Brewing education
Bicycles, Burgers ’n Brew Brewing studies at UC Davis
2010 saw the hat trick. The The university itself borders the City of success of Stephen Bossu in Davis in a rather lovely location. The campus claiming the J S Ford prize as the occupies some 4,000 acres of prime top student in the IBD Diploma agricultural land that supports the work of the College of Agriculture and Environmental made it the third consecutive Sciences (CAES). Over 100 years ago the year in which a student in the campus was originally the University Farm of Extension programme at UC Berkeley. The Department of Food University of California, Davis Science and Technology (within which is the took the honour. Bossu also campus brewing program) is part of CAES claimed the Crisp Malting Award that, with its focus on food and fibre, provides for the best answer to Paper One a supportive milieu for the brewing programme. in the examination, making it the second year in succession that New complex the prize came to a Davis The Department is now housed in a new three- candidate. building complex known as the Robert Mondavi Institute for Food and Wine Science. The brewing lab in the South Building is named in honour of the Sierra Nevada by Professors Charlie Bamforth Brewing Company; this splendid brewery is and Michael J Lewis just 100 miles north of Davis, in Chico and is one of the many brewing companies with which the Davis educators enjoy a highly uch successes are testimony to the hard valued, comfortable, familiar, collegial and Swork put into attracting the top students to long-standing relationship. the program and mentoring and nurturing of This article’s writing coincides with the all of those who head to Davis in search of completion of the August A. Busch III Bicycles outside the RMI. brewing knowledge. Brewing and Food Science Laboratory, within (Photo: Emily Bamforth). The UCD-Extension programme, headed up which will be located the 1.5 barrel by Professor Michael J. Lewis as its Academic home to the US Bicycling Hall of Fame. Even experimental brewery. Both building and Director and Lead Instructor, is one of two if you don’t ride a bike (like Bamforth) there brewing equipment exist because of the different and independent routes to brewing are many things to do, not least dine at one of generosity of the Anheuser-Busch Foundation, qualifications at Davis. The other is the the countless restaurants of every conceivable who provided an initial challenge gift of $5 campus route, run by Professor Charlie cuisine, from Burgers ’n Brew to one of the million to kick off the building project and Bamforth, for students enrolled in full-time seven Thai establishments in town. who also made available expert engineering undergraduate or graduate courses in the northernmost campus of the University of California system. There are 10 campuses in this, the biggest public university in the world, with more than 222,000 students of which almost 25,000 undergraduates and 4,215 graduate students are on the Davis site. Whether a student opts for the campus or the extension journey they are guaranteed a challenging but fun-filled adventure.
Lively and engaging The City of Davis has a population of some 63,000 so is relatively quiet in the summer months, but buzzes when the university is in session. Fifteen miles west of Sacramento and less than 60 miles north east of San Francisco, it is a safe and nurturing environment, perceived as politically correct and sensible if you are a Democrat but a nest of Socialists and Commies if you be a Republican. Hence Davis is always lively and engaging. There are more bicycles per head of population than any other city in the United States – small wonder, then, that Davis is Michael Lewis discussing the finer parts of bottling with UCD Extension students.
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T.O.M (“Tommy”) Nakayama, was appointed to establish a research base in brewing but soon moved on to the Miller Brewing Company. In 1964 Michael Lewis, who had been Phaff’s post-doc (supported by brewers’ money) since 1962, was appointed to the first Professorship of Malting & Brewing Science in the USA and took over the nascent brewing programme. Lewis submitted his courses for Academic Senate approval which he remembers was not easily won. These were the first brewing courses in the USA to earn academic credit for enrolled students. Ultimately the presence of the state- established wine programme on campus and support of colleagues in the Department of Viticulture and Enology made the added presence of brewing (and more alcohol!) on campus plausible and finally possible. The same team also established in 1972 the Fermentation Science major for students of wine and beer. Along the way Professor Lewis and the brewing programme won the Distinguished Teaching Award of the UCD campus and the Award of Merit of the MBAA. Charlie Bamforth getting excited about Quality. These courses (as they do today) always drew and brewing staff to configure an excellent large enrolments and served as hugely small-scale brewery to replace the original effective recruiting tools for the brewing equipment installed in Cruess Hall (the industry at a time when importation of brewers original home of the department) in 1958. The from overseas (especially Germany) was brewery in the new building is to be named the becoming more difficult because of visa Anheuser-Busch Inbev Brewery. restrictions. It is just over 50 years ago that brewing found its way to UC Davis. A prime mover for A-B staff appointments this was Ruben Schneider of the Lucky Lager Anheuser-Busch, especially, mined the UCD Brewing Company in San Francisco (now brewing programme to make spectacularly long defunct), who urged Emil Mrak, at the effective staff appointments over a period of time Chairman of the Department of Food many years, so that by the time Dr Lewis Science and Technology and later Chancellor retired in 1995, the upper echelon of corporate of the University, to start training brewers in vice-presidents, directors and resident the way that the campus was developing brewmasters of the company was, as it is winemakers. today, heavily laced with UCDavis graduates. Upon Professor Lewis’ retirement therefore it Established with a grant was an easy logic to ask Anheuser-Busch to The brewing programme was finally demonstrate tangible support for continuing established in 1958 with a grant from the the brewing programme. This came first in the Master Brewers Association of the Americas form of a significant sum for an endowed while Schneider was its President. The professorship that allowed a world-wide experimental brewery was dedicated on recruitment among the elite of the industry. December 8 1958; Professor Herman J. Phaff, Some three years later the university was the eminent yeast taxonomist, gave the first honoured to appoint Charlie Bamforth to the brewing instruction as part of an Industrial Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professorship of Michael Lewis in the cellar. Applications of Microorganisms course. Dr. Malting and Brewing Sciences. There are now three brewing courses on campus: FST3, FST102A and FST102B, the The Robert Mondavi Institute. ( P
(Photo: Emily Bamforth) h o t o : E m i l y B a m f o r t h ) .
