Central New Mexico Community College brewing students got to brew with the big dogs recently.
The CNM brewing program teamed up with Marble Brewery for Oatalé, a toasted oatmeal extra stout. The stout is a unique combination of toasted oats and dark roasted malts with a molasses, espresso-like sensory “exbeerience,” according to its tasting notes.
The beer was brewed at Marble’s experimental brewery at its Northeast Heights location.
“Marble has been our partner since we began development of the brewing and beverage management program,” said Victoria Sánchez Martínez, CNM academic affairs director, culinary arts & hospitality management. “And so they’ve been at the table at the beginning. (Marble President and Brewmaster Ted Rice) has been super-wonderful in support of the program as we’ve developed courses and through learning outcome. They’ve also hired the largest number of students and our graduates. They work with us on field trips and the use of their facility. Right now, we do not have commercial brewing facilities at CNM, and so we rely very heavily on our industry partners.”
Oatalé is available at all three Marble locations, but not for long.
“(We made) 10 barrels so that would be the total of 20 kegs so, hopefully, it doesn’t go too quick,” said Nick Jones, lead faculty member for CNM’s brewing program. “You better get down there and try some fast.”
Rice was happy to lend his facilities to the students to brew Oatalé.
“Partnering with CNM always yields good outcomes,” Rice said in a news release. “Our collaboration brew, Oatalé, is no exception. What better way to share knowledge and strengthen bonds than by creating a delicious, world-class beer with students who will soon join our state’s brewing industry?”
Marble Brewmaster Josh Trujillo oversaw the students through the brewing process and provided guidance.
“The equipment is very specific, so I wouldn’t be comfortable with the students going crazy on that equipment all by themselves any more than Marble would be, so Josh was there to oversee everything and kind of help our students throughout the day,” Jones said. “Another thing is it really is a one-man job and we probably had 20 people in there, and so we had plenty of labor to go around. Everyone got to help out and participate.”
Oatalé’s recipe was created by students Nicholas Dougherty and Shawn Mansfield.
“The way that I run the class is I assign them a beer to brew at the beginning of the semester and then we learn about brewing all semester long and then toward the end of the semester they get the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned throughout the semester to revise that recipe,” Jones said. “Nick and Shawn, who brewed the Oatalé stout, it was a run-of-the-mill, boring stout recipe, and they wanted to step it in a few ways with the toasted oats and flavored malts to make it more interesting. And so they did that and executed the revised recipe pretty well, so when all the classmates voted on the most improved beer they chose Nick and Shawn’s beer as the winner.”
