POMONA, Calif. — A bachelor’s in beer? A master’s in malt? Not quite. But these days some colleges are teaching students to make beer as part of their studies.
When California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, fired up its gleaming new stainless steel brewery in December, it joined a small but growing number of colleges instructing students how to produce high-quality craft beers. At the same time, it took the movement a step beyond — kegging the results of their labors and selling it on campus.
“To make the beer here and sell the beer here and have a cafe and have an educational component, we’re the first to have put all those pieces together,” Aaron Neilson, director of dining services for the Cal Poly Foundation, said over a lunch of pizza and — of course — beer at the school’s new Innovation Brew Works.
A few feet away, senior chemistry major Stephen Moser was in the back room of this former campus bookstore, brewing up a batch of ale. In a few weeks, his work will end up in the glasses of patrons in the brew works’ cafe, where signs at the front door remind people to drink responsibly.