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Inside Iowa State
Gold bar
February 13, 2004

Research shorts

For what ales you
Rob Wallace is combining a love of plants with a love of beer.

"Beer is completely a botanical product -- from the barley and hops, to the yeast used in its production," he said.

But once Wallace started looking at that aspect of beer production, he found printed references that explain the ingredients and process from the "plant" perspective extremely lacking.

So Wallace, associate professor of ecology, evolution and organismal biology, is writing a book, tentatively called The Botany of Beer, which he says will be educational and useful to a range of people. It will explain the diversity and complexity of the beverage.

In his research, Wallace has ridden on the combines of hop and barley farmers, visited breweries around the globe and discussed techniques with brewmasters. He attended the hops harvest in the Pacific Northwest three times.

"I'll put all this information together to teach about plants and plant products that are used in brewing operations."





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