Learning how to make beer in school

Over 6,000 years ago the Sumerians worshiped a goddess of beer, Ninkasi.
   
Today, over 211 million barrels of beer are sold in the United States each year. It is little surprise, then, that home-brewing is a growing pastime.
   
Interested individuals recently got a chance to hear a lecture by a professor who pursues this hobby passionately. J. Ben Schafer, associate professor of computer science at the University of Northern Iowa, gave a lecture on the science of zymurgy, or fermentation. The speech, which took place on Saturday, was the first in a lecture series hosted by UNI’s College of Natural Sciences.
   
“It was essentially the first day of class for the course I taught at Hawkeye,” Schafer said.
   
Last year he instructed a 4-week adult education course at Hawkeye Community College on home-brewing. During that time, his students made and sampled a variety of lagers and ales.
   
It’s not a class he foresees  being offered at UNI because “alcohol on campus is a problem,” and he doesn’t think he could teach it without brewing a batch of beer during class time.
   
However, he is a firm believer that knowledge of beer is something that can be brought into any major as a research topic.
   
“With marketing and finance majors you can research the marketing of alcohol,” he said. “With computer science, you can look at computer-controlled systems in the brewing process.” He went on to say that he knows a dance professor who studied the Sumerians’ sacred song and dance for Ninkasi, which incorporated instructions on how to make beer.
   
In fact, it was this kind of interdisciplinary aspect of brewing that led him to start the Cedar River Association of Zymurgy Enthusiasts, or CRAZE. During a workshop for UNI faculty about teaching Interdisciplinary studies he discovered that three of the other professors on campus were home-brewers.
   
“They knew people who home-brewed as well, most of them UNI-associated,” he said. Today, the club meets once a month and participates in beer festivals around the state.         Brewing beer requires four basic ingredients: hops, malted barley, yeast and water. A typical brew day for Schafer is about three hours, which includes boiling and cooling the water, hops and grains. After adding the yeast, he lets it ferment and age for about two weeks.
   
“Home-brewing is really quite simple,” he said. It’s also a cheap hobby—a home-brewing kit costs anywhere from 60 to 110 dollars, and can be found in liquor stores.
   
The best part of home-brewing, is controlling the flavor,” he said. “I’ve made cherry and hazelnut-flavored beer, which you can’t get around here.”
   
At one festival, CRAZE replaced 50 percent of the boiled water with Mountain Dew.
   
“You couldn’t really taste the soda that much, but it was the fastest ferment time I’ve ever seen,” Schafer said.
   
The College of Natural Sciences will host one more lecture this semester and three in the spring. The next speech will be on Dec. 6, when Dr. Fred Behroozi will present on the art and science of soap bubbles. The lectures take place on Saturdays  9 a.m. in the Center for Environmental and Energy Education Auditorium.

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