Nearly two dozen beers will be on tap, August 13, for Niagara College’s next Project Brew competition in the courtyard at the Daniel J. Patterson campus.
Dubbed CarnivALE, the event will showcase the unique craft beer creations the graduating students in the Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management program have come up with as part of their final term project. It will also serve as a fundraiser for the Matt Soos Memorial Scholarship.
Project Brew faculty lead April Tyrrell said the students chose the theme because, like a carnival, it’s a fun-themed event.
“The students liked the idea of a fun atmosphere and return to a full-sized Project Brew that includes carnival games, a dunk tank, and carnival food,” Tyrrell said. “It’s a carnival theme with carnival food to go with it: popcorn, Pogos, fries, deep fried Oreos, and donuts.”
Brewmaster student Adam Marshall is looking forward to debuting two beers: ‘Suffig,’ a German pilsner, and his Belgian Witbier ‘Mouthcloud.’ The latter is a spiced beer with coriander seed, curacao orange peel, dried chamomile flowers and some bergamot extract.
“I had the opportunity to acquire some coriander fresh from Bangalore when some family came to visit,” the Welland resident said. “This is a classic ingredient in a Belgian Witbier, so I decided that I wanted to put it to good use. Project Brew is an opportunity to experiment in a relatively low-risk environment. Not often in the industry can you attempt such a small batch brew and have the opportunity to really throw whatever you want into the mix.”
Marshall said it was a challenge to get the spice dosing rates down, because even though he wanted to showcase the spices, he didn’t want it to come off as peppery or soapy.
A highlight of the process was carbonation day.
“[It was fun] getting to see how the carbonation brought the aromatics to life and see how the beer will really present itself when served,” he said.
Ancient brewing and rarity inspired Tyler Lefrancois’ two Project Brew entries, a Sahti called ‘Titania Sahti Sour’ and ‘Oberon Prime,’ a Berliner Weisse. Aside from feeding his interest in beer history, the experience gave him a chance to work on flavour balancing.
“Flavour balancing is probably the hardest thing for me to figure out with little experience, but the experiments to learn that balancing is also one of the most fun things to figure out,” Lefrancois said. “This course showed and taught me so much and more than I thought I would learn about. It also gives me and any others who are interested in the course many opportunities to learn and get your foot in the door to the industry.”
Courtney Nuttley thought she knew a lot about beer when she started the Brewmaster program. Now, as she finishes it by entering her Schwarzbier ‘Lemon Espresso Lager’ and Canadian IPA ‘The Village’ at Project Brew, she realizes there’s always more to learn.
“I didn’t know there was so much to know and now I feel like I will never stop learning about beer—and that makes me happy,” she said. “This was a wonderful program and experience and I feel that all I have learned gives me a good start in this industry.”
She added being a part of Project Brew and seeing the students’ creations come to life has provided her and her classmates with a unique learning experience.
“I think it is important because it is a real-life example of going full cycle on our product by going from brewing to packaging and serving the beer to the public,” she said. “You get to see the full life cycle of the product we are making and how money is made in our industry, and more importantly [you get to] see how people react to it.”
With only nine students involved, Tyrrell said each student had to create two different beers for Project Brew. Usually one beer per student is presented.
“The students have been excellent to work with. They’re very collaborative and have had a very similar vision,” she said. “They are learning about how to plan and execute an event and have really worked hard to bring all the pieces together.”
Tickets to CarnivALE, which will take place August 13 from 4 to 7 p.m., are $20 each and are available now through the Project Brew website. Guests must be 19 years of age or older and show valid ID.
Admission includes a sample glass and four drink tickets; additional drink tickets can be purchased at the event for $2 each. A selection of food prepared by the Canadian Food and Wine Institute’s Culinary students will also be available.
All proceeds from Project Brew benefit the Matt Soos Memorial Scholarship, in memory of Matt Soos, who graduated from the Brewmaster program in 2015. The scholarship was established by Railway City Brewing, where Soos worked at the time of his passing shortly after graduating from Niagara College.
Photo: Adam Marshall, left, and Aaron Grandguillot work on one of the beers that will be presented on August 13 during Project Brew. The event showcases the unique craft beer creations of the graduating students in Niagara College’s Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management program. (Photo courtesy of Robin Marshall).
Niagara College offers more than 130 diploma, bachelor degree and advanced level programs; as well as more than 600 credit, vocational and general interest Part-Time Studies courses. Areas of specialization include food and wine sciences, advanced technology, media, applied health and community safety, supported by unique learning enterprises in food, wine, beer, distilling, horticulture and esthetics. For more information visit niagaracollege.ca.
