Among the hundreds of craft brewers at the World of Beer Festival Saturday was the Sheppard Brewing Lab, an NC State lab that brews its own beers. The Sheppard Brewing Lab attended the festival back in 2014, but the festival was different this year because they were licensed with an Alcohol Beverage Control permit.
“This February, we got our ABC permit,” said John Sheppard, a professor in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutritional Science. “So this year we are attending the festival as a licensed brewer.”
Sheppard also runs the NC State brewing program and the Sheppard Brewing Lab, located in Schaub Hall.
“I got into brewing beer because as a chemical engineer, it has many aspects that are found in engineering principles,” Sheppard said. “Also, beer brewing has been the largest commercial application of biotechnology for the last 200 years or so.”
The Sheppard Brewing Lab provides NC State graduate students with hands-on experiences in the beer industry. Many students later work for large breweries, such as the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. The lab opened in 2006 when Sheppard moved to Raleigh from Montreal, Canada, where he previously taught at the McGill University at Montreal. When he moved to Raleigh to teach at NC State, he moved all of his brewing equipment with him.
This year marked the 11th year of the World Beer Fest. The World Beer Fest has seen a growth during the past five years with the explosion of the craft beer industry in Raleigh. The festival has been important to both brewers and consumers, as it allowed the brewers to market their beers while expanding the consumers’ depth into the world of craft beer. At this year’s festival, 130 brewers attended with about half of them being regional brewers. In addition to regional craft beers, there were also domestic and international brewers along with cider brewers, regional and domestic.
“I think the change of location is really helping the festival,” Sheppard said. “It’s a lot more spacious, and we have more food trucks this time.”
Although the Sheppard Brewing Lab attended the 2014 World Beer Fest, this year’s attendance was different. The last time the lab attended the festival, they attended as scientists explaining the science behind brewing. This year, after obtaining an ABC permit, they were able to sell their beers commercially, allowing the lab to attend this year’s festival as brewers looking to market their beers to potential customers.
“We are serving two kinds of beer made using our own wild yeasts,” Sheppard said. “One is Wild Bumble Blonde, based on a blonde ale recipe. The other is American Lambic Sour, which is a sour beer made using Belgian Lambic style.”
With the ABC permit, the Sheppard Brewing Lab plans on commercially selling its beers within a couple of years. The goal is to have the beers available at campus at locations such as the NC State University Club and Lonnie Poole Golf Course.
“I hope to see our beers sell in on-campus markets like Talley Market,” said Claire Svendsen, a graduate student studying food science and member of the lab.
Svendsen said she joined the lab out of her love for beer. She worked with Sheppard to brew the beers that were served at the festival. She also served beers and answered some questions attendees had along with two other graduate students from the Sheppard Brewing Lab.
“Looking back, the brew days were the best because on those days, we literally used our hands to work instead of working behind the desk,” Svendsen said.
