CAZENOVIA — Morrisville State College said it is implementing a brewing-studies program and will work with Syracuse–based Empire Brewing Company to develop and manage the initiative. The partnership with Empire Brewing will provide Morrisville students with “first hand practical business experience with a large-scale production brewery,” according to an Empire Brewery fact sheet about […]
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CAZENOVIA — Morrisville State College said it is implementing a brewing-studies program and will work with Syracuse–based Empire Brewing Company to develop and manage the initiative.
The partnership with Empire Brewing will provide Morrisville students with “first hand practical business experience with a large-scale production brewery,” according to an Empire Brewery fact sheet about its Farmstead Brewery.
Morrisville is also the academic sponsor for Empire’s expansion with the Farmstead Brewery under the START-UP NY program.
“We can’t make any more beer in Brooklyn. We can’t make any more beer in Syracuse, so we must expand,” David Katleski, founder and president of Empire Brewing Company, said in his remarks in the May 8 ceremony that formally launched construction of the company’s Farmstead Brewery.
The facility is under construction on a 22-acre property at 33 Rippleton Road in Cazenovia.
Brewing institute
Morrisville secured $600,000 through the NYSUNY2020 grant program to start a brewing institute, David Rogers, currently provost and chief information officer at Morrisville State College said in his remarks at the ceremony.
The institute will focus on “everything from hops growth, processing, production, packaging to … brewing consumption,” said Rogers.
The school’s board of trustees appointed Rogers as the school’s eighth president at a meeting held May 6. His appointment takes effect June 1.
Launched in 2011, NYSUNY2020 “provides incentive for capital development on SUNY campuses and within surrounding communities,” according to the SUNY website. The program’s mission is to “elevate SUNY as a catalyst for regional economic development and affordable education.”
Empire Brewing’s Katleski will be a member of that brewing institute and help guide Morrisville with “informed choices about how we can best proceed and serve the community,” said Rogers.
Katleski is also the founder of the New York State Brewers Association.
He called the brewery-studies program at Morrisville a “tremendous asset” to Empire Brewing and the Farmstead Brewery.
“We have access to now laboratories … people that have degrees in science that can tell us what kind of strains of barley to plant and whether or not the hops we’re going to be growing in the region are suitable for the climate,” Katleski said in his remarks at the ceremony.
The effort will “ultimately” allow everyone to “enjoy some really, really good beer,” Rogers quipped to end his remarks.
As of press time, Morrisville State College didn’t provide a timeline for when the brewing-studies program would be fully up and running.
Other partnerships
Empire Farmstead Brewery, Inc. isn’t the only company that will operate tax-free in partnership with Morrisville State College.
K16 Corporation is a new technology-device and software-development firm focused on developing technology-based products in teaching methods.
K16 has plans to operate in space on the Morrisville State College campus and to create two net new jobs and invest $10,000, according to a March 4 news release from the office of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“We have other partnerships in the pipeline that I’m not supposed to speak about until we’ve sealed the deal,” Rogers said.
Leadership change
When Rogers’ appointment takes effect on June 1, he’ll be Morrisville State College’s first permanent president since late 2011.
The previous president, Raymond Cross, departed in November of that year to become chancellor of University of Wisconsin Colleges and University of Wisconsin extension.
Cross is now president of the University of Wisconsin system, according to a May 6 news release on the Morrisville website.
William Murabito has been leading Morrisville as interim president since January 2013.
