Carlos Alvarez, founder and owner of The Gambrinus Company of San Antonio, Texas, announced a $1 million gift to the brewing science program at UC Davis.
The gift will fund new brewing and laboratory equipment at UC Davis to create the brewery of the future. Alvarez previously announced a similar gift, also worth $1 million, to Oregon State University.
“As an immigrant from Mexico, I have enjoyed the many opportunities I found in this country,” Alvarez said in a press release announcing the gift, “and I’m very happy that success in the beer business enables me to help in UC Davis’ efforts to educate future craft brewers.”
Brewing education at UC Davis dates back to 1959 when the Lucky Lager Brewing Company of San Francisco donated a small brewery and launched a teaching program with the Master Brewers Association of the Americas. As student interest grew, additional companies began supporting the program. In 2011 brewing science moved into the world-class facilities at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science.
“This fantastic donation from Carlos Alvarez will allow us to develop our teaching and research capabilities in a way that surpasses anything I could have imagined when I first came to the university in 1999,” said Charlie Bamforth, Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Malting and Brewing Sciences. “I salute Mr. Alvarez’s dedication to education and am thrilled of what we will deliver with his contribution.”