Hip Hops
RICHARD MORGAN
A new lager out of Purdue University trades that watered-down taste for
a rich Old World crunch.
Two students, Michelle K. Kelly and Luke M. Meyers, who both graduated
in May, developed "freeze-dried beer spice," a powdered form of the
staple
brew, as the last hurrah of their biological-engineering degrees on the
campus in West Lafayette, Ind. The product isn't ***ic, though,
because "it wasn't our point to get people tanked off of eating this
stuff,"
says Mr. Meyers.
Ms. Kelly says "the idea started as kind of a joke," but they pursued it
when they realized that nobody had tapped into the concept before.
Although the powder has not been scientifically tested for taste, she
assures
that, informally, folks are toasting the flavor as even better than the
real
thing. "The flavor is more concentrated and sweeter than regular beer,"
she says. "It's sweeter because the process leaves the sugars but
removes
the *** and water."
It takes 20 pints of beer to produce one pint of powder, which could be
used to provide the beverage to hikers, campers, or soldiers in the
field --
although it would need to be combined with an ***ic, carbonated
liquid in order to become proper beer again.
The two brewmasters already have developed the powder in three forms:
pale,
light, and dark. Which does Ms. Kelly prefer? "I don't like the taste of
beer," she admits.