Joseph L. Owades, Developer of Recipe for Light Beer, Is Dead at 86
NY Times
Joseph L. Owades, a biochemist whose recipe for a light beer, among other contributions to the science of brewing, made him a leader in the industry, died Friday at his home in Sonoma, Calif. He was 86 and also had a home in San Francisco.
The cause was heart failure, his family said.
Dr. Owades (pronounced oh-WAY-dees) became involved with brewing by way of his research into the properties of yeast and the starches found in malt. He was looking for and found an enzyme that prompted yeast to digest all of the starch.
His discovery resulted in a beer without residual carbohydrates and with fewer calories, or what became known as light beer. Such a brew using his enzyme was first mass-produced by Rheingold Brewing, his employer at the time, which marketed the low-calorie brew under the Gablinger’s label. Years later, after the Miller Brewing Company bought Gablinger’s, it became Miller Lite.
His process for making low-calorie beer gave rise to many successful specialty brands from new and independent smaller breweries. In 1975, he became a consultant to this growing part of the business as the founder and director of the Center for Brewing Studies in Sonoma, Calif.
Joseph Lawrence Owades was born July 9, 1919, to immigrant parents on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He graduated in 1939 from City College.
An early interest in chemistry led him to Polytechnic Institute, now Polytechnic University, in Brooklyn and a master’s degree in 1944 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1950. His dissertation was on cholesterol.
After serving in the Navy during World War II, he began as a research chemist working on fermentation for Fleischmann’s Yeast in 1948. From 1951 to 1969 he was a vice president and technical director at Rheingold in Brooklyn.
He held similar positions at Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis until 1972 and at the Carling Brewing Company in Boston until 1975, when he founded the Center for Brewing Studies, originally in San Francisco.
As a consultant, he advised clients like New Amsterdam Brewing in New York, Anchor Brewing in San Francisco and Boston Brewing, where he assisted in the introduction of Samuel Adams Lager.
