Niagara College students achieve amazing things during their studies and every year we look forward to sharing their accomplishments with our college community.
Recently, students in our beverage programs were in the spotlight for their award-winning beers and creative spirits. With many of these students set to graduate during NC’s Fall 2021 Virtual Convocation, we thought we’d recap their achievements and highlight what a few of them are doing now.
Artisan Distilling grads creating unique spirits
Marye Ann Chisholm and Sujith Naveen (pictured above) from the Artisan Distilling program will be graduating on October 29. The pair were featured for their Chocolate Porter Liqueur, which they produced for their capstone project during the Spring 2021 term.
To create the spirit, they channeled Chisholm’s passion for chocolate-making using ingredients like cacao nibs and chocolate malt. The result was a first for the College and the spirit is one of four student-distilled creations recently released for sale at the College’s Wine Visitor + Education Centre.
We recently learned that Naveen has his own unique passion in the world of distilling.
With an education and background in the dairy industry, Naveen wanted to learn how to distill alcohol from milk products. While studying at NC, he was able to work on his interest with the help of program faculty. Since completing his studies, Naveen now has a job working as a QA at the only distillery that actually distills from milk permeate in Ontario at the Dairy Distillery.
Brewmaster grads cap off their studies with awards
The Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management students whose beers won at the U.S. Open College Beer championships are also graduating this fall.
Joel Droogh (pictured above), who earned a gold medal for his Holstein and Jersey (milk stout), named his winning brew after two cow breeds at his family’s Ottawa-based dairy farm. “My beer has an array of characteristics offering a smooth roasted coffee, dark chocolate, dark fruit, cream sweetness from the lactose, complexity of caramel with a counterbalance of bitterness,” he noted. Droogh completed the program right out of high school and has returned to Ottawa where he continues to combine his passions for farming and beer.
Joel Droogh holds up a can of Holstein and Jersey – a milk stout he created and named after two cow breeds at his family’s Ottawa-based dairy farm. Droogh is officially graduating from the Brewmaster program on Oct. 29.
Charles Rempel, whose Heart in Hand (amber ale) won silver, is working at Blackburn Brewhouse in Niagara Falls as a Packaging Operator with “plans to continue to learn, grow, and succeed as a brewer in all aspects of the brewhouse, not just making the initial batch,” he noted.
Andrew Plesko, whose Ice Kolsch Hops (classic German-style Kolsch) was awarded a bronze medal, is currently a brewer at Muskoka Brewery. He was hired on by the Brewery after getting his foot in the door through a temporary position working the cellar in summer 2020. “They liked me so much they asked for me to come back when I finished school,” he said.
Ryan Cook, whose working as the Operations Manager at Railway City Brewing in St. Thomas, earned a bronze for his Napoleon’s Final Defeat (Belgian blonde). “Winning a bronze medal was a pretty special way to end my time at Niagara College,” he said. “It is meaningful in that it acts as third-party confirmation of the knowledge gained during my time in the Brewmaster program.”
Congratulations to these Niagara College grads who are taking the industry by storm!
