Brew U: on-campus beer labs

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Louisiana State University (LSU) may soon be referred to as "Brew U" with students showing their collegiate spirit by beer-bonging with their very own "Fightin Tiger" microbrew. LSU could join the league of university brewhauses, including five South African academic institutions.

Michael Martin, the chancellor at LSU has proposed building a microbrewery on campus (all in the name of science and research of course) according to bloggers (Slashfood, HuffingtonPost, RockMNation, LSU's TigerDroppings) and LSU students and alumni tweeting. The brewery would be a study tool for food scientists in training and future brewers.

Apparently the LSU Alumni Association is in agreement, Charlie Roberts, president and CEO, said, "At some schools around the country, they have mini breweries on campus."

Both Martin and Roberts believe the beer will generate serious dollars to fund the university - most probably considering LSU is a high-ranking party institution filled with sports fans.

"I'm not even familiar with the different types, light and dark but we'd make a purple-and-gold beer," said Roberts, who did not get an official beer diploma while at LSU.

LSU students and the like are ready to help Roberts find a more creative name for the new brew, here are some examples:

- Joe Dean's String Music Lager
- Bobby Hebert's Tears
- Final Four Fail Ale
- Hot Rod Ale
- Anything in a can headed for the side of your head 
- Jacob Hester Pale Running Back Ale
- Les Miles Blackout Drunk 2-Minute Drill Malt Liquor
- Ryan Perrilloux's Black and Ban
- Corn Dog Draught
- The NCAA Violation Mead-iator
- BIG-CAT XTRA STOUT
- Les Miles' Pale Fail
- Dogfish Head Burton Baton Rouge

The plans are in their infancy and there will be a number of issues to address, however, other schools do have Biergartens on campus like University of Wisconsin. In South Africa, there are five universities (University of Cape Town, University of the Witwatersrand, Stellenbosch University, University of Pretoria, and North West University) with microbreweries that compete with one another.

Many wildly popular microbreweries in the US call college towns home. Treehugger, a green website, has compiled a list of great green college-town brews, here are a few in the US:

- Otter Creek Brewing Co. in Middlebury, Vermont; Middlebury University
- Bison Brewing Co., Berkeley, California; University of California at Berkeley
- New Belgium Brewing Co., Fort Collins, Colorado; Colorado State University
- Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, California; California State University, Chico
- Roots Organic Brewery, Portland, Oregon; Reed College
- Squatters Pub and Brewery, Salt Lake City, Utah; University of Utah

More brew name suggestions can be found at http://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/messagetopic.asp?p=18595001 and @lsubeer