The American beer industry is at an inflection point. Sales have slowed. Younger drinkers are choosing other beverages or none at all. Many craft breweries have closed in recent years, pressured by fierce competition and changing consumer habits. But in a moment of uncertainty, a gathering of 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis alumni at the Anheuser-Busch InBev pilot brewery offered a reminder of how the industry arrived here and who helped build it.
Surrounded by stainless-steel mash tuns and brew kettles, alumni came not just to participate in brew day, but to witness a rare moment: For the first time all three current and former 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis brewing professors stood together inside the pilot brewery. They represented nearly six decades of brewing education that has helped shape modern American beer.
Professor Emeritus Michael Lewis established brewing as an academic discipline in the 1960s. Distinguished Professor Emeritus Charlie Bamforth, who joined the faculty in 1999, expanded the programs global reach. Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor Glen Fox, who took over the program in 2019, is now guiding it through a period of industry disruption.
We have this brewery here because of all the work Michael did between the 60s and the 90s when he was really the first American brewing professor, Fox said. He set the craft industry on its path and educated hundreds of brewers that have made the industry what it is.
Fox said the reunion was a way to get Lewis, at 88, into the brewery for the first time and celebrate his legacy.
When brewing was barely an academic discipline
Lewis said when he began teaching, beer barely registered as an academic pursuit. Wine and food science garnered all the prestige. Brewing was considered unremarkable.
I used to bring friends of mine over from England to help me teach because not many people on the Davis campus knew much or cared much about beer making, Lewis recalled. They wanted to do all sorts of exotic things, and beer was too ordinary.
But that indifference gave Lewis freedom to build something new.
From modest beginnings, including what alumni describe as a janky little brewery producing 20-liter batches in Cruess Hall, Lewis built the foundation for the brewing program. Over time, his students filtered into breweries across the country. At one point, Lewis said, half of the Anheuser-Busch breweries in the United States employed his former students as master brewers.
Standing inside the current pilot brewery, Lewis said the contrast was striking.
This is a dream here, he said. It just blows me away. This is a super foundation for the brewing to continue.
Lewis still drinks beer daily. Surveying the brewery during the event, he joked that he was disappointed there was none to sample.
Scaling up brewing education at 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis
The program Lewis built grew dramatically under Bamforth, a biochemist known as the Pope of Foam for his research on beer foam and quality.
Under his tenure, 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis became a hub for brewers seeking scientific grounding as the craft beer movement surged. Bamforths books, research and consulting helped elevate the brewing programs prominence worldwide.
Arguably the three most famous living brewing chemists in the world, all in the same place, said Jordan Beaver, a pilot brewery staff member and alumnus taught by Bamforth. Theres not a lot of opportunity to do that these days.
The event drew alumni from across the country, including many who had never seen the current brewery.
From 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis classrooms to the brewing industry
For many alumni, the program was a gateway into a rapidly growing industry. That was the case for Ashton Lewis, a 1994 graduate who now works as a technical product manager for Rahr BSG, a brewing supply company.
When I started at 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis, craft brewing was just starting to take hold, he said. The number of people touched by Michael, Charlie and now Glen is remarkable. There are not many university programs in the world that offer brewing education, and 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis is one of the leaders.
Jorge Garcia, now global director of brewing and quality for Anheuser-Busch InBev, said his career began in Lewis classroom.
I owe him my whole brewing career, he said. My passion for brewing came from his classes. Sitting in a classroom for five or six hours a day and feeling engaged, that instilled it.
Doug Muhleman, who attended 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis in the late 1970s and later spent 30 years at Anheuser-Busch, said Lewis was his first mentor.
He gave me a tremendous amount of autonomy, Muhleman said. I ran his brewing lab as a grad student, and I have a debt of gratitude to him.
Muhleman and Bamforth later helped secure funding for the current pilot brewery. Over the decades, Muhleman said, Anheuser-Busch alone hired hundreds of 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis graduates.
As the craft industry took off, the importance of this program became even bigger, he said. It had a huge impact on the industry.
Brewing education during industry uncertainty
Today, the beer industry faces declining consumption and growing competition from beverages such as hard seltzers and kombucha. Fox said those pressures have reshaped how brewing educators prepare students for the field.
Data collected by the 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis Master Brewers Program show that nearly all graduates enter the industry, most taking jobs as brewers. What has changed is how many aim to open their own breweries. Since Fox began teaching, he said only one student out of roughly 100 has moved seriously toward ownership.
We have to keep potential brewers excited about the future of the industry, which conflicts with some hard data about the decline in consumption in alcohol in general but beer probably more than any other beverage, he said.
Students increasingly build careers managing breweries before attempting ownership.
How brewing programs are adapting
One bright spot, Fox said, is nonalcoholic or lower-alcohol beer, now the fastest-growing segment of the market. Consumers increasingly see those beers as a way to participate without the perceived health risks.
Bamforth said the industry faces challenges but cautioned about writing off beer.
You can drink in moderation, just not to excess, he said. Alcohol has got a bad rap. For thousands of years, it has been a fundamental part of life, he said.
Fox is also steering the program toward sustainability. During the reunion brew day, some alumni experimented with Kernza, a grain seen as a more environmentally sustainable alternative.
The unique thing about Kernza is its a perennial grass, Fox explained. Unlike barley or wheat, which must be replanted every year, Kernza can be harvested for several seasons.
As the reunion ended, alumni lingered among the tanks and fermenters. Three generations of brewing leadership had shared the space for the first time. The equipment has changed and the industry has shifted, but the role 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis plays in educating brewers has not.