Kyla Dewey had 4,500 reasons to smile after her Helles lager “Second Breakfast” came out on top at Project Brew, August 16.
The beer, named for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring movie, was one of 13 beers on tap at the on-campus beer festival.
Dubbed “Augtoberfest,” the Bavarian-themed event is where final term students in the Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management Program showcased their capstone projects. They’re responsible for organizing the entire event, too, from marketing and social media, to licensing, layout and design for the event. The favourite beer at the festival was awarded a $4,500 scholarship from Lallemand Brewing.
“I’m still in awe that I won,” Dewey said. “It hasn’t quite hit me yet, and at this point I’m not sure that it will. There were so many fantastic beers in the competition that it could have been any one of us. It definitely feels amazing and I’m really excited that my beer was so well received.”
Dewey and three other students in the program travelled to Germany in the spring as part of a Be World Ready trip. Both her beer and the event’s theme were inspired from trip.
“There was a school trip to Germany in April of this year,” Dewey said. “We had a great time traveling around and learning about the culture and history. We tried a lot of Helles beer, and they were fantastic.”
“Second Breakfast” has an aroma that’s reminiscent of cornflakes cereal. The Helles lager has good carbonation and leans slightly more toward the hop flavour than the traditional malt forward flavour, Dewey explained.
Although having her beer selected as the people’s choice was exciting, Dewey said the best part of Project Brew was “creating a fun, final event to spend with my classmates, friends and family celebrating our hard work.
“We really came together as a team and threw off a great event,” she said. “I’m so proud of all the delicious beers everyone made and I’m excited to see where each of them ends up after the program.”
Brewmaster student and Project Brew Augtoberfest chair Marye-Anne Chisholm said she was happy to see the event come together so well.
Chisholm was also on the Be World Ready trip in April and said a small beer festival there, Fruhlingsfest, sparked the idea to do something similar for Project Brew.
Long-standing supporters of Niagara College, Keith and Sharon Segal (centre), were among the guests at Project Brew, along with NC President Sean Kennedy and his wife Kerry.
“(It) was a scaled-down version of Oktoberfest and we wanted to try and bring that back to life,” she said, noting that the festival was made even better by students–and some guests–dressing in outfits befitting of such an event.
“The decor and the food tied it all together.”
Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management professor Jon Downing said he sees beers every year that are incredibly creative, technically challenging, or extremely well made to style classics.
“This semester was a perfect example of this, and you can tell they were influenced by a Be World Ready trip to Germany in the spring,” he said, noting that aside from Dewey’s Munich Helles, Jenny Lukasiewicz’s Berliner Weisse, Gian Raina Armas’ style blending Brown Rye IPA and Marc Baggetta’s dry hopped IPA with mango all had a German flair.
“Every semester it is exciting to see what the individual students think of for their brews for Project Brew,” Downing said.
Lallemand Brewing Technical Sales Manager Kevin Somerville said the company’s involvement with Project Brew is important because it aligns with Lallemand’s commitment to fostering innovation and supporting education.
“By collaborating with a student-run beer festival like Project Brew, we not only celebrate the accomplishments of the graduating class from Niagara College, but also contribute to the future of the brewing community,” Somerville said.
“Supporting Project Brew allows us to directly engage with the next generation of brewers, enabling them to showcase their creativity, skills, and dedication to their craft.”
In addition to the $4,500 scholarship grand prize, Lallemand also supports the Teaching Brewery with donations of brewing yeast throughout the year, and by hosting guest lectures for the brewing program on a regular basis.
Hundreds of tickets to Augtoberfest were sold. The event attracted several notable guests, including long-standing supporters and friends of Niagara College Keith and Sharon Segal who donated more than $1 million in 2019 to support the development of, and equipment and furnishings for, NC’s International Centre located at the Niagara-on-the-Lake campus.
All proceeds from Project Brew benefit the Matt Soos Memorial Scholarship, in memory of Matt Soos, who graduated from NC’s Brewmaster program in 2015. The scholarship is awarded annually to a student winner of Project Brew.
