AMES, Iowa — Backpocket Brewing teamed up with Iowa State University’s Science and Practice of Brewing class to produce and sell a new beer from students who won an end-of-semester beer competition.

The winning team of four students made an IPA named Alien Juice Party. Backpocket sold the beer in its taprooms until it sold out.

Robert Brown, the professor of the Science and Practice of Brewing class, said he came up with the idea of partnering with Backpocket when Iowa State University’s trademark office mentioned the school’s previous collaborations with Backpocket Brewing.

“The trademark office here at Iowa State University alerted me that Backpocket had an agreement to brew beer with the university’s logo and suggested that we might be able to do a collaboration with them. So I contacted the folks at Backpocket and they very happily joined us in this collaboration,” Brown said.

Brown said that the collaboration with Backpocket gave students the chance to witness beer production on a large scale.

“I tell students often in their classes they learn a lot of science, but very little practice. And we are proud of the fact that students can get into the laboratory and actually brew the beer. But part of working with a commercial brewery was to scale up. So we went from a few gallons to many hundreds of gallons in that brewing with a Backpocket,” Brown said.

Trenton Major, one of the students who developed the winning beer, said that working with Backpocket taught him a lot.

“It’s so much fun, except especially afterwards, because Backpocket brought us in and we helped them brew that batch of their stuff on tap right now. We were there while he was brewing it. That was a great, enjoyable process. We learned a lot being able to talk with their brewers as well and overall a huge learning experience,” Major said, “I never even saw beer in my future before I came to Iowa State and here I am minoring in beverage management and just know there’s so many places I can go with that.”

This semester Professor Brown plans to have another competition but this time the brewing science laboratory will brew and sell the winning team’s beer.

To learn more about Backpocket Brewing’s collaborations with the Brewing Science Program, visit Iowa State University’s website.