MURFRESBORO, Tenn. — The November edition of the Middle Tennessee State University “Out of the Blue”television magazine show features the exclusive Fermentation Science program and how the process is more than brewing beer.

Keely O’Brien, a School of Agriculture assistant professor and new Fermentation Science program director, shares more about the program with Andrew Oppmann, vice president of Marketing and Communications and “Out of the Blue” host, in the current show.

“At least 70% of the foods and beverages you consume are fermented,” said O’Brien, who replaced recently retired professor Tony Johnston, who helped start the program in 2017. “So, if you think about a pizza, you’ve got your dough, cheese, pepperonis, olives — all fermented products.

“There’s lots of different applications of fermentation just in the foods we eat — coffee, chocolate, different types of food products. And we’re learning the technology involved in manufacturing the products and the chemistry and biology behind those fermentation processes.”

MTSU offers a bachelor’s degree and a Master of Science in Professional Science in Fermentation Science, the study of the process of what goes into foods and beverages and the first degree program of its type in Tennessee and among a select few in the Southeast.

O’Brien said undergraduate students take 16 hours of biology and chemistry “before they even get into the 21 hours of hands-on, immersive Fermentation Science curriculum. And there’s 16 hours of business, accounting and marketing types of classes our students take to set them up for entering managerial-type roles (in industry).”

In addition to elective hours, students will take advanced sciences — organic chemistry and biochemistry and others — “to really set the stage for them to work in any area of fermentation and what’s going on in that specific field,” said O’Brien, who discussed the teaching laboratory at the MTSU Farm in Lascassas.

O’Brien shared with Oppmann about the local, regional and even international career opportunities available to students.

To learn more about the program, call 615-898-5892 or visit https://www.mtsu.edu/program/fermentation-science-b-s/.

“Out of the Blue” is available anytime on the university’s YouTube channel, the True Blue TV channel, Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV. It also airs on Murfreesboro cable Channel 9 daily at 6 and 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.; NewsChannel5+ at 6:30 p.m. Sundays; via streaming on MTSU’s Jazz Network on WMOT HD2 and through WMOT.org at 7 a.m. on the first Sunday of each month; and on other cable outlets in Middle Tennessee, so check local listings.

It is also available as a podcast on iTunes and Google Play and as individual interview segments on Spotify at https://spoti.fi/453hxg3.

Watch previous episodes of “Out of the Blue” at https://mtsunews.com/out-of-the-blue.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)