Craft beer brewers in NSW have created a new trade course in a bid to get higher-skilled workers into the industry, as consumer demand continues to grow.

Institute of Beer consultant Neal Cameron is the brainchild behind the course.

He said the craft beer industry had grown from five breweries about 15 years ago to more than 200 across Australia.

"Brewing is a trade, like any trade, and people understand that if you want to be a plumber or an electrician or a chef, you need to do not only your qualification or vocational qualification but also practical experience as well," Mr Cameron said.

"In the same way a plumber will go to TAFE, to night school, for one day a week and then work in the trade and develop experience that way, that's exactly what we're trying to do here."

Sydney brewer Richard Adamson has worked alongside Mr Cameron in developing the program and said it should help set a standard for making craft beer.

"Finding candidates is difficult, particularly people that haven't got a skill base to start with and we were hoping to get out of this course a fairly standardised way of doing things as well," he said.

"That will assist the industry in the quality aspects about brewing as well.

"As the craft beer industry is growing, we're getting more and more players entering the marketplace and it's important we have a level of consistency and quality across the entire industry."

Brewers desperate for skilled workers

Daniel Shaw, the head brewer of one of western Sydney's only craft beer makers, said there were enormous benefits for businesses that did not have the time to spend months training up people.

Brewer Daniel Shaw says he is desperate for skilled workers. ( ABC News: Jackson Vernon )

"To have somebody come in with little to no knowledge and then have to train them up from scratch is a bit of a daunting task," he said.

"If you can have a TAFE course which is what's happening, having them trained off site in a classroom, the theory and the knowledge and then come in and get some practical hands on experience is going to be insanely beneficial."

He said he was so desperate for new people he had to hire a beer maker from Germany.

"We have huge amount of people that want to be part of the industry and want to be brewers but very, very few people that have knowledge or skill to be able to do something on this scale," he said.

The course is expected to start early next year, and there is already interest from at least two other states to introduce the program.