Sarai Thompson – Staff Writer<\/p>\n
With an urgency to find new job opportunities for students, Daytona State College is brewing up a recipe for success with its 30-credit Hospitality Beverage Science certificate program.<\/p>\n
In the 28-member Florida College System, the program is exclusive to DSC, although some other colleges offer beer and wine-tasting classes. Costa Magoulas, Dean\u00a0 of the School of Hospitality and Culinary Management, has high hopes for the program. He believes it can jump leaps and bounds over any potential competition and that the program will hurtle students to the top of the industry.<\/p>\n
The idea to create a program based on beverage science came about after researching profitability in the hospitality industry and realizing that 40 to 70 percent of profits comes from beverages.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason we made a 10-class college credit certificate is simply because there was no college offering this complete program, even though jobs in this field are in high demand,\u201d Magoulas says.<\/p>\n
After obtaining approval from both the board and state, the school was given $1.2 million to fund the program. The laboratory, located in the Mori Hosseini Center in Building 1200 on campus, emulates a sophisticated bar, as well as offers professional equipment needed to brew high quality beer and wine.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like science class, but with drinks \u2013 drinks you aren\u2019t allowed to swallow, but still,\u201d Hayden Warlick, a student majoring in Hospitality, lightheartedly says when asked what he thought about the class.<\/p>\n
Another student, Rico Perez, replies with, \u201cI mostly just expected to learn about beverage science. I didn\u2019t expect him to show us how to make it or what we were going to do in it. Like, we tested beer, tried wine and he told us the history of it and he taught us how to make it. I didn\u2019t expect to enjoy the class as much as I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Magoulas\u00a0 explains, \u201cWe wanted the program to be exactly like the culinary or hospitality program \u2013 they\u2019re all hands on. So that when people go to school here, they can go directly from our program into the industry and be trained to use their equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Magoulas, who oversees beverage sciences, adds that the end goal is for students to be able to leave the program and go to any \u201cgastro pub,\u201d or any restaurant with a full beverage station, and be able to run it.<\/p>\n
Such a program is especially fitting in Volusia County because the city of Daytona Beach is the number one employer in hospitality, with 41,000 jobs. Although they can\u2019t yet drink themselves, the minimum age to enroll in the program is 18 years old. A waiver must be completed and signed if students are under the legal age of 21 years old.<\/p>\n
But Magoulas emphasizes, the Beverage Science program is not a brewery, it is a classroom. Classes teach the history of beers and wines from around the world, while letting students sample the beverages being created by tasting and spitting out the product. Better known as \u201cexpectorating,\u201d students will follow wine and beer-tasting protocol by swirling the liquid in a glass, taking a sniff, sipping it, swishing it in their mouths and then spitting it out.<\/p>\n
Whether a student or a connoisseur of fine beverages, this makes more sense than getting drunk in class, which some students might prefer. But that would not be a professional approach to the program. Experts say there is a whole art to the process of tasting beer and wine and students will be learning about that too.<\/p>\n
Eventually, their palates will become refined enough to successfully pair certain beverages with the appropriate foods. Students also will know how the products are created and how to make them, as well as storing, sanitizing, purchasing and managing products.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sarai Thompson – Staff Writer With an urgency to find new job opportunities for students, Daytona State College is brewing up a recipe for success with its 30-credit Hospitality Beverage Science certificate program. In the 28-member Florida College System, the program is exclusive to DSC, although some other colleges offer Continue reading Beverage Program Refreshing Change of Pace for Culinary Students<\/span>