Bottoms Up: UM course teaches students beer brewing
Early in their studies, students enrolled in the University of Monana’s brewing science class toured Conflux Taphouse with Head Brewer Derek Fassino. (UM photos by Ryan Brennecke)
Student Christopher Maples smells the aroma of a freshly poured pint of an India Pale Ale while participating in a brewing session at Draught Works. (UM photo by Ryan Brennecke)
Gabriella Nelson stirs mash with classmate Ashlyn Sliter for brewing a New Zealand-style IPA at Conflux Taphouse. (UM photo by Ryan Brennecke)
MISSOULA – It’s typically not condoned for University of Montana students to skip classes to sample beer at 9 a.m., but there they were on a recent weekday morning sipping an IPA at Missoula’s Draught Works brewery.
Lest you think of them as slackers, know this gathering wasn’t focused on frivolity but on the very serious business of beverage quality – characteristics like color, taste and foam … er head. It was, in other words, a part of their studies.
The students, all enrolled in the UM’s Brewing Science program, had already spent hours in the classroom learning about the nitty gritty of beer making and on this morning were diving into their end-of-semester project — brewing 15 barrels or so of a New Zealand-style IPA. A similar gathering of students from the class met earlier in the week at Conflux Taphouse to fashion another version of the light-colored ale.
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