MiraCosta College Technology Career Institute - Carlsbad, California

Aleksandr Thurman (Aleks)

I'm an alumni of Mira Costa TCI's BrewTech program and I just graduated 4/27/24 - I wanted to wait until my program was complete for the full context I can give on the program, facilities, and instructors.

I'll begin with facilities/general instruction/faculty which is more widely applicable to students of all programs: The Carlsbad campus is tucked into a little business park off of Palomar Airport Road with ample parking each time I came by. The general facilities are clean and well cared-for.

My points of contact with Mira Costa outside of my direct instructors were Brent and Carisa, both of whom are enthusiastic, friendly, and clearly care about their job and the students. At the onset of my program, I was having a hard time securing funding and Carisa helped to clearly outline my financial aid options. Brent came with my class to fill-in for an instructor on one of our industry tours and asked a lot of very insightful questions of the tour guide when my class was on the quieter/less interactive side with the guide. It's a good sign to me when even your non-teaching faculty are interested in the topics being presented.

Without going into the brewing specifics of my program, I can say with certainty that this is a campus that clearly takes pride in its hands-on, career-focused approach to vocational/technical training. My program (and I believe most, if not all of the rest) additionally included LEAN/Kaizen workplace efficiency training, OSHA/safety training, and career readiness workshops (resumes, networking, and interviews).

Now on to the more brewery-specific parts of my review for my specific program: I am a student coming from a home brewing background who was looking to develop my hobby into professional skills for a career change. I came to Mira Costa TCI through the recommendation of the San Diego Brewer's Guild. I went with this option as this is one of only four programs in the US to hold an approval from the Master Brewer's Association of America and is the ONLY program in San Diego with a brewery lab for practical, hands-on brewing.

The Brewtech program (at this time, I understand this has changed in the past) is run by three instructors: Mike Stevenson of Culver Beer, Garrett Perkins of Booze Brothers Brewing, and Johnny Johur of Artifex Brewing. Mike is the head of the class and handles the majority of the content, with Garrett and Johnny assisting as necessary. All three are founts of knowledge who were always kind, helpful, and informative. It was very useful to have three different viewpoints on the brewing process, as all three have differing backgrounds, priorities, set-ups, and values.

The program runs very quickly on a hybrid in-person and online schedule, with one lab day per-week and the rest of the coursework done at home through recorded lectures, worksheets, podcasts, and supplementary articles. My entire cohort was twelve people split into three classes for three teams of four - this is done to help ensure that everyone gets hands-on experience with the brewing and cellaring tasks as we do them. This means that you'll grow very close with a small group (Shout-out to Shuntaro, Henry, and Roy!), and your teachers will have time to spend one-on-one with each team without anyone losing out on instruction.

By and large, the away-from-lab coursework is well-thought and presented by someone who is obviously passionate about their work. Coursework covers materials, handling, safety, brewing, cellaring, and sensory. The REAL star of the show is the brewing lab - equipped with industry-standard equipment and a one-barrel brew house, you WILL make beers, and you'll make good ones too!

If I had one piece of improvement for the program, it would be that we spent less time than I'd like on QA/QC. However, the college is currently exploring the possibility of supplemental "advanced" classes covering these topics more in-depth.

Overall, my experience was incredibly valuable, surrounded by people passionate and excited to teach their craft. Couldn't have asked for a better program!

Jesse Lancaster (Lancaster)

My son and I have completed a 6 month welding program that is a very good hands on experience. Tiffany Is a very talented and amazingly great versatile instructor who cares about her class and profession. I am gonna have to do it again and learn more from the program. Thanks again Tiffany for a great experience for us E4 & E5. You rock and weld like a champ. 👍🏽

Tiffany Ward

As a student at this school, I'm curious to know where all their grant funding is going... A few weeks into my class there weren't even enough textbooks for everyone in the class.

My textbook was literally handed to one of the students whose book had 'mysteriously disappeared,' along with all the notes and markings I had made throughout the course. Apparently I would be expected to stay late after class every day that we had an open book quiz/test for a chance to borrow my book back so that I could take the required tests, including the certification exams.

The schedule was also changed in the middle of a course with little warning and the students were expected to adjust their schedules on short notice if they wanted to do well in the class.

I'm sure everything was squared away when they were applying for grants, but this is unfortunately a Very poorly run program.

J H

Great school great teachers and great education

Saul Z

Great staff very knowledgeable.

John Carter

Nicholas Ho (Nick)

Efe Richman