Mixology
·4 min read
The PBS program is 40 hours of instruction spread across 10 classes of 4 hours each. How quickly you complete it depends on your schedule. Full-time students can finish in one week. Those who prefer a steadier pace can complete the program in two weeks, or spread it across five Saturdays. With 17 different class times available each week, most people find a combination that fits around their existing commitments.
Every hour of the program is hands-on. There are no lectures where you sit and watch someone else pour. From the first session, you are behind the bar working with real equipment, learning to build more than 150 cocktails, and practicing the customer service skills that separate a good bartender from a great one. The curriculum includes two-handed bartending and memory techniques to build real speed. To graduate, students must pass a final exam: correctly mixing 12 randomly selected drinks within 7 minutes to earn their certificate.
The 40-hour format is intentional. It is long enough to build genuine muscle memory and short enough that you are not spending months in a classroom when you could be earning money. One student started on a Monday morning, finished the program by Friday, and was working at an Adams Morgan club that same Friday night. Most students are surprised by how much ground they cover in a compressed timeframe - and by how confident they feel by the final session.
Thinking about bartending?
Book a tour of our Arlington campus and see the training environment for yourself.
