AUBURN, N.Y. — New York’s craft beverage industry has experienced a boom in recent years. Brewers and winemakers have been pushing the boundaries of creativity in many of their creations. Now, researchers at Cornell University are helping them discover new potential ingredients, including one you might have tasted before in pie.

Tony Cordova knows what he’s talking about when it comes to making beer.

“I think of beer as being blue collar in a lot of ways,” said Cordova, lead brewer at Auburn’s Prison City Brewing. “We are also in a situation where beer is becoming far, far more sophisticated, and ingredients are becoming more expensive and what goes behind making something like this is far more complex than what would be like your grandpa's beer.”

Cordova has been involved in developing hundreds of different beers in his career, brewing everything from stouts to lagers to IPAs. Craft beer is a balance of art and science. For the beer drinker, it’s always a matter of taste.

“I like wacky things, but I also like traditional things,” he said. “But I also like everything.”

One of the latest creations at Prison City, a sour ale, has an ingredient you might find in your garden — rhubarb.

“Yeah, it’s so good,” said Cordova. “The rhubarb is very acidic, it's very tannic. And that flavor actually lends itself really well to a beer style, like a mixed fermentation beer.”

About 30 miles to the west, Cornell researchers believe rhubarb could be the New York beverage industry’s next big ingredient.

“Lots of people on this campus are always looking at fun things that are suitable to be grown in New York that are not as widely known or appreciated as they might be,” said Chris Gerling, a researcher at the Cornell AgriTech Department of Food Science.

Gerling is part of a project that’s planted more than 50 different rhubarb genotypes on Cornell’s Geneva campus. The goal is to increase rhubarb production in the northeast, develop new colors and flavors, and find ways to overcome challenges.

“Juicing it is a little bit of a hassle,” he said. “What we do is chop it and freeze it and press it into a juice.”

Producing beer or wine takes a lot of rhubarb, but researchers think it’s worth the effort.

“Another option, another flavor,” said Gerling of the goal of the project. “Something that is local, something that's unique, something that's special, something that‘s seasonal.”

At Prison City, Cordova believes his team is onto something with the brewery’s Rhubarb Klink.

”I am super proud of this beer," he said. “I think it's been selling pretty well; we were out of draft, so that's good.”