Beer — whether a hoppy straw-colored India Pale Ale or a barrel-aged, almost-black stout that tastes like a liquefied loaf of bread — is more than just a drink. For the plethora of professors and growing number of students on campus who brew, beer brings people together, encourages crazy experiments, and cultivates virtue as both brewers and drinkers.
With its spectra of varieties, flavors, and colors, the craft and drink have attracted an equally wide spectra of professors from diverse disciplines such as history, German, biology, chemistry, and theatre. These professors, interested in beer for its scientific, cultural, and historical significance — as well as its tastiness — share their knowledge and beer in a growing homebrew club named Hopsdale Home Brew, which professor of chemistry Chris Hamilton started. Hamilton also began a beer class that encourages amateur beer brewing among students.
Associate Professor of German Fred Yaniga said Hopsdale has been a good way to get to know colleagues in a non-academic capacity.
“As academics, we learn, read, and talk a lot, but we don’t make anything concrete,” he said. “I’ve always experienced this yearning to do things with my hands that has a result, a finished project which is tangible. The making of beer actually gives one the satisfaction of having a completed, finished product, which isn’t just tangible, but also palatable in some instances.”
He also attests to the superior taste of homebrew to a beautiful combination of hard work, experimentation, and love.
“No beer tastes as good as the beer you make yourself,” he said. “No question about that.”
Assistant Professor of Chemistry Courtney Meyet agreed. “Once you brew your own beer, it ruins you a little bit,” she said.
Attracted to homebrew by a friend’s amazing orange wheat beer, she and her husband now brew beer and mead on their farm. Together, they experiment with flavor by adding fermentation cycles, changing yeast types, aging the beer, and even fermenting with whole cherries. In fact, she said their first batch of mead was an experiment itself, using leftover honey after harvesting it from their bees.
According to Associate Professor of Biology Jeffrey VanZant, experimentation in homebrewing drives the tastes of the craft beer culture — as well as driving up the homebrewer’s anticipation.
VanZant, currently aging a stout for eight months, compared brewing to lab work, but work in which he won’t know or taste the result for a while.
While the anticipation a long-term experiment adds may be stressful, according to Yaniga, the waiting process builds the virtue of patience. Making beer requires four to six weeks of planning ahead, brewing, bottling, and waiting. Yaniga, who called himself impatient, said he has learned how to enjoy the anticipation of the final product.
Brewing also cultivates the virtues of organization, prudence, and generosity, he said. The brewing process goes smoothly only if brewers sterilize all the equipment; otherwise, unwanted micro-organisms alter the flavor and ruin everything. Prudence, Yaniga said, is not just in consumption (although most people in college can attest to that), but also in deciding which kinds of beer to brew based on the season and the temperature. Generosity comes through because brewing is a group effort and a social event for the faculty.
“We share our knowledge, we share our product,” Yaniga said. “That helps me to explore that virtue of generosity with my time and with this beer that I’ve spent a lot of time making and can enjoy sharing with others.”
For brewing duo and beer seminar classmates senior Meg Prom and junior Dani Adams, brewing allows them to share memories and beer from their kitchen-patio brewery, Sketch Shed Brewing.
Last Sunday, Prom and Adams, along with Adams’ family and friends, sat on the porch, drinking beer, chatting, and stirring a boiling pot of wort (unfermented beer: A mixture of sweet, malty liquid and water and, in this case, hops) for an amber ale from a kit.
According to Adams, a biochemistry major, beer brewing is an involved process, but in short spurts. Turning brewing into a social event allows the brewers to enjoy the stretches of waiting. Their friends have watched — and helped — them make porters, Belgian blondes (from scratch), and Irish stouts, while sipping finished home brews.
The class, and all the beer-sharing that comes with it, has helped spark appreciation of craft beer on campus, something which professors hope will continue, aided by their tips, tricks, and words of wisdom:
According to Hamilton, beer-drinkers owe it to their palates to try different styles. To get the most out of the sheer variety, make the simple switch from bottle to cup: it will enhance the beer experience by unleashing aromas and eliminating backwash.
In terms of choosing the right variety based on the occasion, Meyet and VanZant recommended hoppy India Pale Ales for summer porch sitting, stouts and porters for cold winters and warm fires, and, Meyet added, bourbon barrel aged stouts after a long days work.
Students should sample this wide variety carefully, however, especially if they plan on driving, Professor of Theatre George Angell, said. A homebrewer of 25 years who also crafts his own mead, Angell recommended paying attention to the alcohol by volume percentage, since craft beers have such a wide range, from four to 18 percent, which is higher than most wines.
Yaniga, who has experienced the German attitude toward alcohol, and beer in particular, hoped for a similar kind of appreciation among young Americans.
“Beer deserves a dignified approach,” he said. “Beer should be enjoyed — it should be enjoyed prudently. It shouldn’t be enjoyed behind closed doors. It should be an open social act. it should be inviting, and it should be done in a controlled fashion.”
