Brewing garden offers grain-to-glass learning opportunities
CONTACT: Molly Goaley
A small plot of land between the Dalton Center and Wood Hall is now WMU’s very own brewing garden – complete with several varieties of the hops and grains involved in many of Michigan’s craft beers.
The garden was planted in 2016 as a joint project between WMU’s landscape services and sustainable brewing program. Welcoming visitors with a tall wooden arbor, the land teems with 18-foot vines of the pinecone-like hops blooms. Although still young, the garden serves the important purpose of providing students an intentional space for learning and field research.
Nick Gooch, WMU horticulturist, says he initiated the garden as a “pet project” around the same time Western’s sustainable brewing program was launched. A home brewer who had experimented with growing hop varieties, Gooch says he wanted to repurpose the unused land into “something attractive that students could interact with.” So he consulted WMU’s sustainable brewing program director, Dr. Steve Bertman, to brainstorm ideas for the garden concept.
“My intent was that maybe a class could come out and see the plants involved in brewing,” Gooch says. “Some initial types of questions Steve and I raised were, 'Do students know how high hops grow? Do they know what barley looks like?'
"I was really interested in getting the different varieties of hops on display, so Steve connected me with Jeff Steinman at Hop Head Farms,” one of the top producing hops farms in the state.
Gooch met with Steinman for advice about how to develop and build the garden. “I asked him about the prominent varieties of hops coming to the brewing industry and what some of the staples are, along with some unique varieties,” Gooch says. “For example, there’s a certain hop, Chinook, that when grown in Michigan has a different flavor profile than in other regions,” he says.
Learning opportunities take root
Mid-summer, when the garden is in full bloom, students and passersby can stroll past a chevron pattern of wheat, oats, rye, barley and six varieties of hops – all essential ingredients in craft beers. And while the plants now flourish under the care of the landscape services team, Gooch says they initially struggled to thrive. “The condition of the soil was a concern, so you have to question what the quality of the hop will be,” he says. But the challenge also offers a learning opportunity.
“With agriculture people are looking for the cheapest, largest amount of land to purchase because you need to be able to produce volume to make a profit,” Gooch says. “If a quality product can come from poor quality land, that can be an opportunity for research down the road.”
Transformative spaces
Gooch has a passion and talent for maximizing an outdoor space’s potential. In addition to the brewing garden, he has helped lead several projects on campus that offer both an educational component and an example of environmental stewardship.
His most recent initiative is the Western orchard, a grove of nearly 70 fruit trees planted last spring that will be used for general botany lessons and research studies. He is also responsible for piloting a summer project that brought a goat work crew, called Munchers on Hooves, to WMU to clear an overgrown woodlot. About four years ago, Gooch worked with the Geological and Environmental Sciences Department to develop a rock garden outside Rood Hall used for geosciences teaching.
“The environmental and academic components bring a lot more value to a project instead of just putting something out there that’s attractive,” Gooch says. “My long-term vision is that all landscape becomes educational – that people get in an outdoor space and it’s interactive and generates ideas. There’s a lot of opportunity for that here at Western.”