Fermenting creativity

Our Web Communications team visited OSU’s pilot brewery today to learn why our fermentation science and brewing program is arguably the best in the nation and unquestionably one of the top half-dozen in the world. Our team is charged with telling this story online, through images, narrative, video and multimedia.

The great thing about working at a university is that you have so many different places to look to find stories you’re excited about. It’s hard not to find enthusiasm where beer is involved. Especially if the top brewers and fermentation scientists in the country come through our program. Add to that OSU’s historic role in the development of Cascade Hops, which provide the signature flavor of the craft brewing movement that continues to revolutionize the industry and has moved consumer preferences beyond cheap, mass produced lager beers.

Food science professor Tom Shellhammer heads the program, and he can count off OSU’s industry leadership with a level of enthusiasm that matches a Web Comm staffer’s eagerness to sample the lineup of student-crafted beers. Those beers, by the way, would hold up well against and even surpass many commercial brewpubs. At least those brewpubs that don’t have an OSU alum at the helm.

Now we have the task of somehow creating online experiences that capture this program and make it exciting for an external audience. Sometime it’s even more challenging to do with a top program like this one. Check back with us in July, when we hope to have the results of our efforts on display for the World Brewing Congress, which takes place this year in Portland, in the heart of the region that revolutionized how American beer is made.