Culinary Institute of America plans training brewery in Hudson Valley

Rendering of proposed Brooklyn Brewery at the CIA’s student center

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA), with a grant from the Brooklyn Brewery, is planning to develop a small brewery – the first training brewery on the East Coast – on the college’s Hyde Park, NY campus, near Poughkeepsie.

CIA officials anticipate The Brooklyn Brewery at the CIA, as the facility is to be called, will open in the summer of 2015.

Operations at the brewery will be integrated into the curriculum of the college’s degree programs. Juniors and seniors pursuing a concentration in Advanced Wine, Beverage, and Hospitality will staff the brewery and learn about fermentation and brewing techniques as well as the business aspects of running a small food and beverage operation.

The CIA, a not-for-profit college best known for its chef-training programs, is responsible for obtaining the requisite federal and state brewers licenses, but will get support from Brooklyn Brewery, CIA spokesman Jeff Levine said.

Brooklyn’s grant, about $250,000, will be used to equip the seven-barrel brewing facility, which will be located in the college’s new student union and dining facility, currently under construction. Housed within a glass-walled environment meant to evoke an old Brooklyn warehouse, the brewery initially will offer its own lager and pilsner, along with seasonal brews, on tap at the brewery and at the four CIA restaurants on campus.

Garrett Oliver

Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver or a member of his team will visit the Hyde Park campus on a regular basis as guest lecturers and will assist CIA faculty in developing curriculum and recipes.

The CIA has long been involved in craft beer. Associate Dean Ken Turow co-founded and is advisor to the CIA’s Ale & Lager Educational Society. Turow also co-created a regional showcase of beer and food products and professional brewing competition the Hudson Valley Beer & Food Festival.

Moreover, the CIA has hosted series of beer dinners, one annually, beginning in 1995, featured the late British beer writer Michael Jackson. The beer dinners continue, though they have been fewer in recent years.

Waldy Malouf

“This partnership is forward thinking both in terms of culinary education and college dining,” said former New York City top chef Waldy Malouf, now senior director of special projects for the CIA. “In addition to being a craft brewery for campus visitors and students 21 and older, it will serve as a research and development classroom to create and test new beer flavors.”

“We have great respect for The Culinary Institute of America, its leaders, and its illustrious alumni,” Brooklyn Brewery co-founder and chairman Steve Hindy said in a statement. He noted that Brooklyn Brewery has worked with the college for more than two decades on beer and food promotions, and special dinners.

Steve Hindy

The University of California-Davis offered the first collegiate brewing course in the U.S. Sine 1958, it has has offered a unique specialization in brewing science as part of its undergraduate degree program in fermentation science. The campus has a 1.5-barrel pilot brewery, which was upgraded in 2006.