Hobbyist and pro concoct a winning India Pale Ale
Tim Blangger | The Netizen’s Guide
On the face of it, it’s an odd combination. Imagine a professional chef collaborating with a barbecue enthusiast. Or a NASCAR pit crew member joining forces with a shade-tree mechanic.
That was the idea behind a professional-amateur collaboration organized last weekend by the biggest beer contest in the country, the Great American Beer Festival.
A Lehigh Valley duo took gold in the Pro-Am category. Chris Bowen, a Bethlehem home brewer, and Beau Baden, brewmaster for the Allentown and Bethlehem branches of the Brew Works, collaborated on an English-style India Pale Ale. They beat out 47 others in the category.
The idea for the team started at a beer dinner this summer at the Bethlehem Brew Works restaurant and brew pub.Bowen, 40, a financial planner whose hobbies include jazz guitar, woodworking and electronics, started chatting about beers with Baden, 36.
