CARBONDALE, Ill. — A growing branch of agriculture science is taking root at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, with its new Fermentation Science Institute.

This unique academic, research and outreach center focuses on the ubiquitous yeast and how they can be specially cultivated to make cider, beer, wine and spirits. There’s no other venue, let alone in higher education research, like this in the world.

This is a specialized kind of farming that’s perfectly timed with the national boom in craft alcohol industry. With a blessing from the Illinois Board of Higher Education this summer, the Institute with its unique definition of value-added for something as common as yeast has all kinds of plans on tap.

Director Matt McCarroll of Carbondale envisions programs that will create new career options for students, enhance collaborative research efforts and serve regional fermentation-related businesses.

The colleges of science and agricultural sciences are partners in the institute, and faculty from those colleges, as well as the College of Engineering and the School of Medicine, also will be involved.

“We will be able to offer a real brick-and-mortar, hands-on experience that will tie into our very strong core science curricula,” McCarroll, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, said. “This will help us attract students and equip them to do really well in the fermentation science field.

“In my conversations with employers, they want really well-trained brewing scientists. In some cases, they are more interested in the solid science background than the brewing experience.”

Some of those employers are Big Muddy Brewing in Murphysboro, Ill., the region’s first production brewery in more than 50 years, opened in 2009, while Little Egypt Brewing, Scratch Brewing and St. Nicholas Brewing have opened within the past two years.

Marika Josephson, co-owner of Scratch, said in support for the institute there are “thousands of breweries in operation and the hundreds waiting in the wings.” But she emphasized there is “an almost inconceivable lack of fermentation science research and training in higher education in the United States.”

Josephson said there are only a handful of major degree programs in the country, including at the University of California-Davis and Oregon State University. She also said she has talked with hundreds of young brewers in the area who want to break into the industry, dozens of whom are students at SIU or at universities in St. Louis and elsewhere in Missouri.

“SIU would be on the cutting edge, particularly for students in the Midwest,” Josephson said.

McCarroll pointed to the growing potential of craft distilling in southern Illinois, as well as the well-established wine industry. He also noted the significant growth of the craft beer sector nationally.

According to the Brewers Assoc., the not-for-profit trade association that represents the majority of the nation’s 3,040 breweries, overall beer sales fell by nearly 2 percent in 2013, while sales of craft beer increased more than 17 percent. The association believes this is the first time since the 1870s the number of U.S. breweries has exceeded 3,000.

Fueling the growth is an increase in small and regional breweries, which have a comparatively large impact on job creation. The association estimates craft brewers employ more than 110,000 full- and part-time workers nationally. It released data for the first half of 2014 showing American craft beer production volume had increased by 18 percent over last year.

“We’re not the only ones thinking about this, but there are a relatively small number of programs like it nationally,” McCarroll said. “One of the members of our Professional Advisory Board is head of the technical division at Anheuser-Busch, and they are interested in seeing us develop this stream of students.

“In addition, craft breweries across the country have been focused on their specific regions, but more and more of them are now moving into national distribution. They all are hiring fermentation scientists.”

McCarroll pointed out fermentation science also encompasses energy, pharmaceuticals, food safety, cheese-making and agricultural production of feedstock.

“Fermentation science is an evolving area; it isn’t just for brewing and viticulture,” he said.