The club is open to all majors and focuses exclusively on educating its members through distillery tours, talks with guest experts and observation of the distilling process.

While there is a beverage science and technology specialization at MSU, some students don’t have the course requisites, club president and chemical engineering graduate student Jake Rochte said.

The club aims to introduce students to the courses, operations and opportunities in distilling, Rochte said.

The club is the latest support for distiller education, a field in which MSU is the leading university in the country, professor of food science and chemical engineering Kris Berglund said.

“This is the only distilling program in the U.S.,” Berglund said.

“When people are looking for (prospective employees), they come here,” Berglund said.

Club vice president and chemical engineering senior Nicole Shriner aspires to work at a distillery, brewery or winery, and eventually establish her own brand.

“Many of my friends are annoyed because they’re sitting at desks and I’m making booze all day,” Shriner said. “Who wouldn’t want to make booze for a living?”

Club secretary and biosystems engineering senior Jamie Burns recently was offered a job with Anheuser-Busch for the summer.

He said working at Red Cedar Spirits, the distillery affiliated with MSU, has bolstered his résumé and given him experiences to share with employers.

Rochte said the processes involved in distilling share many similarities with his chemical engineering laboratory work, with the exception of being able to consume the final product of the distillation work.

“We’re an ethanol refinery, but you can drink our product,” Rochte said.

“It’s making a chemical, but it’s making a safe chemical to drink,” he said.

For students interested in joining, the club will host its first meeting at 5:30 on March 10 in Red Cedar Spirits, 2000 Merritt Rd.