Day 24 3/14/22
What a special day today! I have been so excited about Pi Day coming up. I LOVE pie (and pi)!!!! Today was our last day in Tampa for a little while, and I wanted to show some of my professors from UT the finished van.
We first drove over to a new coffee shop near UT called the Lady and the Mug. We met Dr. K (my genetics professor) there. Zak had to work mostly, but poor guy got interrupted quite a few times because the shop was closing. It was awesome to see Dr. K and also finally introduce Zak to the professor that I spent the most time with collectively over my time at UT.
After seeing Dr. K, we drove the van over to the campus to see Dr. Freundt, my virology professor and TriBeta advisor. (Probably the person that I spent the second most time with at UT). It was wonderful to see him as well and to show him the van.
I asked him about a new class that he is teaching with another lovely, past professor of mine, Dr. Logsdon. They are teaching “Fermentation Microbiology.” Now, at first glance I know that may not sound very cool, but let me tell you how cool this actually is!!!!
Through the process of fermentation, we get lots of WONDERFUL foods and drinks such as cheese, yogurt, wine, beer, miso, and a whole lot more! As part of the class, the students and professors are going to local breweries to see how beer is made, traveling to France and Belgium to learn about beers, wines, and cheeses, and maybe most interestingly, are brewing beer in the micro lab!!!
Dr. Freundt sent Zak and I with two bottles of beer that they brewed. One of them was a Philly Sour and the other was a Windsor. If I am remembering correctly, the students used the same type of hops throughout all five or six types of beer that they brewed, just varying the strain of yeast. Dr. Freundt instructed us to keep the beers in our drawers for another week and a half so that they can continue to carbonate naturally (CO2 is a natural byproduct of fermentation as well), but then we will refrigerate the two bottles and give them a try! Dr. Freundt just asked that we send him tasting notes on the beers… and not to blame him if the beers were bad… they were student brewed after all… lol.
Right before leaving out from Tampa to head to Zak’s parents’ house, we also had to stop at one of my most favorite restaurants in Tampa: Goody Goody. I usually get their chili dog “The Rusty” and a slice of chocolate cream pie when I’m there. Although this time I skipped the dog and went straight for the pie. Unfortunately, no chocolate cream, but they still had banana cream, coconut cream, and strawberry– delicious!
