the science of beer

the cool thing about scientists is that they can make anything geeky, and thus justifiable. including drinking beer.

i went to this talk last night at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS for the initiated) entitled, "The Science of Beer". it was given by this brittish guy who's studied beer brewing for like 20 years. what a cool job. his specialty is the malting process and hops, as opposed to guys who study the yeast that gets added to beer.

fun facts: lagers and ales get different yeasts added to them. lagers are brewed with Saccharomyces pastorales and ales are concocted with S. cerevisiae. i'm sure i've spelled those wrong and will go to molecular biology hell for it. anyway, i did not know that a different strain of yeast was added to different beers. cool. barley is the main source of sugar, but brewers also add rice, corn, and rye to name a few. in fact, celiacs can enjoy a wheat-free beer made from sorghum. bet that's the best news they've heard in a long time.

the small amount of protein present in the barley hull is responsible for the creamy delicious head that beer is known for. proteins interact with the oils from the hops to stabilize the foam. chemistry is so cool.

oh: always poor your beer into a glass. beer does not get better with age, so drink it right away. brown bottles are better than green at protecting beer from oxidation. keep your beer cold. boddington's won't taste good unless you're in manchester, england.

i've decided that working for a brewing company would be an acceptable form of employment. anchor, if you're reading, i can be reached at kbfreder@yahoo.com. i can start immediately. thanks.

one note about the venue: NYAS's new location is at 7 World Trade Center. in other words, right next to Ground Zero. creepy. we were on the 40th floor in this brand-spanking new building (2006) and you could look down on where the twin towers used to stand. the building we were in felt like it was right out of a tom cruise movie. there were security turnstiles in the lobby, which the guy opened for us. he told us which elevator to get into. we found the doors open and waiting for us, and there was no number-pad with buttons for each floor -- he had already programmed it to take us to the 40th floor. that was creepy, too! i mean what if we were the good guys and he was the bad guys, and he took us to the wrong floor, where Dr. Evil was waiting to kill us, or he decided to crash the elevator or not let us out or something? very weird to not be in control.

yeah, so i love beer and the science of beer, and i was at Ground Zero yesterday. cool.