University of Sherbrooke students run micro-brewery

By Janice Cunningham
The Record - Sherbrooke, July 31, 2000

Deep in the bowels of the University of Sherbrooke's engineering building, amidst the concrete pillars and bare pipes snaking overhead, past students in lab coats and safety glasses bent over Bunsen burners, there is tucked away a 190-litre vat of brewing malt.

A micro-brewery in a university chemical engineering department? Isn't that a bit like giving the cat the key to the bird's cage?

Not at all, according to University of Sherbrooke student Hans Drouin, director general of the micro-brewery SherBroue and fourth-year student in chemical engineering.

"Why not make our own beer?" he said. "A brewery is a chemical engineering process, and running one gives students all kinds of experience - management, chemical processes, even the law."

The project SherBroue, initiated in 1998 by Gervais Soucy, a professor in the department, gives students experience working cooperatively as a group and a hands-on experience with the food and beverage industry, an important avenue for future employment for these students.

Drouin said there is no other program like it in Canada.

"The apprenticeship and working in a group - those are the two main objectives of the program," he said Drouin. who has one year left in his program and has applied to work at Kraft in Montreal.

This summer, the group has 28 active members, including some from biology and administration. Any student at the University can join the team and the expertise brought in from other departments is what makes SherBroue so special.

Drouin emphasized there is more to the program than brewing malt. "One whole side to this is management." he said, "and that includes getting permits, organizing a cooperative, filling out the proper forms, presenting a business plan - there's a lot to learn."

SherBroue has applied for status as an official cooperative with CDE, the Cooperative de Developpement de I'Estrle, and expect to receive their papers in August. That in itself has been a learning experience, indicated Drouin, but to get a permit to sell the beer is another headache. At the moment, the project is part of academia and no permit is required; however, they are not allowed to sell or even give out samples of the beer.

For Philippe Simard, a graduate student in mechanical engineering and technical director for the micro-brewery, this is really frustrating.

"A lot of our sponsors would like to have a taste to see how we're progressing, and we can't even do that." he said. "Also, by selling the beer, we could eventually be financially independent."

Simard has been involved since the beginning, bringing to the project a background in mechanics and motors, as well as electrical processes. He was in on the design of the three stainless steel vats that are lined up against the wall, as well as the counter-flow heat exchange system, a double-walled coil of tubing that serves to cool down the hot wort.

His own personal goal is to somedav start up a brew-pub, "something like the Golden Lion pub in Lennoxville." he said.

The SherBroue group comes out with a new batch every month or so, trying each time to improve on the last. Simard wouldn't give out any recipe secrets, but indicated their product, a pale ale, has barley at the base.

Grain, water, hops and yeast - that's all it takes as far as ingredients go, but putting them together to produce a quality beer is a lot more complicated, and that is exactly what makes their beer so unique.

"We can have as many different kinds of beer as we have members in the cooperative." said Simard.

The brewing process begins with germinating the grain, such as barley, just until a little sprout develops. This frees up enzymes that will later break down the starch into sugar. The grain is then roasted, "just like coffee." said Simard. and this is the malt. The length of roasting time is very precise, as it affects the taste and colour of the end result - "pale," "crystal" and "chocolate" are just three examples.

SherBroue, however, buys their malt already sprouted and roasted, as well as the hops which resemble little green pellets. "It's easier for us and it gives a more uniform product." said Simard.

The hops gives beer its bitterness, and the kind and quantity added affects the taste.

Even water "plays a big role," said Simard. "The water in Ireland is not the same water In western Europe - you can't brew the same kind of beer: it will taste different ."

The malt is then mixed continuously with warm water in the brewing vat, and the starch is broken up into fermentable sugars.

The brew liquid, or wort, is then drained off and boiled with the hops for up to one-and-a-half hours in a second vat, cooled down in the counter-flow pipes and allowed to ferment with the yeast for two weeks in the 190-litre vat. A secondary fermentation occurs in the bottles.

Each step of the process includes endless options and variables, all of which contribute to the uniqueness of the beer.

Producing an organic beer is an option that interests Simard. "All the micro-breweries in Quebec produce a good beer." he said. "In order to find a niche, you need to have something special."

And something special is exactly what Drouin wants for the university. "We want something the students can be proud of - something distinct," he said. "The department believes in us - they can really see the potential."

For more information on this student project, visit their excellent Web site at

http://pages.usherbrooke.ca/sherbroue/