Introduction to Craft Beer Production

Course Description

Introduction to Craft Beer Production is an introduction to brewing craft beer in a commercial setting. Students learn in the classroom and lab about ingredients and selection, recipe development, materials handling, proper equipment usage and commercial brewing methods, and prepare pilot and quantity batches of beer.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, HFT is the Hospitality Management prefix. Daytona State publishes this at 3 credits, offered spring, giving approximately 45 contact hours at the prefix convention.

The phrase "in a commercial setting" is what distinguishes this from home brewing, and the difference is larger than students expect. Home brewing forgives inconsistency; commercial brewing is a manufacturing discipline in which the same beer must arrive in the glass the same way every time, at scale, under sanitary control, with records. Brewing five gallons well teaches the chemistry. Brewing fifteen barrels repeatably teaches the job.

Daytona State does not publish a lecture and laboratory split for its HFT courses, but the convention across the prefix is consistent: every unsuffixed HFT course published at this institution runs at 3 credits and approximately 45 contact hours — 15 hours per credit, confirmed across twelve live courses without exception. The prefix's two C-suffixed courses (HFT2750C and HFT2867C) run at 20 hours per credit, which is what the suffix signals.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Describe the brewing process from raw materials to packaged beer.
• Describe the four principal ingredients and the contribution of each.
• Describe malt types, their production, and their effect on the finished beer.
• Describe hop varieties, hop chemistry, and the effects of timing on bitterness and aroma.
• Describe yeast strains and their influence on flavour and attenuation.
• Describe brewing water chemistry and its effect on process and flavour.
• Select ingredients appropriate to a target beer style.
• Describe the major beer styles and their defining characteristics.
• Develop a recipe to a target specification.
• Calculate gravity, bitterness, colour, and alcohol content.
• Perform milling and describe correct crush.
• Perform mashing and describe the enzymatic conversions involved.
• Perform lautering and sparging and describe extraction efficiency.
• Conduct the boil, including hop additions and kettle operations.
• Perform whirlpool, cooling, and transfer to fermentation.
• Pitch and manage yeast through fermentation.
• Monitor fermentation and record data accurately.
• Perform conditioning, carbonation, and clarification.
• Describe packaging methods and their effects on the product.
• Apply sanitation practice throughout the process.
• Handle materials safely, including grain, chemicals, and heavy items.
• Operate brewing equipment safely and correctly.
• Record process data and maintain brewing records.
• Evaluate a finished beer sensorially and identify common faults.

Optional Outcomes

• Describe scaling a recipe between batch sizes.
• Describe barrel ageing and mixed fermentation.
• Perform laboratory analysis of wort and beer.
• Describe brewhouse efficiency calculation and improvement.
• Describe specialty and experimental brewing techniques.
• Prepare for a brewing or beer-service certification.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• The brewing process end to end
• The four principal ingredients
• Malt types and production
• Hop varieties and chemistry
• Yeast strains and influence
• Brewing water chemistry
• Ingredient selection by style
• Beer styles
• Recipe development
• Brewing calculations
• Milling and crush
• Mashing and enzymatic conversion
• Lautering and sparging
• The boil and hop additions
• Whirlpool, cooling, and transfer
• Yeast pitching and fermentation management
• Fermentation monitoring and records
• Conditioning, carbonation, and clarification
• Packaging methods
• Sanitation in production
• Safe materials handling
• Equipment operation
• Process records
• Sensory evaluation and fault identification

Optional Topics

• Recipe scaling
• Barrel ageing and mixed fermentation
• Laboratory analysis
• Brewhouse efficiency
• Specialty and experimental brewing
• Certification preparation

Resources & Tools

• Brewers Association (brewersassociation.org) — the craft brewing trade body; substantial free technical, safety, and quality resources, including its safety guidance.
• Master Brewers Association of the Americas (mbaa.com) — technical training and its podcast, which is genuinely useful and free.
• American Society of Brewing Chemists (asbcnet.org) — the analytical methods standard.
• Designing Great Beers (Daniels), Yeast (White & Zainasheff), and Water (Palmer & Kaminski) — the technical series brewers actually keep.
• The Oxford Companion to Beer — the reference for styles and history.
• Cicerone Certification Program (cicerone.org) — the beer-service credential; the entry level is inexpensive and directly marketable.
• TTB (ttb.gov) — free federal permit, labelling, and excise tax guidance; the authority for anything in this guide about federal licensing.
• Florida DBPR / Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco — free; Florida licensing and the responsible vendor programme.
• Local breweries. Florida's craft scene is large and brewers are unusually willing to talk — ask to tour, ask to help on a brew day, and take the shift work if it is offered.
• American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (ahlei.org) — industry certifications recognised by employers.
• National Restaurant Association — ServSafe (servsafe.com) — food safety and alcohol certifications; the alcohol certification is the one hiring managers ask about.
• Florida DBPR (myfloridalicense.com) — free; the authority on Florida beverage and food service licensing, and where to verify anything in this guide.
• Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association (frla.org) — state industry body, training, and a job board.
• VISIT FLORIDA (visitflorida.org) and its research pages — free visitor volume and tourism data, useful for any coursework requiring market analysis.
• Hospitality Management and Supervision in the Hospitality Industry (AHLEI texts) — the standard course references.
• Work in the industry while you study. The single most valuable thing in this field — employers weigh floor experience heavily and it costs you nothing but the shifts.

