The Bread Lab is housed at Washington State University, Mount Vernon in a recently renovated $8M lab wing. An hour north of Seattle, it is the first public laboratory designed solely for the testing and development of products and techniques for the craft baker.
Bakers come to the lab to interact with other bakers and scientists and to make contact with farmers and millers. The environment allows bakers to learn, teach, and experiment in a functioning bake lab without having to shut down their own lines. The facility is equipped with a state of the art WP Kemper SP spiral mixer and Matador four-deck oven as well as a stone mill, a Country Living mill and Quadrumat experimental roller flour mill. The lab also houses sophisticated rheological testing equipment such as a Farinograph, Alveograph, Consistograph, falling number machine and micro-sedimentation.
Workshops, from one-day events to weeklong workshops, are scheduled each year. The Bread Lab also is a centerpiece for the annual Grain Gathering (formerly Kneading Conference West), which brings together more than 200 bakers, maltsters, millers, farmers, brewers, oven builders and distillers in an interactive and enlightening three day conference.
For more information contact:
Stephen Jones at joness@wsu.edu or 360-416-5210