Joseph Owades

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Joseph L. Owades (July 9, 1919 – December 16, 2005) was one of the preëminent figures in the world of beer. He used his curiosity and ingenuity to advance the art and science of brewing in many areas: improving analytical techniques and quality control; developing the first "light" beer and the novel process for making it; creating many new, unique, and successful specialty beers; and passing on his knowledge and love of brewing through teaching and mentoring.

Born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx, he graduated from City College of New York (undergraduate) and Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (Master’s and PhD in biochemistry, with a dissertation on cholesterol). After wartime work for the US Navy, he went on to Fleischmann’s Yeast, Schwarz Labs, and Rheingold Breweries in Brooklyn, where he became Vice President–Technical Director.

An insight into the nature of yeast metabolism and the starches found in malt led him to search for an enzyme that could break the side-branching chains of starch, which could allow yeast to digest all of the starch and produce a beer with no residual carbohydrates and lower calories. Rheingold introduced the first "light beer," Gablinger’s, using this enzyme; its many successors, starting with Miller Lite, have come to dominate the American beer marketplace.

Following his time at Rheingold, Dr. Owades went to work in Greece for the K. Fix Brewery, then to Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, and then to Carling Breweries in Boston. Eventually he struck out on his own, forming the Center for Brewing Studies, where he provided consulting services to many micro- and mid-sized brewers and taught annual seminars.

Among his prominent consulting clients have been New Amsterdam Brewing in New York; Anchor Brewing in San Francisco; Boston Brewing, where he developed the highly-successful Samuel Adams Lager; New Century Brewing, for whom he created Edison light beer; the Olde Heurich Brewing Company; and Rheingold Brewing, where he re-created the original Rheingold lager.

Dr. Owades holds many patents in the field of brewing and elsewhere. One of his recent inventions is Prequel, a safe, all-natural pill that can be taken before drinking which reduces the effects of alcohol.

He received the 1994 Award of Merit from the Master Brewers Association of America, and has addressed all major brewing organizations. This past September, Joseph Owades was among those awarded the Sesquicentennial Medal as a distinguished alumnus by 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 in Israel, where in 1999 he endowed the Joseph and Ruth Owades Chair in Chemistry.

Dr. Owades died at his home in Sonoma, California on December 16, 2005. He is survived by his wife of 36 years, Ruth Owades of San Francisco; his two sons, Stephen Owades of Cambridge, Massachusetts and William Owades of New Rochelle, New York; and his brother, Henry Owades of Norwalk, Connecticut.