Image Source: www.redoakbrewery.com
Thousands of people see it on their commute everyday – a square building in a small field next to I-40 between Greensboro and Burlington. The building side that faces the highway is made of glass, giving viewers a sample of its contents – several mysterious tall steel vats, miles of metal piping, control stations – all with carefully placed lighting that evokes the feeling of an art exhibition. Above the glass in bright red letters, a caption reads “Red Oak Brewery” and indeed a combination of art and advanced biotechnology is taking place.
Last night, we altered our meeting format a bit and gave Triad Biotech Alliance members the opportunity to personally meet Red Oak’s amazing Brewmaster, Chris Buckley, while taking a tour of the advanced biotechnology that goes into making our region’s own “Red Oak” beverages. Chris, who lived, worked and formally trained as a Brewmaster in Bavaria adheres to Reinheitsgebot (a.k.a. “The Bavarian Beer Purity Law of 1516“). As a result, Red Oak Brewery produces a regionally unique beer that is available across North Carolina and is typically less than two weeks old when enjoyed. As Triad Biotech members learned, this distribution is really because of the way that Red Oak produces beer – as an unfiltered and unpasteurized beverage. Wearing the hat of a life scientist, pasteurization is typically regarded as one of the outstanding scientific milestone in civilization. Providential images of steam baths, canning foundries and happy children drinking milk at the breakfast table come to mind – but the practice really owes itself to extending the shelf-life of beer and wine – a characteristic that isn’t the goal among quality craft brewers focused on taste. In fact, several advances and even some could say – the origin of biotechnology… begins with brewing beer.
Red Oak Brewery Brewmaster Chris Buckley describes the Brewing Process to Triad Biotech Alliance Members
For example, Louis Pasteur was awarded patents in 1873 for “Improvement in Brewing Beer and Ale”, but his work in fermentation really helped to validate a concept that we often take for granted today - ” The Germ Theory of Disease”. Right now, thousands of introductory organic chemistry students are comparing their left and right hands in an attempt to learn about molecular chirality, but they may not have realized that the concept began with the Pasteur’s commission for an approach to remove sediment (i.e. crystallization) from stored wine. Here is a neat little exercise – first imagine the scent of an orange…. now imagine the scent of a lemon – can you tell a difference ? That difference (which your amazing nose can detect) represents chirality or “enantiomers” of the molecule limonene. I am sure you have never realized that you had the equivalent of an enantiomer-selective liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method on your face. Other biotechnological advances related to brewing beer include: the pH Scale, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Yeast) biology – which in turn is incredibly essential to the understanding of cell cycle regulation, not to mention countless innovations related to filtration, controlled heating and standardizations essential to the brewing process that are carried over to the pharmaceutical industry.
A Tour of the Bottling Room
Chris provided a wonderfully detailed explanation of Red Oak’s methods, highlighting unique efficiencies such as grain re-use for cattle (very happy cattle I presume) and water conservation practices that enable Red Oak to use ~94 % less water (tank cleaning etc.) than that of conventional methods. It was also surprising to find out that North Carolina has laws in place which prevent Red Oak from expanding self-distribution over certain limits.
Great Pizza Thanks to Our Sponsors
The evening concluded with tastings and great networking among 30 individuals representing interests and companies from across the state. Also, we had pizza from CIAO Pizza Italian Restaurant in Whitsett, N.C. thanks to the graciousness of Triad Biotech Alliance’s Annual Sponsors : The North Carolina Biotechnology Center, Merz Pharmaceuticals and Graham Personnel Services.
For More Information about Red Oak Brewery – check out their Website and if you didn’t get a chance to come out to our event be sure to visit this site often with calendar updates as we arrange for meetings at local venues with biotechnology enthusiasts.
To Volunteer with Us, or to find out more about how Your Business can sponsor local Triad Biotech Alliance gatherings in many ways – please email us.
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Michael Blanks, Ph.D. is Co-Chair and Founding Member of Triad Biotech Alliance. You can email him directly at: info at triadbiotechalliance dot org or visit his other “homebrew” website at www.michaelblanks.com.
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