---
title: The Brew Believer Leading UMD’s Fermentation Lab
date: 2025-11-25T15:48:00-05:00
author: Ella LaGrange
canonical_url: "https://forward.umd.edu/news/the-brew-believer-leading-umds-fermentation-lab"
section: News
---
# The Brew Believer Leading UMD’s Fermentation Lab

*November 25, 2025* — by Ella LaGrange
> Lecturer Teaches the Art and Science of Thousands-Years-Old Craft

Tom Flores '92 started out as a young home brewer. Now after decades in the business, he's showing University of Maryland students that the craft isn't all about beer. Now a lecturer in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science and the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, he works in UMD's Fermentation Science Laboratory, sharing the fundamentals of a field that spans cheese to kimchi to kefir.

- [Watch the Peer Review Profiles Video on Flores' Story](https://agnr.umd.edu/news/brew-believer-leading-umds-fermentation-lab/)