What do you do if you're stuck for months on a science vessel in the middle of the ocean, you're out of sweet water and you're bored? You make yourself some home-made beer!

In this Southern Fried Science blog entry, author Andrew, a North Carolina graduate studying population genetics in hydrothermal vent communities (now that sounds exciting), explains in very non-scientific terms how to brew a mad-scientist beer using nothing more than a coffee maker and various other materials commonly found on a modestly sized oceanographic research vessel. A very entertaining read.