The sign outside of the door of the Bamforth Research Lab in the RMI. Brewing education
(Anheuser-Busch Inbev), Don Barkley (Napa Smith) and Jay Prahl (Sudwerk). The hard core brewing instruction is in FST 102A and 102B. The former, in the lecture room, spans two two-hour lectures for a 10 week period. It covers in depth all matters scientific and technological, running from barley in the field to beer in the body. The students taking the class are not only those intent on a brewing career, but also those eager to learn about the complexity of brewing, especially those majoring in Viticulture and Enology, who wish to hear about a drink that is truly complicated! Other majors represented are typically Biotechnology, Biosciences, Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering and, of course, Food Science. And it in the last of these that the hard core brewers reside, for there is a Brewing Option in that major. Although the class is technically maxed out at 45, in the 2010 sitting there were 66 students.
Oversubscribed A spring view of the RMI. The August A Busch III Brewery and Food processing laboratory is The 102B Practical Brewing class was also under construction to the right. The vineyard is in the foreground. The building to the far left is oversubscribed in 2010 (32, when the the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. maximum is technically 15), which demanded some creative approaches to ensuring they all received the right amount of exposure to the facility. It also did not help that the assistant, Candy Wallin, ex-Miller Brewing Company, was incapacitated through a broken elbow. Nevertheless plenty of excellent brews were undertaken, including the annual ‘Iron Brew’ in which teams of students compete for the production of the best beer, as judged by an expert panel of judges. We even made front page headline news in the Davis Enterprise. Undergraduate and graduate students pursuing brewing studies at UC Davis are strongly advised to spend their summer months in internship roles with companies large and sma ll. As Bamforth is wont to say: “They will learn more in those stints than they will in any number of my lectures!” The research programme on campus is undertaken by MS students under Charlie Bamforth’s guidance. The brewing programme is conspicuous by there being not a single PhD candidate, a deliberate The August A Busch III facility almost finished. policy for the simple reason that there (Photo: Emily Bamforth). are few (if any) jobs in the brewing industry that demand such a latter two of a half-century standing. The qualification, especially one that campus students year on year vote the first of typically takes five years to gain. these (Introduction to Beer and Brewing, Bamforth and Lewis view it as one of which started in 2002) one of the three most their key roles to develop the right popular General Education classes on campus, that brewing is for them, as a result of being people for the right jobs in industry and most alongside Introduction to Nutrition and enthused by this class. FST3 addresses (at a of those jobs are going to be in production and Human Sexuality (beer, food and sex: a fairly gentle level!) the fundamentals of associated functions in companies large and powerful combination). FST3 now runs in the brewing science and technology, but also small. Fall, Winter and Spring Quarters (UC Davis covers matters historical, social, Despite the fact that the turnov er of MS operates on a Quarter system – with three environmental and health-related, including a students (a two year programme) is rapid, sessions each of ten weeks and so in the year class on responsible drinking. The class is meaning that projects cannot be excessively some 900+ students are enrolled. Many of enriched by diverse guest speakers, including detailed, Bamforth has maintained a them are not scientists, but take it to fulfill the presidents of brewing companies of the substantial output of peer-reviewed work on their General Education science requirement. eminence of Ken Grossman, Fritz Maytag and diverse topics, of which foam, flavour stability Many are students pursuing science or Dan Gordon and brew masters (and former and the enzymology of brewery raw materials engineering majors who will go on to decide Davis graduates) such as Scott Ungermann have been key.
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Before pouring in the research laboratory for one of Sue Longstaff’s sensory sessions. (Photo: Emily Bamforth).
