From Illinois Tech Magazine: Brewing Up Something Big

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By Steve Hendershot
From Illinois Tech Magazine-Jain 1280x850

The first taste of craft beer for Ankur Jain (CS ’03) was a swig of Anchor Steam, whose nineteenth-century recipe and California ocean-port pedigree made it a great object lesson in a course he took about the Industrial Revolution at Illinois Institute of Technology.

At the time beer was not on Jain’s radar. He had come to Illinois Tech from New Delhi to study computer science and architecture, inspired by his father, who was an architect and a Ludwig Mies van der Rohe admirer. But Jain’s cultural exposure—to craft beer, to South Side jazz, and to contemporary art—made an impact.

“The flexibility that Chicago and [Illinois Tech] gave me to color outside the box was very unique,” recalls Jain, 39, founder of India’s largest craft brewery, Bira 91.

To read more, visit Illinois Tech Magazine's website.

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