A UF professor and a local brewing company are working to bring a new type of beer to Gainesville.
Brian Pearson, a UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences assistant professor of environmental horticulture, first teamed up with First Magnitude Brewing Company earlier this month to produce the first beer under the new label “Fresh from Florida: Made with Florida Hops.”
The beer is made with hops, seed cones of the hops plant, that provide flavoring. Because the hops are being grown in Florida, the beer will taste unique compared to beers in other parts of the world, Pearson said.
Pearson, who first started experimenting with hops growth five years ago, said the idea came after tasting a beer with hops in England and realizing that he couldn’t buy that same beer back home in the U.S.
After his first successful trial in 2012, he reached out to First Magnitude Brewing Company in January to discuss making the beer.
“By the end of the conversation we were already talking about the potential labels for the beer bottle,” he said.
First Magnitude Brewing Company produced about 120 bottles of the beer for $7 a bottle. On its release date, April 6, the beer was
