A field trip took biology students to a working lab, but it might look different than you expect

The terms “microbiology” and “immunology” may bring to mind images of a laboratory. Glass beakers, microscopes, and white lab coats are classic symbols of the discipline, but what about beer taps, hops, and kegs? This past semester, students in the college’s microbiology and immunology course (BIO 311) discovered that the latter is more relevant to their field of study than they may have thought.

In October, the class, led by Program Coordinator for Biology Meredith Bostrom and Lab Coordinator Betsy Walker, took a trip down the road from campus to a working microbiology lab, but not one featuring beakers and blood samples. They visited Kettell Beerworks, a local brewery that makes beer in-house.

“Beer, wine, all those things are made through the process of fermentation. You take yeast, which is a microorganism, and they use it to ferment the grain that they mix in. It’s all a microbiological process, so that’s how it ties in. It’s all straight science,” Walker said.

BIO 311 focuses primarily on the study of bacteria, one of the key elements necessary to create fermentation. At Kettell, the class got an inside look into the process behind brewing beer and wine and saw one of the real-world applications of the skills they had been learning throughout the semester.

Senior biology major and psychology minor Avery Walston was one of the students who participated in the trip. While she is planning to apply to medical school following graduation, she said it is also important for her to understand the variety of professional applications associated with her degree.

“It was cool to see what we learned about in microbiology actually be carried out in real time and see the business applications of it. It’s not one of the main things you think about with a degree in biology or microbiology, so it was a different career path that we were exposed to that was really interesting,” Walston said. “I had lab experience as an intern over the last few summers, and this field trip proved that the lab setting goes beyond educational institutions. That was a big takeaway for me. There are so many more applications than just your regular research.”

Helping students gain a better understanding of the career paths available to them was one of Walker’s primary goals in organizing the trip. She said the skills her students are learning in the classroom extend beyond beer and wine production, and that microbiology has strong relevance throughout the field of food science, including in the production of cheese, yogurt, kombucha, and more.

“There is so much under microbiology. The one little part we’re looking at is growing bacteria, but it’s so much wider open than that,” Walker said. “It’s so broad that a career in microbiology can look like whatever you want it to look like. It’s just a matter of trying to get something to stick. Whether they drink beer and wine or not is immaterial. They can still think about that and how in the real world these organisms make a difference, whether it’s through prepping food or through antibiotics.”