UW Students Engineer Their Own Beer

With guidance from Kevin Zerman, president of Wisconsin Brewing Company, students developed recipes for six extra-special bitters. College of Engineering

This spring, seniors in the UW Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE) fermentation lab tapped the expertise of local brewmasters to complete their midterm assignment: designing and brewing a specialty beer.

Brewing combines many of the skills and lessons the students have been learning throughout their college career, as the process itself is a complex interplay of chemical transformations. Prior to full-scale brewing, students conducted experiments to examine the impact of temperature variations on mashing and the effects of water chemistry — including pH and mineral content — on the final product.

“It was impressive how quickly the students got comfortable with the brewing process,” says Brendan Blackwell, a CBE faculty member who led the lab. “After one practice brew, they confidently took ownership, wrote creative recipes, and produced some good beer.”

With guidance from Kevin Zerman, president of Wisconsin Brewing Company in Verona, Wisconsin, students developed recipes for six extra-special bitters: beers that balance bitterness with a sweet malt flavor and that were chosen for their compatibility with the characteristics of Madison’s hard water.

The students brewed their extra-special bitters in the College of Engineering’s John C. Kuetemeyer Instructional Laboratories, and the final products were evaluated by a panel of local brewmasters and experts.

The winning recipe — Smooth Criminal, developed by Michael Maggiacomo x’25 and Jackson Puent x’26 — was brewed at five-barrel scale at the Lake Louie brewery in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, and served in their Verona taproom.

“Participating in the fermentation lab in the CBE curriculum was a surreal experience,” Maggiacomo says. “I learned just how controlled the brewing process has to be, and just how much altering temperature and hops properties affects the taste and aroma of the final product.”

Published in the Fall 2025 issue