F I R S T
HOW TO
Brew beer – as a chemistry project and a home hobby
I
T BEGAN WITH FGCU chemistry Professor John Reilly and some FGCU faculty communing on Saturday mornings in a bid to brew their
best beer. Then they decided to enlist the help of
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students. In order to do that, they had to give them something: a research project, some pay or service-learning hours. Last fall, senior biochemistry major Thomas Strauss was awarded credits for creating a research project, “Development and Troubleshooting of a Pilot Microbrewery
at FGCU,” which became a studentfriendly process manual that highlighted the fundamentals and techniques for brewing eight types of beer. By the spring semester, Reilly had brought in a consortium of students from the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business
PHOTOS BY JAMES GRECO
BY R I C K WEBER