Kalamazoo Valley Community College Brewing Program Gains National Recognition Again

Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s Sustainable Brewing program is one of the first ever to receive recognition from the Master Brewers Association of the Americas (MBAA). The college is among eight other schools in the United States and Canada to meet or exceed the guidelines and learning outcomes set by the MBAA.

“Our program, which was launched less than two years ago, continues to grow in popularity with students and with area employers,” said Associate Vice President for Instruction and the Bronson Healthy Living Campus Dean McCurdy. “This recognition puts Kalamazoo Valley up there with other institutions that have been doing this a lot longer.”

This recognition follows news of a recent award by the U.S. Open College Beer Championship. Kalamazoo Valley was the top winner in the craft beer competition for beers exclusively brewed by college and university brewing and fermentation programs.

“We are thrilled to be recognized as one of the top brewing programs in North America,” McCurdy said. “These awards reflect the creativity, artisanship, and attention to detail that we’ve built into our award-winning curriculum. Competing successfully against the top colleges and universities throughout North America is a validation of the investments we have made in recruiting excellent brewers and scientists to teach in our program. It also acknowledges the strong partnerships we’ve built with the local brewing community, and of the state-of-the-art brewery we opened at our Kalsec® Center for Sustainable Brewing Education on the college’s Bronson Healthy Living Campus.”

The Masters Brewers Association Review board brings practical, scientific, and academic excellence to the process of both guiding and recognizing new and existing brewing and fermentation science programs at colleges and university throughout and beyond North America. The review board comprises master brewers and leaders in the brewing academia and human resource professionals from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, New Belgium Brewing, MillerCoors LLC, Deschutes Brewery, Oregon State University, UC Davis, Dalhouse University, Skagit Valley Malting, and Joh. Barth & Sohn Gmbh, and Co KG.

Kalamazoo Valley offers a Certificate, Associate of Applied Science degree, and an Associate in Science degree in Sustainable Brewing. Program options are designed to prepare students for employment in brewing and related industries. Students can also transfer coursework to complete a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Applied Science or Bachelor of Business Administrator (Management) degree.

Fall semester begins on Tuesday, Sept. 5. Students interested in the program should apply to the college at http://www.kvcc.edu/register. More information about the Sustainable Brewing program is available at http://www.kvcc.edu/programs/sustainable.