Student brews personalized beer
Forgotten art of brewing appeals to health conscious
By U- WIRE
U-WIRE SERVICE
September 27, 2005
(Bowling Green)
By Megan Wright
Some people stereotype college students as beer-guzzling drunkards, an image egged on by movies like “Animal House” and “American Pie.”
Business administration senior Joseph Webb doesn’t drink gallons of beer night after night like the stereotype implies. He brews his own beer and wine.
“It’s fun, it’s interesting,” he said. “It’s kind of a ‘forgotten art’ type of thing.”
In high school, an indifferent Webb attended a wine tasting party with his mother and stepfather.
“I was 16 or 17 at the time, so alcohol surprisingly had no interest to me whatsoever,” he said. “It wasn’t until I was about 20 that I decided alcohol was cool, and I wanted to make it.”
When he was a biochemistry major, Webb worked at Warren Laboratories in Abbott, Texas, and his boss challenged him to make healthier beer and wine.
So Webb went to his parents’ house in New Mexico to learn how to make wine from his stepfather, who has made award-winning wine for 22 years.
Webb’s mother, Laurye Tanner, said the three made five flavored wines: Peach, strawberry, bing cherry, merlot and a mead, which is honey-flavored. She said they used aloe vera from Warren Laboratories instead of water to make each batch.
When he got back to work, Webb said he succeeded in making a wholesome beer and wine by using only healthy ingredients, such as the aloe vera. Since the aloe vera absorbs more nutrients, he said it keeps the drinker from becoming dehydrated.
“This beer and wine will not give you a hangover,” he said. “You’d wake up the next morning fine, but you’d get drunk all the same.”
Since making wine is a long process not completed in one weekend, Webb had to return from Arlington, Texas, to his parents’ home two more times to complete the process. Tanner said they bottled the wine in an estimated 125 bottles on Webb’s last visit.
After they made the alcohol, county laws prohibited its sale in the laboratories.
“We had two options — throw it away or drink it,” Webb said. “My boss sent it home with me to give to my frat brothers.”
His Kappa Alpha Order fraternity brothers, like Jason Nadeau, appreciated the gift. Nadeau, an accounting junior, said he likes Webb’s beers and wines better than those from bars.
“I’ve never got wasted off anything I’ve made,” he said. “That’d be like asking a culinary student if it’s just about getting fat.”
