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Beginning this spring, University of Wisconsin students can combine their passion for beer with their love of learning in a course designed to teach them advanced brewing techniques.

The one-of-a-kind course, to be offered in next semester’s timetable, features beer taste-testing and allows students to study the science behind one of their favorite frothy beverages.

Jon Roll, a faculty associate in the bacteriology department who will teach the course in the spring, and Brandy Day, a UW senior majoring in microbiology, learned how to use the equipment in Milwaukee this summer. They are piloting the new course with two students this semester.

The fermentation and zymurgy class, aimed at juniors, will be offered for the first time on a large scale in the spring, but enrollment will be limited.

Prerequisites for the class include microbiology classes, biochemistry classes and one semester of organic chemistry. There is no age requirement for enrolling in the class, but students must be 21 or older to participate in the taste-testing portions.

Roll said students will plot yeast growth curves, learn how to properly pair foods with a variety of beers and taste test their creations. He added the course would focus on the entire study of fermentation, rather than just beer.

“We don’t want to lose sight of the forest through the trees,” Roll said.

MillerCoors has donated a $100,000 set of pilot-scale brewing equipment to the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences to train future fermentation experts and advance the science of biotechnology.

UW Chancellor Biddy Martin said the brewing equipment represents the “first step in what we hope will be an ongoing collaboration” with the company.

“It’s meant to benefit first and foremost our students and our future,” Martin said, adding it would also supply the industry with “a pipeline of well-educated, motivated graduates who can step right in and help the companies that they choose to work with. It’s a win-win.”

David Ryder, vice president of brewing and research at MillerCoors, described the partnership as a perfect marriage to train the Wisconsin workforce.

“MillerCoors is interested in hiring the best and the brightest for the future workforce, and it’s simply a fact that UW-Madison is the flagship research and educational institution in the state of Wisconsin,” Ryder said. “Why not combine the two in some way?”

CALS Dean Molly Jahn expressed excitement over the donation from MillerCoors and the course itself.

“We’re thrilled to celebrate the roles that fermentation plays and to create the scientists of the future that will lead us forward in a whole host of products and technologies that will be crucial for this state’s and our nation’s success,” Jahn said.

Martin said the course would also benefit the state of Wisconsin, where the brewing industry provides 63,000 jobs and creates an economic impact of $6.8 billion per year.