Procrastination paid off for brewmaster student Alex Moruzi, this year’s winner of the Matt Soos Memorial Scholarship.
With just a week to go before the deadline to choose her year-end project—which would double as her entry into this year’s Project Brew competition—Moruzi turned to popular online community Reddit for inspiration.
“It was about a week out and I still had no idea what I wanted to do,” Moruzi said. “I looked on Reddit to see what people were doing with home brews.”
It was then that the Brantford, Ontario native decided to make something she’d never even tasted before: a spicy beer.
Not only did that one decision allow her to try her hand at creating a specialty beer she had no prior knowledge about, it also put her on the path to winning Project Brew and the $4,500 scholarship that accompanies it.
Moruzi’s Dragon’s Breath won the judges over with her “confident use of a tricky ingredient,” said brewmaster support liaison Victor North. “She skillfully used habaneros in a way that allowed for the pepper’s flavour and aroma to be showcased along with the base beer character.”
North was one of four judges who were charged with the responsibility of sampling 20 student-created beers and choosing the top three.
After an hour and a half of deliberations, the panel awarded Moruzi’s golden ale—featuring peaches and habaneros—the prize. Second and third place went to Ricardo Melo’s Drink by the Sea and Rachel Donnelly’s Orange Dreamsicle, respectively.
“It was a really fun experience,” Moruzi said of the competition, themed Brew Orleans. “We all just wanted each other to do well.”
Matt Soos Memorial Scholarship
Project Brew is a student-run beer festival showcasing the graduation projects of the college’s Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management program. The winner is awarded the Matt Soos Memorial Scholarship, a scholarship created in memory of brewmaster program graduate Matt Soos, who passed away in 2015.
Matt’s father Peter, and Dan Soos, Matt’s older brother, also served as judges at the April 9 contest, along with lead brewer Brad Barta.
The Soos family’s craft brewery, the Natterjack Brewing Company, sponsors one of three Project Brew contests each year. The brewery was founded in 2016 to honour Matt’s passion for creating simple and unique beers. It was named after his Natterjack Toad beer.
Dan Soos said what he enjoys most about being involved with Project Brew is having the opportunity to try so many unique and well-crafted beers.
“They’re all unique in their own way, because it’s a beer you’ve never had anywhere else before,” he said. “I know you can go to a craft brewery and try beers, and they may be new, but these are all beers that are top quality. They’re also made and designed by someone who’s not yet a professional, which makes it very, very unique.”
He said judging has to be done by consensus because it’s almost impossible to pick just one winner.
“In the end, everyone deserves first place, but somebody has to win. On Natterjack’s end—because Matt was big into unique flavoured beers—we try to look for something that’s unique, rather than [being made] by the book.”
Soos said Moruzi’s spicy beer was definitely unique.
“The combination [of peach and habaneros] was phenomenal,” he said, adding: It’s really interesting to see how the students progress through the program and you get to see the uniqueness come out. Everybody makes a pale ale, but not everyone makes a habanero beer.”
From start to finish, Moruzi said it took about a month for her Kolsch lagered ale to be ready.
“It took one day to go from raw to the fermenter,” she said. “About a week later I added the peach puree.”
She said she originally wanted to add the habaneros the following Friday, but because she didn’t know what affect the peppers would have, she held off until the next week when she could check the brew every day. The spicy ingredient also forced her to make a few modifications.
“A typical Kolsch will use 100 percent pilsner malt, but you can swap about 5 percent,” she said. “Because of the habaneros it needed more body, so it actually has 20 percent Munich [malt]. But the competition is more about brewing good beer than brewing it to style, so I wasn’t too concerned about that.”
North noted it’s the most successful beer that ultimately wins Project Brew.
“[It’s] not judged on a framework of stylistic fidelity, [so] the judges have to be broad in their considerations,” he said. “What was the student trying to do? Did they achieve that, and was it a successful concept? Did it come together? Is it delicious? Is it an exciting beer packed with bold flavours, or an expertly balanced and truly sessionable beer? Is it a spot-on masterful example of a classic, or a creative swing for the fences?”
Project Brew follows Target Brew, an exercise in which brewmaster students must brew a classic beer to style. North said it’s a way to test style fundamentals: Students must choose an established beer style from the Beer Judge Certification Program Style Guidelines and select a hop variety to use from Niagara College’s own hops. They’re then free to use any ingredients in regular stock at the teaching brewery. “This is in contrast to Project Brew, where they can bring in specialty ingredients,” North added. “Target Brew is a stock beer challenge. [The goal is to] make the best beer possible with stock ingredients and in an established style framework. So, if Target Brew is a stock car cup, then Project Brew is a Formula 1 race.”
