The authors teach in a large, urban school district in the Midwest and typically a few students have parents who work in the sciences. One year, the authors were fortunate to have the child of the owner and head brewer of a local microbrewery. That coincidence set the stage for a major collaboration to bring the real world of chemistry and biology into the classrooms. Craft soda production in the United States is on the rise. The authors wondered if the brewing process might help couple the content of courses with the NGSS science and engineering practices. What if students collaborated to design a recipe for a craft root beer? If they could generate a quality product, the microbrewery could help with production and distribution. Three years later, Rider Root Beer was a reality. Through this project, which is presented in this article, the authors were able to help students apply their understanding of aerobic and anaerobic cycling of matter and flow energy (HS-LS2-3) as well as develop their understanding of the nature of engineering (HS-ETS1-2).