During Semester II 2018, a group of Part IV students, spearheaded by Adam Cameron and Ellie McBurney, began brewing beers in the Park Ave food lab. The project was designed as a hands-on learning experience, to support theoretical process knowledge learnt during Part II and III papers, and was a huge success. Students used extract brew kits to create specialties such as the OPA (oxidised pale ale), The Rob (cold-brew coffee stout), the C&M (dry hopped IPA with Citra and Motueka hops) and finally, the aptly named GPA (ginger pale ale).

In true scientific style an evaluation of results was required in the form of a beer tasting event. This was held after the full day of final year presentations on 23 October. Beers were evaluated for their taste, aroma and visual appearance, with the winner of the night chosen as the GPA.

The students wish to thank Ray Hoffman, Peter Martin, Assoc Prof Ashvin Thambyah and the department for the huge support given during this inaugural year of the brewing project. It is hoped the tradition will continue next year, challenging the following Part IVs to attempt to brew something even better! 

by Ellie McBurney (Chemmat Part IV student, 2018)