Students typically don’t use beer for educational purposes, but that could change soon.Chancellor Michael Martin said he is commissioning the development of a tentative business plan for a microbrewery to be housed at the Lod Cook Hotel on campus.John Finley, chair of the Food Science Department, said he has developed tentative formulations for potential beers to be produced at the brewery.”Initially we would make a traditional lager,” Finley said. “We would make a light beer because frankly a lot of women prefer light beer, and that is a very lucrative market. And then we would make some sort of a amber or dark beer, which will be purple.”The brewery could create a purple and gold beer similar to the black and tan, which uses Guinness and a traditional light lager on top, Finley said.Hypothetically the brewery would not only service customers at Lod Cook, but the brews could also be sold around the region.There are multiple legal hoops the brewery would have to clear to make the project possible, but it is viable, Finley said.He said the brewery has a substantial startup cost, and as an addition would have to be built on Lod Cook to house it, so a sponsor would be needed to provide the capital for the venture.Martin said the Mockler Beverage Company, a Anheuser Busch distributor, has signaled interest in a partnership for the brewery.Excited about the idea, Martin tossed around potential names like “Tiger Lager” and “Mike’s Stout”.Not only can the brewery benefit the patrons at Lod Cook, but it can also benefit students in the Food Science Department, Finley said.”It is absolutely a money maker,” he said. “As a department, we would like to be able to operate it because there would be a certain amount of profitability in it. We would have a course that our students would take in brewing beer.”Finley said the brewery could be operational within two years.”There are schools that have wineries on campus, so it’s not unprecedented,” Finley said. “I think we could produce some very high quality beer that would be appealing to people and incorporate the learning process at the same time.”—-Contact Xerxes A. Wilson at [email protected].