{"id":3230,"date":"2014-10-29T16:18:55","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T16:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nashcc.edu\/news\/?p=3230"},"modified":"2014-10-29T18:52:25","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T18:52:25","slug":"locals-enjoy-beer-and-oysters-at-educational-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/2014\/10\/locals-enjoy-beer-and-oysters-at-educational-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Locals enjoy beer and oysters at educational event"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"BeerTastingOysterRoast_01\"<\/a>

Sebastian Wolfrum, Executive Brewmaster with Rocky Mount Brewmill and Eric Ghiloni with Koi Pond Brewing speak to guests at NCC’s Beer Tasting and Oyster Roast.<\/p><\/div>\n

Nash Community College’s Continuing Education, Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management programs partnered with local beer brewers last week for the college’s inaugural Beer Tasting and Oyster Roast. Offered as a Continuing Education opportunity, the event introduced attendees to an evening of locally brewed craft beer combined with an oyster roasting and educational experience in preparation and serving oysters. The tasting was held in Nash Community College’s outdoor dining area, adjacent to the Culinary Kitchen. During the class, Sebastian Wolfrum, Executive Brewmaster with Rocky Mount Brewmill, and Eric Ghiloni with Koi Pond Brewing Company explained the tasting, ingredients, brewing processes, and flavors.<\/p>\n

According to the North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild, North Carolina is the \u201cState of Southern Beer\u201d boasting 100 breweries and brewpubs \u2013 more than can be found anywhere south of Pennsylvania and east of Texas. The U.S. craft brewing industry as a whole has taken off, according to the Brewers Association, bringing $33.9 billion and over 360,000 jobs to the economy in 2012. “Educational events around craft beer are the perfect introduction to appreciating what many of these small brewers have dedicated their life to,” Wolfrum told the class.<\/p>\n

“At this tasting event, you can sense the excitement about the idea of the Brewmill and the\u00a0ground swell of support form the craft beer community and Rocky Mount to make this work. The beautiful and historically important mill site on the Tar River in Rocky Mount is taking part in these lives by establishing the Brewmill. Just like tonight here at the NCC food and beer tasting, the Brewmill aims to provide the grounds for a community around beer and craftsmanship. By bringing together start-up breweries, lab services, a malting facility, associated businesses, and an educator in Nash Community College, in the initial phase the Brewmill in the role of a business incubator will take a dive with all of them into building something special,” Wolfrum shared.<\/p>\n

Rocky Mount\u2019s first craft brewery, Koi Pond Brewing Company, was a highlight of the event. Koi Pond recently opened a new production facility on South Grace Street near Downtown Rocky Mount. Koi Pond Brewing co-owner Eric Ghiloni describes the business as a hobby starting with a single request from a friend, which evolved into a new business supported by several other friends and family.<\/p>\n

NCC\u2019s Brewing, Distillation and Fermentation degree program, expected to begin in the spring, will offer brewers like Ghiloni the curriculum to craft their skills and hobby into a career. \u201cI had a friend who asked me to make some beer,\u201d Ghiloni said, \u201cI wanted to try something new, so I bought a homebrew kit and made up a batch.\u201d Many home brewers like Ghiloni are upping their game with formal training through Continuing Education offerings and full degree programs. NCC\u2019s 360 Degree Brewer program is currently underway with 14 students. The program includes 10 classes for hobbyists to learn OSHA Safety, stainless steel welding, fermentation, chemistry, plumbing, equipment maintenance, electrical systems, entrepreneurialism, microbiology and marketing.<\/p>\n

“I think it is important to recognize that we are in a period of firsts. NCC’s new curriculum, Rocky Mount’s first brewery, and all the changes that Capitol Broadcasting Company’s investment will bring, not just to the Mill area, but to all of Rocky Mount,” Ghiloni said. “This event was a great way to acknowledge that we have some really exciting things coming to our area. Further, I think it shows that there is a market for this industry and this culture here in the twin counties,” he said. “We are sitting on unlimited potential to meet the needs of locals who are traveling to Wilson, Raleigh and Greenville for products and services that we are going to be able to provide right here.”<\/p>\n

Class participants at the Beer Tasting sampled Koi Pond Brewing Company’s VooDoo Wit, Longstreet American Pale Ale, Peach Saison, and Kilt of Personality Wee Heavy Pale along with Mother Earth Brewing’s Dark Cloud Munich Dunkel, Duck Rabbit Brewery\u2019s Milk Stout and Aviator Brewing Company\u2019s Hogwild India Pale Ale.<\/p>\n

“A young and\u00a0growing industry needs each other to high five the successes and take the hits together just as much.\u00a0<\/span>The overall success of the project will depend on the community rising to the occasion and the individuals in it that will locate their businesses among\u00a0<\/span>like-minded entrepreneurs,” Wolfrum explained.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nash Community College’s Continuing Education, Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management programs partnered with local beer brewers last week for the college’s inaugural Beer Tasting and Oyster Roast. Offered as a… Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3230"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3253,"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3230\/revisions\/3253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}