Engineering the perfect brew

In early 2014, Tom Korder (BSME ’05) joined the long list of entrepreneurs among MechSE alumni when he opened Penrose Brewing Company in Geneva, Illinois.

As might be expected of a brewery owner/operator, Korder had not taken a typical career path after graduation. Not only did he eschew the pursuit of more prototypical mechanical engineering jobs to learn to brew beer professionally, but he started at the industry’s giant corporation.

"I went in a different direction than most people," Korder said. "Most people start home brewing and really get into it; I started professionally at the largest brewer in the world, Anheuser-Busch, and worked for them as a manager."

He had discovered this opportunity through a career fair and took his first position with very little knowledge of brewing. He gained it quickly.

"I learned all about beer and I got a very scientific look at how to make consistent beer, time after time," Korder said. "From there, I went to one of their bigger breweries in Georgia, and I decided it was getting a little too big and ‘factory’ for me. I wanted to go to a craft brewer and really make my mark."

Soon he joined Goose Island in Chicago, bringing him closer to home—Urbana—and to the type of work in which he felt the strongest passion—finely crafted beer. He served as brewery manager and handled schedules, projects, installations within circuits, and beer oversight. He managed brewers, helped ideas for recipes become reality, and ensured that ideas for new beers coincided with the Goose Island brand.

But Korder found that while he was partaking in creating new beers, he was limited in terms of the style and flavor of beverages he could produce.

"If the sales department doesn’t think it can sell, it doesn’t hit the market," Korder said. "If it doesn’t fit with a certain brand family that’s not very marketing-driven, it gets detached."

Starting a new brewery on his own was a recurring thought, but the missing ingredient was the ability to establish a strong sales network for distribution of the product. Fortunately, he had come to know Goose Island sales representative Eric Hobbs, who had similar entrepreneurial ideas.

Having such a strong team—proven production and sales from Goose Island—undoubtedly went a long way toward securing their financial backing. After several months of dedicated business planning, investors came on board. Korder and Hobbs left Goose Island in early 2013, spent the rest of the year assembling their substantial brewing operation in Geneva, and bottled the first Penrose Brewing Company products in early 2014.

"We hit the ground running," Korder said. "We wanted to be a decent size brewery. We planned a little bit bigger, which took a little bit longer to build up to, but that’s the end game—we want people to be able to buy our beer."

The company’s first two offerings were named Proto Gradus (a Belgian-inspired single ale) and P-2 (a Belgian-inspired pale ale). After those were well received by distributors, Penrose followed up with four more: Devoir (a saison ale), Desirous (a white IPA), Navette (a Belgian-inspired black ale), and Fractal (a Belgian IPA).

Now, counting limited releases and seasonals along with their standard offerings, the company has already created more than 50 beers. The selections range from stouts to flavorful options such as blackberry saison and honey ale.

"We use a lot of different yeaststrains to produce fruity characters, or spicy aromas, or acidity," Korder said. "We think it’s important to pack a lot of character into all of our beer."

Most of the Penrose brews are set apart competitively by containing only four to six percent alcohol by volume.

"Everyone in this world is going bigger, bigger, bigger," Korder said about the alcohol content in current craft beer offerings. "Sometimes you see a tap list that doesn’t have anything under seven percent. We focus a lot on lower-alcohol beers."

Penrose Brewing Company products can be found in all eight counties in Chicagoland, Korder said. Large retail outlets like Binny’s Beverage Depot stores will soon carry several of Penrose’s beverages. And many of Chicago’s most popular bars, including The Bad Apple in North Center and Hopleaf in Uptown, already have some of the brewery’s selections on tap.

Korder is riding the wave of momentum that began when he and Hobbs first brainstormed the idea of

striking out on their own. When he was an undergrad in MechSE, he had no idea that he would end up running a brewery, as it’s not a typical path for a mechanical engineer. But he said the education he received here has been valuable each step along the way.

"It all comes down to learning how to figure things out—process solving," Korder said. "I didn’t learn anything about brewing beer in mechanical engineering, but mechanical engineering taught me to be able to learn about the brewing, to learn about the process, to learn and always move forward.

"Brewing is a very scientific field. When you get down to it, it’s biology, it’s chemistry, it’s yeast metabolism. I think that’s really what mechanical engineering prepared me for."

The most beautiful brewery and taproom on our crawl is located on a nondescript street just outside of downtown Geneva. The new facility is already making waves on the Chicago beer scene for its saison-centric lineup, which is served in the bright taproom. Named after the geometric tile pattern, a tribute to both art and science, the taproom shows off the brewery’s eye for design with white walls painted with black and red diagrams of the brewing process. Again, flights are the best option here, served in custom wood and metal pipe carriers. Each flight consists of four beers, ranging from the flagship P-2 and Proto Gratus to limitedrelease Belgian IPA and dry-hopped saison. For the best seat, belly up to the 12-seat bar with a glass window that offers a peek into the brewhouse.  DRINK THIS: Devoir, Belgian-inspired saison. INSIDER TIP: Keep an eye out for the new Day Beer series of beers brewed with different yeast strains that are only served in the taproom.