a segue into graduate or research careers, grabbing students that are interested in science but maybe find fundamental and basic study of chemistry and microbiology not that exciting in college,” he said. “Applying it to food and beverage tends to bring in some of the students that may not get into STEM disciplines for lack of interest.”



If getting tipsy is why students initially join the program, which some do, they're quickly mired in chemistry labs, calculus, and analytic geometry.