Success on tap for brewing student as he launches own beer

The event, on Thursday 1 December at Kaiser Brew Garden, was a culmination of the work that Ben Holmes has undertaken to perfect his craft as part of Lincoln’s new Graduate Diploma in Brewing and Fermentation.

The beer, called the Hazy Professor, is a New England-style IPA, "as unfiltered as your average academic, and a bit sweeter in contrast", Ben says.

"With citrus and grapefruit notes, it's a great accompaniment to any pondering philosophical debates, whilst not looking to cloud your judgement."

This is Ben’s fourth creation since he began his studies, having sold three separate trial beers at Lincoln’s café and bar, Mrs O’s, over the past several months. His first was also called the Hazy Professor, named after Ben's academic father.

The diploma is the first of its kind in the country and was introduced at the beginning of 2022 to equip students with valuable skills that lead them through the entire brewing or fermentation process, from science and technology practices to production and supply chain management.

They gain hands-on experience at Lincoln’s on-campus micro-brewery and receive an industry placement to develop their expertise further.

For Ben, that placement was at Kaiser Brothers Brewery in Hornby, and the operation’s central city brew garden was the logical place to launch the commercially viable product he was tasked with producing for the diploma at the end of semester 2.

Kaiser Brothers GM Sales & Operations, Chris Mulholland, said students of Lincoln’s diploma would be highly sought-after by the industry, due to the experience they gain during their studies.

We look for students who have gone through the prerequisite of brewing and fermentation and through Lincoln University, that endorses it for us and we’d snap them up in a heartbeat.