Updated Sample Set
Briess Malting Company and their lead R&D Specialist, