Biology or Chemistry

[Kuykendall]

Long story short I'm signing up for courses at the local community college and was wondering which would be more beneficial to me brewing wise, biology or chemistry. The only reason I thought of biology is the eventual chance to take microbiology, although I might be able to take Micro after chem. I would love everybody's opinion.

 

[batfishdog37]

Honestly, I think both would be great. Chemistry would be my personal choice if I could only choose one though. I just had a bio class this past spring semester and it covered some brewing related things and some loosely related things like yeasts and plant functions, proteins/enzymes and their role in biology, cell metabolism, how cells use energy ect. Either way you can't go wrong I think. Good luck, hope it helped:rockin:

 

[Loweface]

My vote is chemistry. It should help with various calculations (concentration both of sugar solution and ABV etc) and some of the finer points of off flavour reactions...

Good luck

 

[menschmaschine]

Welcome to the forum. I wish I could chose, but both are equally beneficial. A Biology 101 and Chem 101 type course would do wonders for any brewer who hasn't had them. Microbiology is important for later, but in order to understand that, you have to first learn cell biology... which is typically covered in Biology 101.

Chemistry will help you understand water, minerals and many reactions that occur during brewing and fermentation. If you think about it, brewing is all about enzymes... from phytase to zymase. Ideally BioChem would open the door of understanding for these enzymatic reactions, but you need to get through all your basic bio and chem as pre-requisites for biochem.

 

[jwright]

Another vote for chemistry.
Biology 101 is important but you have a much better chance of picking that up on your own. A structured chemisty course wtih a good instructor would probably be more helpful. Must students have many, many many questions during chem 101, while biology is more of a read it and remember it sort of thing. You could always pick up somebody's used biology text for a few $$ and read the relevant chapters. Sure you'll have questions, but you can usually go back to the appropriate sections and find the answers.
Or do what most of the students seem now to do ........Wikki - "if its not on the 'net - it ain't true."
jason

 

[steelerguy]

I'd actually learn toward bio since the brew calculations are so elementary and I have not had to use mols or avogadros number or put something in stoichiometric balance. Basic bio will teach you a lot about simple cells such as yeast function.

Then again...I have BS in molecular and cellular bio so maybe I am a bit biased.

 

[menschmaschine]

I'd actually learn toward bio since the brew calculations are so elementary and I have not had to use mols or avogadros number or put something in stoichiometric balance. Basic bio will teach you a lot about simple cells such as yeast function.

Then again...I have BS in molecular and cellular bio so maybe I am a bit biased.

This is funny because the people with primarily a biology background are going to lean toward biology and those with primarily a chemistry background are going to lean towards chemistry. I have both (similar to pre-med) and so I lean towards both.

The basics are what's important. One has to be careful when self-teaching sciences. I have seen it lead to false assumptions. Example (non-brew related):

At work, siding was being removed from a leaking building. When the OSB sheathing was exposed it was full of unusual spider-web-looking biological growth. A "colleague" of mine who pretended to be a "scientist" with no formal science background confidently stated, "that's a lichen." I told her no, that's a fungus. She held that it was a lichen and I had no choice but to be "that guy". I told her a lichen is a symbiotic relationship between algae and fungi. The algae requires sunlight for photosynthesis. There was no sunlight under that siding and building paper, therefore it's a fungus. Without my biology background, I probably wouldn't have known that either.

My point is learn the basics... everything else is easier to learn from there and you reduce the chance of making incorrect assumptions. I think when it comes to brewing, biology and chemistry go hand in hand.

 

[pjj2ba]

I'd say they are both important, I might give a slight nudge to Chemistry (coming from a Biologist). As was mentioned before, the best would be a Biochem course, but you'll have to take both Biology and Chemistry first as prerequisites. I'd take Biochem, before Microbiology.

 

[FlyGuy]

I am a biologist by profession, and my vote goes to chemistry. There is a lot of chemistry and biochemistry in brewing science, but pure biology takes a backseat.

 

[RogerMcAllen]

Biology is the chemistry of living systems. The chem will give you a much better idea as to what is actually going on when you start learning about things like metabolic pathways in bio.

