Internship at Borderlands Brewing Company
As part of the requirements for the degree in the Professional Science Master's in Applied Biosciences, students are required to complete 8 units of internship units. Elan Snitkin from the Industrial Microbial Biotechnology track chose to do the first part of his internship at the Borderlands Brewing Company supervised by Michael Mallozzi, co-founder of this business unit. Elan did his internship here from December 17, 2017 to May 01, 2018.
The 2nd part on his internship was at the Southwest Center for Natural Products: "Modification of 11-Hydroxycurvularins and 10,11-Dehydrocurvularin by Transgenic Yeast Producing Recombinant Enzymes."
Summary of Borderlands Brewing Company Internship:
Beer is one of the oldest and most consumed fermented beverages. At Borderlands Brewery I learned much about the processes involved in beer production, including learning how beer was brewed, inoculated, fermented, filtered, and finished before packaging. My involvement with Borderlands Brewery included setting up a quality control laboratory; designing standard operating procedures for the detection and enumeration of bacteria in beer and assessing the viability of harvested yeast, training of personnel in these procedures, investigating sour beer with acid titration, and regular monitoring LAB numbers in fermentations. In addition, I conducted a two-factor factorial experiment to explore the potential of aging beer in barrels with a secondary yeast inoculation in conjunction with a business class on statistical process control.
In the food and beverage industry the presence of unwanted microorganisms can pose problems for the manufacturer and the consumer. While in many fermented foods these are necessary to develop their distinctive sensory components, in others they cause deviation from the expected flavor or texture of the product. Some examples where LAB are essential for the production of the food product include: yoghurt, dry fermented sausage, sauerkraut, sour beers, and prosciutto. However, most beer styles deviate from their expected flavor and mouthfeel when LAB are present. Thus, it is important for microbiologists within the food and beverage industry to monitor and control contamination by unwanted organisms. This is a growing field because craft brewing and local food movements which focus on high-quality products become more popular. As this trend grows, so do the companies involved, and they will increasingly turn to new quality control technologies to improve the consistent quality their customers prefer.
I had a lot of fun learning about beer production and industrial / business processes such as: sanitation, propagation of microorganisms for fermentation, marketing, sensory evaluation (drinking for science), and product development. I strongly encourage ABS students, especially those in the Industrial Microbial Biotechnology track, to consider an internship with a brewery such as Borderlands.
Elan Snitkin just recently defended his Master's Report on his internship, he is now a graduate of the Professional Science Master's in Applied Biosciences, Industrial Microbial Biotechnolgy track.
In case any Applied Biosciences is interested in doing another internship at the Borderlands Brewing Company, please contact Ayla Kapahi, the head brewer at: ayla@borderlandsbrewing.com(link sends e-mail)
Photo Credits: Ayla Kapahi and the Borderlands Brewing Company