Joseph Lawrence Owades (July 9, 1919 – December 16, 2005)
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/ref> was an American biochemist
Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...
and brewer
Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer, ...
of light and industrially produced beer
Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...
. He adjusted analytical techniques and quality control, was involved in the development of the first modern light beer
Light beer is a beer, usually a pale lager, that is reduced in alcohol content or in calories compared to regular beers. The first use of the term in marketing was in the 1940s when the Coors Brewing Company sold Coors Light, for a short period be ...
, creating many new, unique, and successful specialty beers. He is regarded by some as the father of light beer.
Early life
Owades was born in Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, the son of Jewish parents, and raised in the Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
. His father, Shmuel, was a dressmaker. In 1939 he graduated from City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
(undergraduate), followed by New York University Tandon School of Engineering
The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United Sta ...
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in biochemistry
Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...
, 1944, 1950), with a dissertation on cholesterol
Cholesterol is any of a class of certain organic molecules called lipids. It is a sterol (or modified steroid), a type of lipid. Cholesterol is biosynthesized by all animal cells and is an essential structural component of animal cell mem ...
titled ''Sterol Sulphates: A Study of αCholesterylene and Other Decomposition Products''. After wartime work for the US Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
, he went on to Fleischmann's Yeast, Schwarz Laboratories
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in Mount Vernon, New York
Mount Vernon is a city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States. It is an inner suburb of New York City, immediately to the north of the Borough (New York City), borough of the Bronx. As of t ...
(where he taught the Schwarz Brewing Course), and Rheingold Breweries
Rheingold Brewery was a New York state brewery which sold Rheingold Beer from 1883 to 1976. The brewery held 35% of the state's beer market at its peak. The company was sold by the founding Jewish American Liebmann family in 1963. According t ...
in Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, where he became Vice President–Technical Director.
Development of light beer
At Rheingold, Owades developed the recipe for Gablinger Beer, one of the first reduced calorie beers. Gablinger was brewed using a process invented by chemist Dr. Hersch Gablinger of Basel, Switzerland. Dr. Gablinger's process involved adding an enzyme (amyloglucosidase) to the wort during fermentation that converted nonfermentable starch into fermentable sugar.[ The use of this process eliminated carbohydrates from the finished beer, and allowed its caloric content to be reduced by about one-third, while also making it less filling. After Rheingold officials traveled to Europe and sampled Dr. Gablinger's beer, Rheingold bought the exclusive rights to use his process.]["The First Beer With No Carbohydrates", ''Hartford Courant'', Jan. 5, 1967, p. 44] Using Dr. Gablinger's process, Owades developed the recipe for Gablinger Beer, which was introduced by Rheingold in late 1966.[
]
Craft brewing consultation
Following his time at Rheingold, Owades went to work in Greece for the K. Fix Brewery, then moved to Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple glo ...
in St. Louis, Missouri, followed by Carling Breweries in Boston. In 1975 Owades formed the Center for Brewing Studies
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in San Francisco, where he provided consulting services to many micro- and mid-sized brewers and taught annual seminars, becoming known as "the Godfather of the Brewing Industry".
Among his consulting clients were New Amsterdam Brewing in New York City; Anchor Brewing Company
Anchor Brewing Company is an American alcoholic beverage producer, operating a brewery on Potrero Hill in San Francisco, California. The brewery was founded in 1896 and was purchased by Frederick Louis Maytag III in 1965, saving it from closure. ...
in San Francisco; Boston Beer Company
The Boston Beer Company is an American brewery founded in 1984. Boston Beer Company's first brand of beer was named Samuel Adams after Founding Father Samuel Adams, an American revolutionary patriot. Since its founding, Boston Beer has started se ...
, where he developed the highly successful Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and ...
lager; New Century Brewing, for whom he created Edison light beer; the Olde Heurich Brewing Company
The Christian Heurich Brewing Company was a Washington, D.C., brewery founded in 1872 and incorporated by Christian Heurich in 1890. First located near Dupont Circle on 20th Street NW, it expanded to a much larger site in Foggy Bottom in 1895 af ...
; and Rheingold Brewing
Rheingold Brewery was a New York state brewery which sold Rheingold Beer from 1883 to 1976. The brewery held 35% of the state's beer market at its peak. The company was sold by the founding Jewish American Liebmann family in 1963. According ...
, where he re-created the original Rheingold lager.
Later life and death
Owades held many patents in the field of brewing and elsewhere.
Owades received the 1994 Award of Merit from the Master Brewers Association of the Americas
The Master Brewers Association of the Americas (MBAA) was founded in 1887. It publishes the ''Technical Quarterly'', a technical journal; some of the articles are peer-reviewed.
One of the original officers elected at the Association's first conve ...
, and spoke before many brewing organizations. He was among those awarded the Sesquicentennial Medal as a distinguished alumnus by NYU Polytechnic University. He wrote the articles on beer and alcohol metabolism for the ''Encyclopedia of Food Science and Technology''. He was named to the Board of the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science
The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...
in Israel, where in 1999 he endowed the Joseph and Ruth Owades Chair in Chemistry.
Owades died at his home in Sonoma, California
Sonoma is a city in Sonoma County, California, United States, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Sonoma is one of the principal cities of California's Wine Country and the center of the Sonoma Valley AVA. Sonoma's p ...
on December 16, 2005. He is buried at Home of Peace Cemetery in Colma, California.
References
External links
'Brewing Legacy: A Portrait of Joseph Owades' by Jaime Jurado (PDF)
The Science of Beer
- March 1999 Lecture
A lecture (from Latin ''lēctūra'' “reading” ) is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical inform ...
(Requires RealAudio)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Owades, Joseph
1919 births
2005 deaths
American brewers
20th-century American Jews
Polytechnic Institute of New York University alumni
21st-century American Jews
Burials at Home of Peace Cemetery (Colma, California)