I'd suggest:
Chem -> Bio -> Biochem -> Microbio
If you can get a Food Chemistry class, definitely take that. Nothing better than applying chemistry to real world systems that you deal with every day.

And just for kicks:
xkcd - A Webcomic - Purity

 

[Reno_eNVy]

I'm finishing up my biology degree for just this reason. I've researched brew school at UC Davis and through the American Brewer's Guild... a biology degree will give you the important basis that they will look for if you apply

 

[mandoman]

i have a phd in biology and I vote for chemistry. You can learn biology from a textbook or online source.

 

[Edcculus]

Horticulture?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I vote Nuclear Science. Because at the end of the day everything is Atomic.

 

[FlyGuy]

I vote Nuclear Science. Because at the end of the day everything is Atomic.

Unless, of course, you are a physicist. :cross:

 

[david_the_greek]

biochem! lol. Organic Chemistry gets my vote, a basic bio and chem courses will cover all sorts of info, 99% of which has no relation to brewing. Though yeast (at least where I go to school) covers yeast and bacteria

 

[CHansen6]

Just a personal experience, but I find more chemistry professors, grad students, and people otherwise related to the department are homebrewers. Plus it's a superior science You can learn other cool hobbies, like firework manufacture too. Not that I'm a chemist and licensed firework manufacturer or anything.

 

[bob1852]

FWIW - I have a bio degree - took a few chem classes to get said bio degree; but I find that in my homebrewing I wish I had more of a chem background

 

[khiddy]

Horticulture?

As they say, you can lead a whore to culture...

 

[neuron555]

Another vote for chemistry. Although my BS is in Chemistry, I went on to medicine and do alot of physiology now. I think the chem background made it easier to understand all the biology that came after.

 

[PseudoChef]

I am a Biochemist and wholly agree with the Chemistry sentiments. If it is something you're truly interested in, hobby perspective or not, you will find that you will begin to study up on the biological aspects of things on your own. Just like any task, if you start with the basics like essential cellular processes, then you will find the more complex stuff coming just as easy later on down the road.

 

[MirImage]

I just graduated with a bio degree (emphasis and zoology though) and I'd say both would be useful so you probably cannot go wrong from the bio and chem classes I have taken. At my university they actually even brewed beer in advanced micro.

 

[Birchgrove77]

Graduated with BS in Biology (emphasis Micro.) and a minor in Chemistry. I agree with the aforementioned opinions, and I would probably lean more towards chemistry. A deep understanding of chemistry will give you great insight into everything from mash chemisty through yeast metabolism. A nice introductory microbiolgy course would be sufficient, unless you wanted to consider some genetic manipulaiton of yeast, but then you'd probably be considering other scientific career endeavors. Good job in signing up for the course and expanding your knowledge, you definitely won't regret it!

 

[blizzard]

Another (biased) +1 for chemistry. I have a BS in chemistry with a healthy dose of biology thrown in (basic bio, biochem, micro). A basic bio class will get you through cell structure and a few concepts that are pretty easy to understand with a few diagrams. I think you could self-teach the relevant bio basics related to brewing pretty easily. IMHO it might be easier to grasp the basics of chemistry with the help of a teacher, but you'll also learn a lot that doesn't immediately apply to homebrewing. I think you have to ask yourself how far you plan to go with this. In either case you might still be a long way from taking biochem and micro and understanding the details of enzymatic reactions. If that's where you are going then more power to you, just keep in mind it may be more of a commitment than a semester or two.

 

[beerkrump]

I vote Nuclear Science. Because at the end of the day everything is Atomic.

My BS is in Nuclear Chemistry, which makes everyone I went to high school with a little nervous, and I've a minor in biology.

I vote chemistry. Learning the fundamentals of pH, redux/oxidation reactions, physical properties of liquids, and some cursory biochem will help a lot in trouble shooting and understanding the reasons behind certain steps in recipes. Another experience that general chemistry will offer is the labs. I often equate brewing to a month long experiment.

 

[neuron555]

I feel I'm in good company with all these chemists. Either the study of chemistry makes homebrewing more appealing/interesting to us, or chemistry drives people to drink. I said before on one of these forums that homebrewing combines the best of drinking, gourmet cooking and chemistry lab. What could be better?