The August A. Busch III Brewing and Food Science Laboratory building (also known as the Brewery, Winery, & Food Pilot Plant Facility) is 11,500 ft²/32,000ft² and houses the Anheuser Busch InBev Pilot Brewery with a dry storage, mill room, records room and controlled-temperature room. The brewery, which was was donated and installed by Anheuser Busch in 2006, is an authentic, reduced-scale facility, similar in size to smaller commercial brewing operations. There is also a 12,500 ft² winery that is run by the department of Viticulture and Enology. The California Processing Tomato Industry Pilot Plant has two controlled refrigerated temperature rooms, a controlled temperature freezer and dry storage space. It handles a broad spectrum of food products, including tomatoes, olives, peaches, prunes, and is used for teaching, research, outreach and contract work. The Milk Processing Laboratory, a classroom and an analytical laboratory, is flexible for both teaching and research on traditional dairy food products as well as research on milk components that have potential for improving health, immune function and cognition. The entire project’s funding came through private donations.
The Brewery, Winery, & Food Pilot Plant Facility is the world’s first LEED Platinum-certified facility in their respective domains. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and has become the hallmark of sustainability in the architecture and construction world.
Housed in the Robert Mondavi Institute Sensory Building, the Carlos Alvarez Food Innovation Lab is a multi-use teaching and research kitchen. Students have a unique opportunity for experiential learning on the classroom side of the lab, and the professional side of the lab is primarily used for consumer sensory testing in partnerships between department researchers and industry clients. The lab is also used for numerous other educational activities.
