Getting Schooled in Beer—Without a Hangover

Final clubs, Quad parties, fake IDs—it is through these techniques that most Harvard students gain their appreciation and understanding of beer. But one group of freshman is taking a more scholarly approach to their alcohol education in the new freshman seminar, “Principles of Industrial Fermentation: Beer, Wine, Bioethanol, and Beyond.”

In his first year offering the course, lecturer Kevin J. Verstrepen teaches freshmen (and one lucky law student) the process of beer brewing. Verstrepen, who studied at the University of Stellenbosch’s Institute for Wine Biotechnology in South Africa, chose to make beer the focal point of the seminar—even though the course is aimed at underage underclassmen—because it lends itself to studying a variety of scientific fields.

“Beer production shows basic biology, basic chemistry, and basic genetic engineering come together,” Verstrepen says.

But while weekly taste tests of various lagers would doubtlessly earn the class an unprecedented Q Guide rating, there is absolutely no sampling of alcoholic beverages...not that students were expecting inebriation to be part of the curriculum.

“I wasn’t planning to get wasted,” Joe D. Hiatt ’11 says. “I can do that at other places.”

Since biogenetics—not intoxication—is the focus of the seminar, Verstrepen employs creative approaches to work with underage drinking restrictions, such as adding flavors to non-alcoholic malt beverages. Alcoholic beer production is still explored, but through field trips, including a recent visit to Boston’s Harpoon Brewery, not tastings.

While it may have been the content of the course that initially drew students to the seminar, Verstrepen kept them hooked with his dynamic teaching style. “We’re always engaged,” Helal A. Sayed ’11 says.

And when the day does come that these students can take a legal sip of the substance they study, they won’t forget who taught them to appreciate the facts of fermentation.

“He’s the first person I’ll call on my 21st birthday,” says Hiatt.