Strange brew invades Purdue campus

FORT WAYNE -- It won't slake your thirst, but a spice developed by two brand-new Purdue University graduates could satisfy your taste for beer -- without the threat of a hangover.\nLuke Meyers, of Fort Wayne, and Michelle Kelly, of Westerville, Ohio, created a freeze-dried beer spice as their senior project for a class on agricultural and biological engineering.\nMeyers, who admits to being "kind of a beer fan," came up with the idea.\n"I think it was very much a joke at first," Kelly said. "It was senior year, he said he thought we might as well have fun with it. But the more we talked about it, the more it seemed like a good idea," Kelly said.\nThe project capped the students' study of food process engineering.\n"I tell the students to act as if I were their manager and I asked them to come up with a new product," Purdue professor Martin Okos said. "Then they take it all the way from the concept to actually developing the final product and the process to manufacture it."\nThe only specific requirement this year was that students use a food dryer in the process.\nInitially, Kelly said, the students thought they would create a freeze-dried beer that could be reconstituted and re-carbonated. But that may still be a few steps down the road, Okos said.\n"To reconstitute the beer you would need three components," Okos said. "You would need carbonated water and alcohol in addition to the freeze-dried beer. It might be possible to encapsulate the carbon dioxide and alcohol so that it would not have to be added separately, but more work on that has to be done."\nWhen the students researched their idea, they were surprised to find no evidence that anyone previously had tried to create a dry beer spice. The only objection Kelly still had was that she doesn't like the taste of beer, "so I couldn't judge if it tasted good or not."\nFortunately, the pair had no problem recruiting other testers. \n"Everybody was willing to try it," Kelly said.\nBeer fan Meyers and his friends said they liked the taste.\n"I think they'd probably rather just drink it," Meyers said.\nThe students distributed packets of the spice -- which they created in both lager, or light beer, and dark beer flavors -- at a Purdue alumni reunion. \nThe alums came up with plenty of suggested uses, including sauces, popcorn, leftovers, breads and batters.\nBecause the drying process removes the alcohol and leaves behind the sugar, the beer spice is sweeter and more intensely flavored than real beer. So a little bit of the flavoring goes a long way.\nMeyers graduated last month with a degree in agricultural and biological engineering and biochemistry. Kelly received a degree in agricultural and biological engineering. Neither has found a job yet, however.\n"It's pretty terrible out there," Kelly said.\nDespite the popularity of their product with those who've tasted it, the two haven't really delved into its commercial possibilities. \n"Neither of us really has a background in marketing," Kelly said.\nPurdue is taking the first step for them by looking into the possibility of patenting the product. For that reason, its creators are keeping some of the details of the process secret, Meyers said.\nIf nothing comes of that, the two food scientists still have the satisfaction of achieving their primary objective for the project.\n"We got an A," Kelly said.