The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign returns with its Agronomy Days series where Illinois growers can learn more about the latest productivity, profitability and sustainability breakthroughs developed by experts.

The past two years have been a learning experience for Lincoln Slagel at Emancipation Brewing Company as he turns his focus to 2023 using those lessons learned.

Solar panels have been installed at Emancipation Brewing Co. this past month to sustainably provide electricity to the brewery, house and other buildings on the farm.

The hops grown on the Emancipation Brewing Co. grounds were harvested a few weeks ago and headed toward cans or kegs. “We harvested enough to brew a couple of things that we always like to brew, but there were no extra hops this year,” said Lincoln Slagel.

Hops are one of the key ingredients for making beer and Emancipation Brewing Company visitors can see the plant being grown for the next batch from the beer garden.

Lincoln Slagel enjoys doing research and when his college roommate introduced him to craft beer, he looked deeper into it.

I do a lot of research when coming up with new beers. Today we’re brewing our very first sour beer, which is going to be made with some locally sourced rhubarb. I’ve spent the past two years doing research, reading books.