DENVER — Charlie Papazian is known for a lot of things in the beer world. He's founder of the Great American Beer Festival, happening now in Denver, and the American Homebrewers Association. What happened Wednesday was new to him.
“You want to name a beer laboratory after me?” Papazian said was his first reaction. “I was at a loss for words.”
On Wednesday, Metropolitan State University of Denver unveiled its Charlie Papazian Brewing Education Lab.
“It's a mouthful,” Papazian said. “I discovered what they do here as a university, and my lifestyle, and my philosophy, and my outlook on my life is a good fit. I like to embrace a multidisciplinary approach to learning, and they seem to do that here.”
The lab, which will give students the chance to work on a professional system, is 1,500 square feet. Students use a 3.5-barrel brewing system. The price tag was about $2 million, and construction has lasted about a year and half.
Christopher Eastment, a senior minoring in brewery operations, said he has been dreaming about seeing the finished product.
“Everything from the window design, to those beautiful tap systems that we have,” he said.
Eastment’s courses have been spread across three classrooms. Starting in October, they will all be under one roof.
“Our students will be able to get to walk through the entire functional brewing process, from mashing, putting the grains into the water, letting it steep, getting rid of that, moving it over to the boil, the entire process,” he said.
Metropolitan State University of Denver's Charlie Papazian Brewing Education Lab
“Just seeing what a production process is all about, brewing, and all the management and all the operational things that go into producing a product, will make them better decision makers and their careers as managers or marketers or entrepreneurs,” Papazian said.
Students will be able to sell their product at the neighboring restaurant Degree once they get their liquor license.
“Student-brewed, student-designed and student-sold,” Eastment said. “It’s a much more professional setup, a much more technical setup. It’s a much bigger production setup.”
What can't be measured is the number of lessons to be learned, all handed down by the legend.
“I could feel the chill .. up my back,” Papazian said.
“This man's name is on this lab for a reason,” Eastment said. “Unreal, unreal. It's a dream to sit there and go, I’m at this event with people who have been in this career for ages who are legends in their field, legends in Colorado, and they’re here because they want to be and because it’s that big of a deal.”
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