Manitoba student to study beer building blocks
Glacier FarmMedia – A Manitoba university student will be making her mark in beer research this year in one of the nations best known for the beverage.
Kendal Giesbrecht, a fourth-year honours student in chemistry at Brandon University, is one of 250 recipients of the RISE-GlobaLink internship, which brings undergraduates of biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, physics or earth science to Germany for a months-long research project in their field.
Selected from a pool of 2,500 applicants, the born-and raised Brandon resident will spend two months this summer at the Dresden University of Technology in Dresden. Her work there will focus on amino acid release during the brewing of beer.
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Giesbrecht largely applied in the hopes of gaining summer employment, as required under Brandon University’s co-op program.
“It’s a very competitive scholarship,” she said.
“I know that there are lots of applicants from Ivy League (schools) in the States, so I was pretty amazed and super excited that my accomplishments have led me here.”
To her knowledge, she’ll be the first from the western Manitoba university to receive the scholarship.
Bernadette Ardelli, vice-president of research and graduate studies with Brandon University, noted that “it’s incredibly exciting to see one of our students contributing to international research with potential real-world applications. Kendal’s success exemplifies the important role undergraduate researchers play in advancing scientific discovery.”
Giesbrecht won’t receive any training in the project until she’s in Germany, but she has a basic understanding of what they’re trying to accomplish. It’s intended to find out how two amino acids, methionine and selenomethionine — essential in humans for a number of bodily functions — behave in the beer brewing process.
“From that information on how they behave, you can look into the production of different food and beverage products, and you can improve food production to make sure you get more of those essential nutrients and have a better understanding of where they come out in the brewing process,” she said.
The research focuses on a mock brewing setup. Giesbrecht will take amino acid samples from all stages in the brewing operation, from milling to fermentation to filtration.
“(I will be) taking samples from different points to figure out where the amino acids are released from the grains and how much of them stay in the liquid versus how much are left in that spent grain in the solid waste.”
She also knows that she’ll get to work with some top technology during her stay, including an analytical technique called high performance liquid chromatography, which separates the different components in the beer.
“It’s kind of like sorting out puzzle pieces,” said Giesbrecht.
That will be coupled with mass spectrometry, which will enable her to accurately identify amino acids throughout the brewing process.
The aspiring scientist decided she wanted to become a chemist during her first high school chemistry course, but her fascination with the discipline goes back even further.
“When I was a kid, I used to love making little potions with different bath products and things like that and making the classic science fair volcano. I’ve just always kind of had a love of mixing things to see what happens, so it kind of seemed like the natural thing once I got to high school. ‘Oh, OK, I can actually have a career in this.’ And then going to university and starting my chemistry degree and getting that hands-on experience in the lab, I just absolutely knew this was where I belonged.”
Giesbrecht worked with Pfizer in Brandon last summer to fulfil her co-op work requirement. Before receiving the scholarship, she was invited back for a second summer.
“Kendal has been an outstanding student in the co-op program,” wrote Cora Dupuis, co-operative program co-ordinator with the university.
“Her curiosity, enthusiasm and professionalism have been evident from day one. We are so proud to see her take this next step in her academic and professional journey.”
Her stay in Germany won’t be all work, said Giesbrecht, adding her supervisor has been sending her travel recommendations.
“From my understanding, it’s going to be like 8 a.m. to 4 p.m, Monday to Friday with my weekends off, so I’ll be free to do some exploring and get to see some of the sites over in Europe.”
Going to Germany has been an ambition of Giesbrecht’s since she was a child.
“I always wanted to go and travel Germany. I remember sitting down with one of my cousins and planning our big backpacking Germany trip we were going to take one day because my dad’s side of the family descends from Germany.”
Source: producer.com