After 27 years of practicing law, Jim Piel decided it was time to branch out and try something new.
"I think all lawyers on some level want to be a refugee from practicing law," he said.
Piel is now taking refuge in beer. It's something he's always enjoyed — he even invested his own money to help Deep Ellum Brewing Company get off the ground. So he figured he'd give beer making the old college try by going back to college and learning how it's done.
“It was always fascinating to me," he said.
Piel enrolled at Eastfield College in Mesquite, which offers a six-week certification course in Journeyman Brewing.
"There are all these breweries popping up all over the place," said Judith Dumont, Executive Dean for the Workforce, Corporate, and Continuing Education Division at Eastfield College. "Craft beer has become all the rage and a huge craze, so there's this niche of needing to train workers that can go into the breweries and enhance what they're doing."
Eastfield College launched the program a little more than a year ago, the first of its kind in Texas. Students spend 40 hours per week learning about the beer making process — in the classroom and in real breweries.
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"Some places really put you to work," said Piel. "I've done everything from clean tanks inside and out to milling grain and doing full brew days. It's exciting."
"In the classroom, there's actually a ton of science, a ton of chemistry," said Dumont. "Then we have 15 local brewery partners. They actually go to the breweries and work inside the breweries [two days per week] and use that as live learning lab."
Oak Highlands Brewery in Northeast Dallas is one of them. Owner Darrin Williams says getting on board with the program was a "no brainer."
“In our business plan, we had intended in about five years to have to the number of employees that we have now," said Williams. "Keeping up with the amount of employees is tough. And it’s tough finding the right people. That’s where this Eastfield course has been really helpful.”
Williams hired an Eastfield graduate who went through the program last year as an assistant brewer.
"He's great," he said. "It's been fantastic."
Dumont says the program currently has a 98 percent job placement rate among its graduates.
With his certificate now in hand, Piel looks forward to working on his own future. He's already toying with the idea of starting another brewery. But no matter what happens down the road, there's only one thing that matters to him.
“I want to be out brewing beer," said Piel. "That’s what I want to do.”
Eastfield College is working to expand its program. It hopes to begin offering a two-year associate's degree in brewing science in the near future.
