AMES, Iowa – The scent of malted grains, hops and yeast fills the air inside the Iowa State University brewing science laboratory – along with a hint of friendly competition.
Students enrolled in “The Science and Practice of Brewing,” a three-credit course offered by the ISU brewing science program, are learning the foundational elements of brewing science and technology this semester while also working to develop an India pale ale (IPA) for commercial production, thanks to a new collaboration with Backpocket Brewing.
WATCH: Learn more about “The Science and Practice of Brewing” at ISU
“Instructors are always looking for ways to show students the utility of what they are learning, but, despite our best efforts, students are sometimes not fully convinced,” said Robert C. Brown, who leads the ISU brewing science program and is co-director of Iowa State’s Bioeconomy Institute, an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering and the Gary and Donna Hoover Chair in Mechanical Engineering.
“This semester, Backpocket Brewing challenged our students to apply what they are learning about brewing to develop a new IPA for commercial production, and the competitive opportunity has taken student enthusiasm and learning to a whole new level,” Brown said.
Best brew wins
Trenton Major, a senior agricultural business major and homebrewing enthusiast from Pleasantville, is one of 20 undergraduate students taking “The Science and Practice of Brewing” course this semester. Major is also pursuing a beverage management minor at ISU, an offering that collaborates with the brewing science program.
“The opportunity to create an IPA for Backpocket Brewing has been a great learning experience and challenge,” Major said. “The primary difference between home and commercial brewing is production scale, and throughout this process, we’ve been able to learn a lot about the considerations that come into play and the different equipment features that are utilized when brewing on a larger scale.”
Homebrewers typically produce small batches of beer – think 1-10 gallons per batch – while commercial breweries produce thousands of gallons per batch.
Backpocket Brewing, which is based in Coralville and has additional taprooms in Dubuque and Johnston, specifically asked students to create a beer representative of the “new American IPA” style, which is a combination of the well-known hazy IPA and West Coast IPA styles.
“For us, the new American IPA takes more flavorful hops from the hazy IPA style, showcasing flavors such as citrus, passion fruit or mango, and combines it with the slightly higher bitterness and drinkability of a West Coast IPA,” said Luke Jipp, head brewer at Backpocket Brewing. “The result is an easy-drinking, balanced IPA with an approachable, fruiter hop profile.”
Students worked together in four teams of five to develop brews for consideration, utilizing the traditional ingredients in beer – hops, grain, water and yeast – while experimenting with a variety of brewing techniques inside the state-of-the-art brewing science lab. The 2,800-square-foot lab is located in the Food Sciences Building on campus and houses multiple brewhouses and fermenters designed to produce beer at various scales, as well as advanced brewing equipment and technology.
By early November, the students were ready to put their best brews forward for sampling and evaluation by a panel of judges, including Jipp and ISU faculty and staff members.
“It was exciting to find out what the students created; each team started from scratch, developed a recipe and brewed it in the ISU lab,” Jipp said. “This partnership has been a wonderful opportunity for our Backpocket Brewing team to support brewing education and help students take what they’ve learned in class and in the lab and apply it to a professional situation.”
Ready to launch
And the best brew goes to …
With a name inspired by its Galaxy variety hops, Team 3’s “Alien Juice Party” IPA was selected as the challenge winner when the judges’ final votes were tallied. The following students worked together to create the out-of-this-world brew:
- Connor Hollarbush, senior mechanical engineering major from Aurora, Ill.
- Trenton Major, senior agricultural business major from Pleasantville, Iowa
- Grant Miller, senior chemical engineering major from Ankeny, Iowa
- David Nelson, senior chemical engineering major from Westmont, Ill.
- Steven Ragan, senior cyber security engineering major from Des Moines, Iowa
Winning team member David Nelson said his group’s goal was to develop an easy-to-drink beer that a lot of people would enjoy.
To create the Alien Juice Party IPA, Nelson and his teammates started by soaking grain in hot water and turning it into wort – “similar to turning water into tea but with grain instead of tea leaves,” said fellow team member Trenton Major.
The team then boiled the wort and added hops toward the end of the boil. Next, the temperature was lowered and more hops were added in a process known as “whirlpooling,” which is essentially a warm bath that coaxes the hops to release their flavor and aroma. The wort was then cooled down and yeast was added, converting sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Finally, the team added more hops (Galaxy and El Dorado varieties), allowed the brew to age a few days and then moved it into a keg to be chilled, carbonated and served.
“Compared to traditional IPAs, our Alien Juice Party IPA has a more forward citrus flavor, less noticeable bitterness and a crisp finish,” Major said.
Moving forward, the Alien Juice Party IPA will be sold on tap at all Backpocket Brewing locations, which are located in Coralville, Dubuque and Johnston, Iowa.
Brewing science program
The ISU brewing science program provides a unique opportunity for undergraduate students to gain research experience while learning how to apply the concepts of chemistry, biology, food science and engineering – among other disciplines – to the practice of brewing.
“The Science and Practice of Brewing” course, which is offered by the mechanical engineering and food science and human nutrition departments at ISU, includes 75 minutes of lecture and 4½ hours of laboratory each week. The course is co-taught by a trio of ISU instructors that includes Brown, the program’s Professor-In-Charge, as well as Kris De Brabanter, Associate Professor, Statistics and Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, and Paulo Fortes-Da-Silva, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Food Science and Human Nutrition.
Brown, who has been described as an “engineer by day and brewer by night,” is a longtime brewing enthusiast who also maintains a brew lab in the basement of his own home. In 2021, he worked to establish the ISU Brewing Science Program in partnership with ISU’s Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute.
To learn more, visit extension.iastate.edu/wine/brewing-science-program.
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