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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

arts

Four experts to discuss science, artistry of beer

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Science on Tap will fulfill its destiny Tuesday night with the topic of the month: the science of beer.

A panel of four speakers will answer questions about their area of beer and alcohol related expertise from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. tonight at Big Woods Bloomington.

The Science on Tap speaker series invites professors and experts from IU and the Bloomington community to speak about a different science topic each month. The crowd meets at Big Woods bar, grabs a beer and learns a bit about science.

Tonight will feature two IU teachers, a student and a local winery manager.

Matt Bochman, PhD

Nickname: “The Master of Yeast” or “The Yeast Whisperer”

Expertise: Yeast

Favorite Beer: “Big Beers”

At 7:30 a.m. Monday morning, assistant professor of biochemistry Matt Bochman went wild yeast hunting on his office desk. With the most important hunting tool – a plastic sandwich bag – Bochman pounced on an unsuspecting object perched on his desk and trapped it inside the bag’s confines. It could now be taken to the lab and examined for yeast.

Almost anything has yeast on it, Bochman said. However, he normally takes his hunting activities into the great outdoors.

“We’re tapping Mother Nature’s toolbox that brewers have ignored or lost over the centuries,” Bochman said.

Different strains of yeast produce different flavors in beer, Bochman said, but he doesn’t have a favorite.

“They’re like my children,” he said. “They’re all my favorite.”

The species of yeast most commonly used in beer is called Saccharmyoes Cereuisiae, Bochman said. It’s microscopic, and its job is to eat sugar.

Bochman owns his own yeast business, Wild Pitch, where he grows and sells Indiana yeast to brewers. The business was created when local brewers were in pursuit of making an all-Indiana beer and realized there was no local yeast.

For students interesting in wild yeast hunting or just alcohol in general, Bochman teaches “Alcohol and the Science of Fermentation” in the spring. The course explores yeast, hops, wine, distilled spirits and other fermented substances such as turning oil into gas.

Armed with experience and knowledge, Bochman said he will be ready to answer questions at Science on Tap about the molecular breakdown of beer.

“We had some interesting conversation going on amongst us, so it should be very interesting on Tuesday night,” Bochman said about himself and the other panelists. “Certainly, I am the biggest yeast expert on the panel.”

Ed Herrmann, Ph.D.

Nickname: “The Indiana Jones” of Bloomington Brewing

Expertise: Flavor Development and Brew Fermentation

Favorite Beer (for Tuesday Night): A Session Ale

According to German law, Budweiser is not actually a beer.

It’s a malt drink because it’s made of rice, Ed Herrmann, PhD, said. German beer laws state it must be made with wheat to be considered beer.

Germany has a rich history, tradition and culture of beer, Herrmann said, making it prime ground to learn in-depth about brewing. Herrmann studied professional brewing in Germany for three years.

“The Germans brew some of the best beer on Earth,” he said.

However, Germans lack creativity in crafting beer because of their firm-rooted brewing traditions. Creativity is what sets American beer apart from German beer, Herrmann said.

Herrmann employed his own creativity as the master brewer at Upland Brewing Company in Bloomington, where he won several awards for his crafts since beginning there in 1999.

As he continued his brewing career, Herrmann said he became interested in the role of fermented beverages in prehistory. He received a PhD in archaeology in 2013.

With his mix of education revolving around the history and culture of beer, Herrmann said he is excited about Upland’s recently opened Wood Shop in Bloomington, which is where sour ale is brewed.

“It approximates the very earliest beers that would have been fermented,” Herrmann said. “It approximates the flavors that would have been in ancient beers.”

Herrmann will be the expert on beer around the world and across time for Tuesday night.

Amy Butler, manager of the Butler Winery Bloomington store

Nickname: “The Butler Winery Home Brewing Boss”

Expertise: Hands-on Brewing

Favorite Beer: “Beer that tastes good”

No formal training is absolutely necessary to become an expert in alcohol, Amy Butler said. Butler, manager of the Bloomington Butler Winery store, has spent the past 18 years learning through hands-on experience at Butler Winery to become a community teacher on homebrewing.

“I teach people about alcohol in all forms,” she said. “I was going to a be a math teacher, and who really wants to know how to graph a line? But I’ve got no one complaining about learning about beer or wine.”

Butler began homebrewing in college. She was pursuing a degree in math education at Purdue University when she met the Butler’s eldest son. When they got married, they moved in above the winery store in Bloomington and have been there ever since.

Homebrewing is a rewarding hobby, Butler said. It’s worthwhile to be able to take raw ingredients and produce a beverage rather than purchasing a final product.

“The ability to produce a beer as good or better as something that you can go buy at a brewery or buy at the liquor store is something you can do homebrewing wise, and that’s really cool,” she said.

Butler distilled the home beer brewing steps down simply:

1. Boil water in a large pot.

2. Add grains and malt extract, stir until it dissolves. Add hops.

3. Boil for an hour, then add flavor or aroma hops in the last few minutes.

4. Strain hops and pour the wert, unfermented beer, into a large bucket.

5. Chill, then stir in yeast.

6. Airlock the bucket and let it ferment for a week.

Every day, her goal is to spread the good word about the ease of making good beer at home, she said. On Tuesday night, she will be the expert on home brewing from start to finish.

“I am here to enable someone to make good beer,” she said. “I’m an enabler.”

Aaron Ellis, Ph.D. candidate

Nickname: “Ivy League Educated Beer Scholar”

Favorite Beer: Anna from Hill Farmstead Brewery, Vermont

Expertise: Beer and Brewing Culture

Aaron Ellis will go to great lengths for beer. To be specific, he drove 15,000 miles through 38 states, moving clockwise around the country, starting in New Hampshire and going as far south as Georgia and as far north as the Canadian border. He visited 50 breweries in order to define the meaning of craft beer.

As it turns out, there is not a firm definition of craft beer, he said. However, he returned with great stories and the desire to learn even more about the culture of beer.

“I realized I could actually be a beer scholar,” Ellis said.

Ellis is now pursuing a Ph.D. at IU in food sciences and anthropology. He completed his undergraduate studies at Dartmouth College, he said, which is why they call him the “Ivy League Educated Beer Scholar”. It was there he piqued his interest in brewing, starting with cider. He then went to England to pursue cider-making, then came back and chose craft beer as his senior thesis topic.

Ellis began his beer road trip by reviewing previous winners of the Beer City USA annual competition, he said. He chose the top 10 cities over the competition’s years and used those to kick-start his endeavor.

“I was looking for kind of a mix of breweries,” he said. “The hope was that I would get everything from brand new startups to really big vast breweries.”

After hearing of Ellis’s adventures, a colleague connected him with the Science of Beer event. On Tuesday night, Ellis will be the expert on U.S. beer culture and beer studies. Being close in age to IU students, Ellis said he wants to share a message with them.

“You can really study anything and study it from any kind of perspective you want,” he said. “I never thought I would study beer. There’s actually things to do with seemingly ridiculous topics.”

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