Career Pathways

• Food service manager — SOC 11-9051.
• Lodging manager — SOC 11-9081.
• First-line supervisor of food preparation and serving workers — SOC 35-1012.
• Meeting, convention, and event planner — SOC 13-1121.
• Bartender — SOC 35-3011; waiters and waitresses — SOC 35-3031.
• Theme parks and attractions — a distinctively Central Florida employer at very large scale.
• Resorts and hotels — coastal Florida and Orlando in particular.
• Cruise lines — Florida is the largest cruise embarkation market in the world.
• Convention and conference services — Orlando and Miami are major convention destinations.
• Restaurants, bars, and breweries — including a large and growing Florida craft brewing sector.
• Clubs, golf, and private membership operations.
• Casino and gaming operations — see the note on Florida gaming regulation.
• Transfer to a bachelor's — Daytona State offers upper-division hospitality courses (HFT3373, HFT3700, HFT4064, HFT4253, HFT4277, HFT4809); ⚠ confirm which lower-division courses apply.
• Brewer, assistant brewer, or cellar operator — entry to commercial brewing is normally through cellar work, which is physical cleaning and transfer work, and everyone starts there.
• Packaging and quality technician — a growing and better-paid speciality.
• Taproom management and beer sales — where hospitality training plus brewing knowledge is unusually valuable.

Special Information

⚠ Consistency, not creativity, is the commercial brewing skill

• Anyone can make one good batch. Making the same good batch fifty times is the profession. Customers buy a beer expecting what they had last time, and variability is the fastest way to lose a brand.
• Record everything, every batch — gravities, temperatures, timings, volumes, pitch rates, and any deviation. Without records you cannot reproduce a success or diagnose a failure, and that is the difference between brewing and guessing.
• Sanitation is the whole game. Most beer faults are infections, and most infections are cleaning failures. A brewer spends far more time cleaning than brewing, and students are consistently surprised by the ratio.
• Yeast health drives fermentation quality. Pitch rate, oxygenation, and temperature control matter more to the finished flavour than most recipe decisions.
• Control fermentation temperature, because it produces flavour compounds directly — a beer fermented warm is a different beer.
• Taste critically and taste often, including your own faults. Learning to identify diacetyl, acetaldehyde, DMS, and oxidation by name is a trainable skill and it is what quality control rests on.
• Scale changes everything — a recipe that works at five gallons will not simply multiply, because efficiency, hop utilisation, and heat transfer all shift.
• Clean as you go. Dried wort and spent grain are far harder to remove later, and the habit is what separates a professional brewhouse from a mess.

⚠⚠ Brewery hazards — a production facility, not a kitchen

• A commercial brewery is an industrial environment with hazards that a hospitality background does not prepare anyone for, and the serious incidents in craft brewing are consistent and well documented.
• ⚠⚠ Carbon dioxide is the one that kills. CO₂ is heavier than air, odourless, and collects in cellars, tanks, and low spaces. It displaces oxygen and people lose consciousness without warning. Monitors, ventilation, and never entering a confined space alone are not optional.
• Confined space entry — tanks and vessels — requires a permit, testing, and a trained attendant. Vessel entry has killed brewery workers, including experienced ones. Never enter a tank because it seems fine.
• Caustic and acid cleaning chemicals cause severe burns. Full personal protective equipment, correct dilution order, and never mixing chemistries — and know where the eyewash and shower are before you need them.
• Hot liquor, steam, and wort cause serious scalds. Mash and boil vessels operate at temperatures that injure instantly.
• Pressurised vessels and kegs store real energy. A keg is a pressure vessel; treat relief valves and gauges as safety-critical.
• Wet floors, hoses, and heavy lifting cause the everyday injuries — grain sacks, kegs, and pallet handling all need technique and equipment.
• Lockout-tagout applies to pumps, mills, and conveyors.
• Grain dust is combustible in sufficient concentration, and milling areas need appropriate controls.
• Hearing protection in the packaging hall — bottling and canning lines are loud enough to cause permanent damage.

