My advice is to get an education not specifically in brewing but in a science that you can apply to the brewing/distilling industry. I am a biotech major concentrating in food safety and quality assurance and I will graduate in May. I've been working with a local microbrewery developing a QA program for microbiological screening, yeast counting and those types of things. What I would do is get a science degree, like food science, then go to a brewing school if you want formal training. The other option would be to just run with the science degree and try to work your way into a brewery QA lab. You can then possibly work your way into brewing if that's what you really want to do in conjunction with lab work. The beauty of the lab work is it's not for everyone so some guys refuse to do it and would rather pay someone trained in that aspect. I personally love lab work and I go and work in my school lab for fun sometimes.
I think just scratching the surface with bare science classes is a place to start but to be truly attractive you'd need indepth knowledge to solve problems and or improve consistency. Classes like organic chemistry (which blows), biochemistry, molecular biology, and a good understanding of cell biology will go a long way. I cannot stress enough how helpful microbiology would be for work in a brewery. Microscope skills are indispensable. I would actually like to take more advanced microbiology classes after I graduate since I have only had one basic microbiology class.
It's been my experience that it's not what you get a degree in as much as it is what you teach yourself and what you can demonstrate. I ended up on my path after transferring from a cardiovascular program to my current program due to my interest in food and beer. If I end up furthering my formal education the next step I'd like to take is Heriot Watt to get a MSc in Brewing and Distilling. That way I have my BS to lean back on if I can't get a good job in the brewing world.
First, here is my (unsolicitated
) take on your situation smokinghole: If Brewery QA/QC is where you want to head, then you are going to have the technical skills for that work coming out of your Bachelors work. An MSc degree program is not necessary and may even make you overqualified. Here is why: Doing the MSc work starts you down the "academic" path of doing independent research, and that is NOT what QA/QC is about. Your experience helping the brewery design its QA program is probably going to be better experience than what you could ever get from a MSc or PhD research program.
QA/QC work, regardless if it is in the brewery, in a biotech, or wherever, is pretty mundane technically speaking....you are doing the same procedures day in/day out (after all, this is what QA/QC is: Asking the question "Is this product the same as the product we made last week/month/year?"). That is why the "Lab rat" type of people shy away from it.
If that is something you can handle, then great! But don't expect it to be doing alot of "new stuff" though. I thin the same goes for alot of the things that happen in a commercial brewing operation. Face it, not much is changed in the process of making beer in the last 400-500 years!
Back to the OP situation: The OP doesn't have alot of the hard science/engineering training, but he does have has the hospitality management training, which could be leveraged into working at a brewery in any number of ways. That's is where I would recommend the OP focus his energy instead of changing direction and trying to compete with all you science guys who have this training already coming out of their undergraduate work. His classwork has him more in tune with the supply management and marketing end of things, which is just an important as the process of brewing. Of course, if his heart is truly being out there on the brewery floor he'll have to change direction a bit.
I guess what I'm trying to say to both you and the OP is that think hard about spending the time/money to try and get the training via an academic route (i.e. more classes, advanced degrees). It might seem to be a great idea from where you are standing now (on a university campus), but sometimes it better to get that entry level position and work your way in that way. Just my long-winded 0.02.