An American Student's Beer Dream

Having entered Tatung University only last September, Barham has become a mentee of Department of Bioengineering professor Duan Kow-jen, hailed as the "Professor of Beer." Barham recalls how he became interested in brewing some years ago.

One day, aged 28, he asked himself, "What am I able to actually create?" Sipping beer while pondering this question, Barham, who considers himself an environmentalist, noticed what his creation had been: "In my garage was a preponderance of beer bottles."

So Barham decided to do what he could to reduce the amount of garbage he created: "I chose to make my own beer, be self-reliant on at least one thing I consume somewhat regularly."

For his first brewing attempt, Barham followed simple directions and was quite satisfied with the result. He was pleased to reuse glass beer bottles instead of bothering with recycling again.

Barham demonstrates how to brew beer: (left) put one kilogram of malt and five liters of water in a pot. By maintaining it at 75oC in an induction cooker, the greatest level of glycation can be achieved. (center) When extracting the mash, the husks of the malt settle at the bottom of the container, forming a natural filter layer. Who doesn't love homebrewed beer? Barham's expression says it all.

Barham graduated from Utah State University eight years ago in history and regional studies. Interested in Eastern culture, he first went to Japan, Korea and mainland China to search for topics to research, but two and a half years ago he came to Taiwan to study Chinese and gain a fresh perspective. Though greatly touched by the warmth and hospitality of the people of Taiwan, he wasn't quite able to assimilate into Taiwan's beer culture: "It seems that many people in Taiwan have the notion of beer being 'drink quickly/drink a lot,' if you are going to go out for beer. Flavor is not much of an issue; for many Taiwanese, beer has just one flavor, 'beer flavor,' which is the flavor mandated by the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation."

He also found that people associate beer with the working class, cheap fish fry restaurants, drunkards, "and rather noisy men, not women, drinking without moderation."

Barham interviewed wine makers and brewers around Taiwan soon after arriving here, including the makers of Hungluh Chiew, born of the pure mountain waters of Yilan, of Shaohsing Chiew, from the eminent Puli Brewery, and of robust millet wines homegrown and homebrewed in Aboriginal villages.

While discussing the particulars of beer and wine making, Barham befriended many who care about beer quality and wish to know the history behind it. Barham reaffirmed his brewing philosophy: "The beer of each place should reflect its crops, culture and growing conditions, and its production should benefit farmers." This was why he left his former path to study brewing.

Barham demonstrates how to brew beer: (left) put one kilogram of malt and five liters of water in a pot. By maintaining it at 75oC in an induction cooker, the greatest level of glycation can be achieved. (center) When extracting the mash, the husks of the malt settle at the bottom of the container, forming a natural filter layer. Who doesn't love homebrewed beer? Barham's expression says it all.

"I'm not pursuing further studies just to learn advanced brewing techniques," he explains. Barham would like to try using millet and sorghum grown in Taiwan as principal beer ingredients, in place of barley and wheat, which need to be imported, thus breaking free from traditional constraints and creating something new, not for novelty's sake, but to help Taiwan's farmers.

"I define 'beer' as an alcoholic beverage that's fermented with the starches and enzymes stored within the grain," explains Barham. Many of the world's tropical regions, such as Africa, use traditional brewing methods on sorghum-maize mixtures. Germany produces ale because barley is grown there, plus it is better for malt glycation than other types of grain and barley mash is easier to filter because the husks serve as natural filtering material. But Belgium, with an equally long-standing beer culture, has followed its own path by adding other raw ingredients such as fruit and spices. "So clearly, beer follows local growing conditions," says Barham.

"By drinking local beer, you can return to the simple pleasures of life." This is Barham's beer dream. He believes that when consumers better understand where the flavors of a beer come from, such as what kind of grains grow in what kinds of soil (organic farming being best), the mineral content of the water used in brewing, the strain of yeast, and so forth, "they will better appreciate the beer they're drinking."

So far he has found a way to filter mash made from sorghum sprouts, and has successfully brewed a half-sorghum, half-malt beer. Next he'll try something more challenging and possibly unprecedented: millet beer. He's also looking into greener ways to store beer.

"Cheers!" to Taiwan's new beers!

American student Nathan Barham (right) is grateful for the guidance of Tatung University professor Duan Kow-jen (left), whose fully equipped lab allows Barham to gain a first-class education. Duan adds, "Americans will definitely finish off beer they brew themselves."