The University of Connecticut is spearheading efforts to design a new brewery, restaurant and academic space near its Storrs campus, providing a real-life classroom for students studying the craft beer industry.
UConn will partner with Urban Lodge Brewing Company to create a hybrid space that will host students in the morning, then transition into a bar and eatery, with a dining area and enough room for large functions.
The facility will occupy a downtown storefront beside the Mansfield Town Square that is currently home to a Barnes & Noble bookstore. It will be known as Urban Lodge at UConn: Home of the UConn Brewing Innovation – the moniker for the school's multidisciplinary brewing industry courses.
“It's a place you could go sit down, have dinner, watch a game, have a drink," said Kyle Muncy, the university's director of brand partnerships and trademark management.
The UConn Brewing Innovation draws together faculty and students from the agriculture, engineering and business programs. Students learn about the craft beer industry, from sourcing hops to marketing the end product.
To provide a hands-on experience, the school partnered previously with Kinsmen Brewing and Two Roads Brewing to host visits and instructional sessions.
It works now with Urban Lodge, which opened its original five-barrel taproom in Manchester in August 2019, and later expanded with a second location on Pratt Street in downtown Hartford. It also runs a standalone 20-barrel brewing facility in Manchester.
Urban Lodge has strong ties to the university, serving as a sponsor of UConn's athletic program, and as the official “Husky Hangout” location for fans. The business also distributes a New England pale ale named UConn Territory, which features the original UConn Huskies logo on the can.
Co-owner Michael Gerrity, a Connecticut native, said he was eager to support the school's brewing innovation program, as the affiliation with UConn helps Urban Lodge distinguish itself in the industry.
“We’ve really felt like it's been a good partnership for us, and it's helped us experience growth, and it's also helped us to feel like we're providing something for them," Gerrity said.
The new brewery in Storrs will inhabit more than 9,000 square feet of space, replacing a longstanding Barnes & Noble, which will close in early January. UConn contracted with the book store chain in 2016 to manage and operate its campus bookstores. The university pays the lease for the downtown location, which is next door to UConn's Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry.
Muncy said under the existing contract, Barnes & Noble pays commission to the school. UConn will negotiate a similar arrangement with Urban Lodge, with the hope that the shared brewery and classroom space will bring more vibrancy downtown, he said.
“We are hoping and expecting that having Urban Lodge operating what they’re going to be operating in that space is going to generate more income for them, for us, and just generally, it’s going to be generating more in terms of dollars on a day-to-day basis than the bookstore was,” Muncy said.
The project will also create space for off-campus functions, complete with audio visual equipment and a capacity of around 400, addressing one of the university's needs. Gerrity said the brewery will also host a cafe, replicating a model from their location in Hartford, which serves as a hangout spot for patrons during the day.
Most commercial brewing operations will remain in Manchester, though the space will have the capacity for small batch brewing, largely to serve the academic program, Gerrity said.
The school aims to open the space for academic programming by the fall 2026 semester.
“We've got a lot of really, really smart people that are pulling in the same direction and hopeful that it'll all come together," Muncy said.
