After Semester-Long Development, Student-Created ‘BrewConn’ Beer Debuts with Glowing Reviews

Our two senior design teams advised by Professor Jenn Pascal brewed with Kinsmen Brewing Co. for an exclusive launch event for UConn Brewing Innovation. It was a brew-tastic event last Tuesday with 300+ alumni, faculty, and students attending.

For the past three years, Professor Pascal has been offering a brewing course to allow senior chemical engineering students to apply their knowledge. They gained hands-on experience in brewing beer using homebrew scale equipment and kits. This year, the capstone course expanded, by offering trips to Smokedown Hops Farm in Sharon, Thrall Family Malt in Windsor, and two visits to the Kinsmen Brewing to learn about processing and canning. This has been a great experience both for those planning careers in craft brewing and for those seeking other endeavors, because of the real-world skills they’ve learned. As Professor Pascal has also highlighted: “Many chemical engineers work in the food and beverage industry. Chemical engineers are ‘process’ engineers and brewing beer involves optimizing processes and ways to improve them, all relevant skills in an assortment of industries.’’

Learn more about how Professor Pascal’s course and capstone project are transforming chemical and biomolecular engineering studies with hands-on brewing experience for our seniors on UConn Today.