Category: Practicum
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Lactobacillus: From Yogurt to Beer?
Objective and Hypothesis The objective of the experiment was to isolate lactobacillus (LAB) cultures from store-bought yoghurt and see if they could be used in a beer. I hypothesized that I would be able to isolate at least three different mixed LAB cultures from different yogurts. Of the LABs that were isolated I predicted only…
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Sourdough Bread and Hydration Levels
Background This project started very ambitiously with the intent to see the effect of different levels of hydration in the dough. I started the process with three levels of hydration: 80%, 100%, and 120%. By hydration I mean the percentage of water content to flour content. For example, if I had 1000g of flour and…
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Session Mead: Raw vs Baked Honey Experiments
Objectives There were two objectives to my experiment. The first objective was merely to find out if my knowledge of beer creation could translate over to mead creation. Specific to this case, the creation of session mead, a lower alcohol variant that contains only 3-6.5% ABV. The second objective of the experiment was to examine…
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Cabernet Franc Trials
Grape Processing, Fermentation, and Aging This fall quarter for my Craft Brewing Practicum project I decided to make wine. I have recently been thinking about what kind of career path I want to take after graduating this spring, so this project has been my version of a test run at being a winemaker! Essentially my…
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Strawberry and Lemonade Wheat Beer – What Yeast Strain Is Better?
I wanted to find out what yeast strain works best with different fruit flavors of wheat beer. My question is what yeast strain works with what fruit better? Saisonstein Monster or the English yeast? Will the head retention/ carbonation hold up in the English yeast or will we have to force carbonate off the bat?…
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The Mead Calculator
Hi! I’m DJ Johnson, and this quarter I wanted to make mead. Last Spring, I made braggots (a beer/mead fusion) and during that process I experimented with The Mead Calculator from https://gotmead.com/blog/the-mead-calculator/ and noticed that it gave some interesting options for additional sugars. In fact, it had so many options that I wanted to test…
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Bourbon Perry Cider
Hi, my name is Cody Barthels, and I have been working on making a Perry cider at my work Wheel Line Cider. I wanted to do something different than I’ve done before, so instead of brewing a beer at home I took my practicum to work to make a cider. I thought making a pear…
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Soft Pour vs Hard Pour
Hello everyone, I am Cameron Nelson and for this quarter I decided to test if you could achieve a lower carbonation output by changing your pouring style to a hard pour instead of a soft pour when pouring a beer. For reference a hard pour is poured quickly down the middle of the glass and…
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GLUTEN-FREE BEER! Part 2
I ended my last post with me bottling my beer and putting them into a dark space for about 2 weeks. I explain further more towards the end! Hello, my name is Cody Barthels and I am a senior at Central Washington majoring in Craft Brewing. The idea of this project was to create a…
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Impact of Temperature on SCOBY Growth Part 2
Hello, my name is Molly Spurrell and this is an update post on my SCOBY experiment. This was an experiment that looked at the relationship between temperature and SCOBY growth, as well as the microbial growth from the SCOBY solution (the sweet tea mixture that the SCOBY was growing in). The original post can be…
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Brewing a Bale Breaker Field 41 Pale Ale Clone, Part 2.
At the end of the last post I was talking about kegging if “it all went well,” which “it” did, becoming terminal on schedule and without any major off flavors. In this post I’m going to go over the packaging, conditioning, and sensory analysis process. You can read about the recipe research and brewing here.…
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Sensory: Nature vs. Nurture
Hi there! My name is Kaylan Meyer I am a senior at Central Washinton University. I am currently working on two degrees in Craft Brewing and A Wine Industry Management Specialization, and a minor in business. This quarter I chose to do my Craft Brewing Practicum on sensory, specifically how much we are able to…
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Brew Kits Part 2.
So what I have done for this practicum was perfect the recipe that will potentially go into a kit that will be sold to help support the brew club. I also was able to calculate how much each kit will cost based on research online and going to Ace Hardware in Yakima to evaluate where…
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Ale Yeast Fermentation Trials.
This spring quarter I decided to do a project on different brewing yeasts and their sensorial differences in the final beer. In the past couple years of school, I have tasted a wide range of beer styles that were fermented with different yeast strains, which gave me a good idea of what characteristics some yeast…
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Braggots, Done Two Ways.
Hi, I’m DJ and I’m a craft brewing major here at CWU. However, I am more interested in mead than I am beer (but more interested in beer than I am wine), so I decided to have my practicum centered around braggots, a beer-mead hybrid, and I looked specifically into the process of how they…
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Brewing a Bale Breaker Field 41 Pale Ale Clone, Part 1.
Growing up in Bellingham, WA meant that I’ve been surrounded by craft beer my entire life. I can remember my parents and their friends drinking at Boundary Bay, or bringing a six-pack of Full Sail over for a BBQ, but it wasn’t until years and years later that it fully clicked in my head that…
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Impact of Temperature on SCOBY Growth.
Hello, my name is Molly Spurrell and I am a Craft Brewing minor student here at Central Washington University. I was curious about how different temperatures affected the growth and microbiological aspects of a SCOBY for kombucha. SCOBY is an acronym that stands for “Symbiotic Culture Of Yeast and Bacteria,” and is made up of…
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Gluten-Free Beer!!
Hello, my name is Cody Barthels and I am a senior at Central Washington majoring in Craft Brewing. The idea of this project was to create a 100% gluten free beer for my wife, who has Celiac, to be able to try and drink. For this gluten free beer I decided to use sorghum for…
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The American Iteration of a Lichtenhainer.
Hello, My name is Austin Haase and I am currently a senior here at Central Washington University. I will be graduating with a Bachelors of Science of Biology with a Specialization in Biomedical Sciences, a Chemistry Minor, and a Craft Brewing Certificate. For my spring practicum to obtain my certificate, I wanted to start with…
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Ale Yeast Fermentation Trials on Barley Wort.
Hello, my name is Jonathan Hughes and I am a senior at CWU and I am majoring in Craft Brewing. For this Spring practicum, I wanted to experiment with a variety of different ale yeasts to understand the different characteristics each yeast can contribute. On April 26, 2023 I brewed a large batch of all-barley…
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