Zachary Rosen Hosts ‘Biegrnette: Light, Life, & Death’ @ SBCAST

Zachary Rosen took the beer world by storm when he became the youngest person ever to become a Certified Cicerone (essentially a Master Sommelier of beer) back in 2010. He’s been banging into beer’s traditional boundaries ever since, hosting multisensory exhibits of hop influence (Hoptopia, June 2014), theatrical explorations of ale and Shakespearean characters (Shakes’Beer, October 2015), and pairings of place with pint (the S.B. Botanic Garden’s annual S.B. Beer Garden, five years running).

His next foray, the result of his residency at the Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science, and Technology (SBCAST), is Biegrnette: Light, Life, & Death, a one-night affair that will pair beer and food from Nimita’s Cuisine with various expressions of art, from interpretive dance to the written word. In “Light Primordial,” for instance, choreographer Katelyn Carano will lead an ambient performance from inside a body cocoon as you sip on Hoegaarden White Ale with a lemon chrysanthemum tea syrup. In “The Seeds of Light,” Draughtsmen’s Nebulous Hazy IPA will accompany a wing-suit dance against a backdrop of green and blue hues. And in “The Light Infinite,” Captain Fatty’s Mama Risa Kettle Sour Stout will find a partner in LED hooping as imagery is projected on flowing sheets. Yes, heady stuff, for both your glass and your eyeballs.

“This event is approaching life and death from a more abstract concept, looking at it as a movement of resources versus a final end, a viewpoint which ties into my background in chemical engineering,” explained Rosen. “In chemical engineering, you tend to think of the world around you in terms of the transference of mass and energy through a system. Mass and energy is neither created nor destroyed. Everything in a system goes somewhere. This event is a thought about where we are going.”

Free entry, but $15 each for beer and food pairings; Thu., Nov. 1, 6-10pm @ SBCAST, 513 Garden St.