⚠⚠ Brewing commercially is federally licensed — know this before planning a business

• Commercial brewing requires a federal Brewer's Notice from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), in addition to state licensing through Florida's DBPR/ABT and to local zoning and occupancy approval. All three, before a drop is sold.
• Federal excise tax applies to beer produced, with reduced rates for small brewers, and it carries recordkeeping and reporting obligations that are a real operational burden.
• Records are a licensing condition, not bookkeeping. Production, transfers, losses, and removals must all be documented, and TTB audits them.
• Labelling and formulation are regulated — TTB label approval, and rules on what claims may be made.
• Florida's three-tier system separates producers, distributors, and retailers, with specific exceptions for brewpubs and taprooms. What a brewery may sell, and to whom, is a legal question with a precise answer that has changed repeatedly in Florida.
• Home brewing is legal within limits and is not a licence to sell. Selling home-brewed beer is a serious offence, and students frequently do not realise this.
• ⚠⚠ This is a fast-moving area. Florida's beverage law has seen repeated legislative change on taproom sales, growlers, and distribution. Rule 11 applies emphatically — verify with TTB, DBPR/ABT, and an attorney before making any business decision.

⚠ The description mentions a laboratory but the course number does not

• Daytona State describes laboratory or production activity in this course, yet publishes it as an unsuffixed three-credit course rather than a C-suffixed combined course.
• Under SCNS Rule 22 the suffix is part of the course number, so the absence of a C is not cosmetic — it means the practical work is delivered inside the standard credit and contact hours rather than as an additional laboratory component.
• This matters for transfer. If a receiving institution carries the same subject as a C-suffixed course, that is a different SCNS number and equivalency does not automatically cross the suffix.
• It also matters for expectations. Practical sessions are part of the scheduled hours here, so the balance of classroom to hands-on time is set by the instructor rather than by a separately timetabled lab.
• Ask the receiving institution in writing before assuming this course satisfies a suffixed requirement elsewhere.

⚠⚠ Food and beverage safety — the failures that close establishments

• Foodborne illness outbreaks close businesses and end careers, and in beverage operations the hazards are less obvious than in a kitchen, which is precisely why they are missed.
• Florida food service establishments are regulated by DBPR's Division of Hotels and Restaurants, with certified food manager and trained food handler requirements. ⚠ Verify current certification requirements — they are set by rule and they change.
• Ice is a food. Ice machines are among the most frequently cited and most commonly neglected pieces of equipment in a bar, and scooping ice with a glass is both a contamination and a broken-glass hazard.
• Soda and beer lines require scheduled cleaning, and neglected draught lines are a genuine microbiological problem as well as a quality one.
• Garnishes are ready-to-eat food handled with bare hands more often than anything else behind a bar — the same rules apply as in a kitchen.
• Keep chemicals away from product, always, and never store a cleaning solution in an unlabelled container. Chemical contamination of a beverage is a serious and entirely preventable event.
• Know the safety data sheets for every chemical you use, and the required personal protective equipment.
• Wash hands properly and frequently, and stay home when ill — reporting illness is a requirement, not a courtesy.
• Glass, wet floors, and knives cause most bar injuries. Never handle broken glass by hand, and never put glassware in an ice well.

How Florida course levels affect transfer

The first digit of an SCNS number denotes the year of offering, not transferability. Courses at the 1000 and 2000 levels transfer transparently between Florida public institutions, and 3000 to 4000 is unproblematic since both are upper division. The boundary that actually matters is 2000 to 3000, where lower-division credit generally cannot satisfy an upper-division requirement. That boundary is live in this prefix: Daytona State offers both an associate-level hospitality programme and an upper-division bachelor's sequence (HFT3373, HFT3700, HFT4064, HFT4253, HFT4277, HFT4809), and a 2000-level course does not substitute for its 4000-level counterpart even where the subject looks identical.

HFT1287 is 3 credits and approximately 45 contact hours, offered spring at Daytona State, and students prepare pilot and quantity batches.

⚠ Florida law sets minimum ages for consuming alcoholic beverages, and sensory evaluation involves tasting. Confirm with the programme what a student under 21 may do. The sequence continues in HFT2804 (Introduction to Beverage Science) and HFT2822 (Brewery Operations).