By India Rice<\/p>\n
Westlake High School<\/p>\n
The College Heights Brewery and Altech\u2019s contract is ending.<\/p>\n
The brewery\u2019s future is uncertain and officials are trying to figure out what to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018Oh my gosh, what\u2019s going to happen to us,\u2019\u201d said Andrew McMichael, an associate dean in WKU\u2019s Potter College of Arts & Letters who has spearheaded the project.<\/p>\n
The brewery itself is shut down, but the brewing program for students will continue, McMichael said. WKU cannot get a liquor license by state law so there will no longer be College Heights Ale or any other associated labels.<\/p>\n
Altech is planning to vacate the space in the WKU Center for Research Development within 90 days.<\/p>\n
In 2015 WKU reached out to Altech to create a brewing education facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe (WKU) were interested in brewer education and making our brewers educated,\u201d McMichael said. Altech was similarly interested in the partnership.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe (WKU) were looking to educate brewers. They (Altech) were looking to educate brewers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The contract was an attempt to get the brewery off the ground and provide hands-on education and it did just that. Altech contributed equipment, liquor licenses (in the production and distribution of College Heights Ale), a facility and jobs.<\/p>\n
Education was the main reason for the brewery program. \u201cOur program is to help people fulfill their passion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a way for us to work with Altech but it brought back money to the students,\u201d\u00a0 McMichael said, primarily through jobs, scholarships and internships.<\/p>\n
According to WKUHerald.com, the collaboration also included a $300,000 donor commitment from Alltech to WKU over a five-year period, beginning in 2015. That commitment will continue.<\/p>\n
McMichael said the negatives are obvious. However, there are positives. WKU will have more opportunities now and possibilities for other sponsorships.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will take away some uncertainty away from other breweries, more possibilities for us, and it forces us not to be lazy,\u201d McMichael said.<\/p>\n
He said it could create partnership with Jim Beam and other distilleries and breweries around Kentucky.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we ever do another collaboration, it won\u2019t be in this building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Altech has left the equation, the brewing program still exists, he emphasized. And related activities continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have some folks down at the (WKU) farm growing some experimental hops,\u201d McMichael said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was only two weeks ago that we found out this was going to happen,\u201d McMichael said. Uncertainty prevails at this point. Faculty working with the brewery education program are still trying to answer that question.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just can\u2019t tell yet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By India Rice Westlake High School The College Heights Brewery and Altech\u2019s contract is ending. The brewery\u2019s future is uncertain and officials are trying to figure out what to do. \u201cI was like, \u2018Oh my gosh, what\u2019s going to happen to us,\u2019\u201d said Andrew McMichael, an associate dean in WKU\u2019s Potter College of Arts &…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,463],"tags":[],"staff_name":[],"class_list":["post-3563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-experiences","category-x18"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3565,"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563\/revisions\/3565"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3563"},{"taxonomy":"staff_name","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/staff_name?post=3563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}