‘Hatch’ project programme so successfully pursued by of the commercial industry for scientific Faculty members in the CAES at Davis pursue Michael Lewis in the furnishing of so many courses and introduced the one-week Intensive a so-called Hatch project that needs to address brewers to Anheuser-Busch and beyond, Brewing Science for Practical Brewing; this issues relevant to the State of California. would continue. The six-figure endowment is course is still on the books in much its original Bamforth’s is on Beer and Health; the invested by the university and whatever it form and now taught by Lewis and Bamforth. burgeoning output of information in this field generates in the markets (after the holding However, for many years, Professor James presents a challenge of communication back of a proportion to ensure growth of the S. Hough visited Davis from the University of because there is an inevitable perception by fund) is made available to support the campus Birmingham to help teach this class. Later Dr. nay-sayers that it is self-serving. For this brewing activities. TomYoung took over Hough’s role and that reason the Davis research programme accepts There are two other smaller endowments additionally permitted a laboratory-based no direct sponsorship of any work on beer and that support the programme: the Larry Carlson course on brewing microbiology. In 1990 Dr health from brewing companies. Endowment and another established in the last Lewis became convinced that the micro- However, the running of the brewing couple of years and named for Michael Lewis brewing industry needed access to a programme overall is dependent upon the in recognition of his pioneering work on the significant supply of professionally qualified generous support of many companies, programme. This latter endowment has brewers whose knowledge and expertise including brewers and suppliers to the attracted generous contributions from many would be verified by independent and rigorous industry. A key funding source is the appreciative former students and colleagues of assessment. Anheuser-Busch Endowment which was set Dr Lewis. The Associate Membership Examination of up in 1998 to ensure that the brewing Michael Lewis launched the hugely the Institute of Brewing (as the qualification successful UCD-Extension courses in brewing was then known) became that assessment tool science in 1964. The mission of this and the UCD-Extension Masterbrewers organisation is to extend the learning of the Programme was born. Initially the programme university to the widest possible audience and was taught on campus in co-ordination with to address the emerging educational needs of the FS&T brewing courses and students the community. UCD-Extension is studied food engineering with the campus financially self-supporting. Early on, they students; the programme was one academic were homebrew courses that adapted year in length. appropriate commercial practices e.g. on sanitation and sanitary operations to the Move to Sudwerk home scale. These courses continue However, when Professor Lewis retired in today. Later Lewis recognised the needs 1995 the campus location became untenable
Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) is an internationally recognised green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building was designed and built using strategies intended to improve performance in metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts. The new Davis food-science centre with its teaching and research facilities is the first winery, brewery or food-processing facility in the world to go the LEED Platinum certification.
22 Brewer & Distiller International • July 2011 • www.ibd.org.uk Brewing education
and the programme was moved to a large dedicated classroom above the Sudwerk brewpub and brewery in Davis. This permitted the full Masterbrewers programme to be shortened to a more intensive 18 weeks running from late January to early June. The move also allowed parts of the full course to be offered in two separate subsections to serve a small but important audience: applicants may choose the first eight weeks of intensive classroom lectures covering the entire IBD syllabus and made available as the Professional Brewers Certificate Programme. This section, with the approval of the UCD Academic Senate, carries transferable academic credit towards a degree. Also the last three weeks of the course, which is an intensive review of all topics in the three papers, is available separately. This Review is particularly popular with those who have been studying with a mentor at their own brewery and who wish to have a final tune-up with UCDavis instructors before they take the examinations. The Masterbrewers Programme was initially designed to serve a dozen or so students, but for many years it has accepted 40 students; it has now been expanded to accommodate 44 students. The programme is fully subscribed for 2011 and 2012. All students entering the Masterbrewers Programme have a first degree in science or engineering and many have been in the workforce for several, often many, years. Those with different degrees must complete a programme of prerequisite courses at an institution near their home before they come to Davis. This increases their chance of success in the examinations and makes them more comfortable with the instruction in the Programme where expectations are high and the work in its various forms is rigorous. Usually some 20% of the class is from overseas.
Experienced instructors The Masterbrewers Programme could not operate without a dedicated cadre of experienced instructors. Professor Lewis and Professor Bamforth (as a significant overload on his day job!) share the work of teaching topics in brewing science for Papers I and II with input from Sue Langstaff (a UCDavis graduate) who is an expert in sensory science; Sue also runs the weekly tasting sessions. Professor Tim Marbach of Sacramento State University with Professor John Krochta of UCDavis, who addresses specifically the packaging syllabus, cover engineering and process technology for Paper III. Professor Tom Shellhammer (a Davis graduate) of Oregon State University conducts the engineering review week and contributes a special session in packaging. Many experts from the brewing industry and supply companies come in to give guest lectures, usually in the less formally organised six-week period between the end of the Certificate and the start of the Review. Visitors to campus must keep their head low or they will be collared by Michael Lewis to give a guest lecture. This is also the time when students are encouraged to take internships. There are standing arrangements with a number of west-coast breweries including inter alia Deschutes, Stone, Firestone and The new teaching and research brewhouse works on a 1.8 hectolitre length. There is a two-roll Seeger mill, water and CIP tanks, two mash mixers, a lauter, a Fletcher, Trumerbrau, but students are encouraged and kettle with internal calandria, a whirlpool and a paraflow heat exchanger to six helped to work at a brewery of their choice that might 1.8bbl glycol jacketed dual purpose vessels. There is a simple sheet filter but be near their home or where they might like to work in most of the beer does not get packaged. the future. I
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