JERSEY SHORE, Pa. — For Prof. Justin Ingram, beer is best served in a beaker. That way, he can study the science behind every sip.
"Beer is science, through and through, start to end," he said.
As a biology and chemistry professor at Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, Ingram teaches courses within the relatively new brewing and fermentation major.
But in the classroom, there was one thing holding him back.
"We couldn't have fresh samples; we had to buy samples. And it just made more logistics sense to come here and be able to have access to a monster facility like this."
The "monster facility" is Bald Birds Brewing Company in Jersey Shore.
It spans 153,000 square feet, and a new research lab for Penn College now takes up a small part of that space.
A lot goes into making your beer taste good, and Ingram wants to study all of it.
"We're looking at hop dynamics, primarily long-term, trying to see what makes a really good quality beer stay fresh and shelf life as long as physically possible. But we look at pH turbidity. We look at alcohol. We look at the bitterness. We're really trying to get a fingerprint or a snapshot of what each individual beer does and trying to learn from that fingerprint to make better, more consistent products."
Having researchers figure this out within the walls of his own brewery pays off for owner Joe Feerar. That's why he donated money to get the lab up and running.
"Consistency is key with beer. Having Penn College here on site with Dr. Justin, we can deepen our analytics, make our beer better, and also offer a wider array of beers on our tap list," Feerar said.
It's a good arrangement for the students, too—a potential workplace just steps away from their research lab.
"In fact, we've actually hired three individuals from their program. We have an intern coming this summer."
So, the next time you take a sip of craft beer at Bald Birds, maybe raise a glass to the unseen scientists in the back of the brewery.