This middle schooler chose brewing beer for her science project.
The other sixth-graders chose projects about brain function
or the difference between goat's milk and cow's milk for the class' High
Interest Scientific Study assignment.
Lyn Sepersky wanted to research the science of brewing beer
— because it's Wisconsin
"And I had gone on brewery tours before," said
Lyn, a student at D.C. Everest Middle School
in Schofield, near Wausau
Of the project's required components, the one that
interested Lyn the most was interviewing a live resource.
Enter Andrew Gierczak, co-founder and head of brewery
operations of MobCraft Brewing in Milwaukee
Matt Sepersky, Lyn's father, is a beer fan who had heard
Gierczak speak about beer science and quality control. He asked if Gierczak
could spend some time explaining the brewing process to an 11-year-old (Lyn has
since turned 12).
"My response was 'Oh, hell yes,' " Gierczak said,
then apologized to Lyn for his language. "I love to educate on how much
goes into the process and getting people interested in food science."
The self-possessed preteen had been on plenty of brewery
tours with her family, which includes two sisters, most recently at Central
Waters in Amherst
"I studied to be knowledgeable on the subject,"
she said, which translated to pages of questions to which she wanted answers.
For an hour and a half, she interrogated Gierczak about how
brewing worked. They talked about barley. They talked about flavors and
reactions in the process. They discussed yeast, hops, malt and the chemical
analysis of beer as molecular biology.
"I learned that brewing was mostly about biology and
not chemistry," Lyn said. "Mind blown."
Despite their time together, it wasn't until they met again,
this time for a reporter, that Gierczak and Lyn bonded over personal
similarities.
Gierczak was only slightly older than Lyn when he started
making kombucha, his gateway to fermentation studies. Each revealed they were a
twin. Lyn's sister, Ava, is her fraternal twin. Gierczak has an identical one.
The brewing project wasn't a hard sell in class — although
Lyn was prepared to defend it as the perfect way to learn more about Wisconsin
"She was pretty excited. No one had ever done
this," Lyn said. Lyn turned in a book she created about brewing and
demonstrated the process in front of the class using barley, an illustration of
a hop that she drew and two clear water bottles to simulate brewhouse tanks.
She used sugar as a stand-in for yeast.
"I basically went through the process and added and
removed ingredients as necessary," Lyn said. "I felt it was pretty
educational. I was the first to do this project, and it was fun to actually
learn more about a subject I thought I knew about."
Lyn is the kind of student that the Pink Boots Society, a
national group created to assist, inspire and encourage women beer industry
professionals, hopes will continue in the field.
"The fact that she even knew about the fermentation
sciences and did not feel it was taboo or an all-boys field and that it was a
field of study she could be a part of is everything that the Pink Boots Society
and I have been working toward — a normalization of fermentation sciences for
young women and girls," said Jamie M. Baertsch, head brewer at Moosejaw
Pizza and Dells Brewing Co. in Wisconsin Dells.
Becoming a brewer has long been on Lyn's short list of
career choices, behind author but ahead of lawyer and orthodontist. Until now.
" 'Brewer' is pretty high on the list now," she
said.
by Kathy Flanigan, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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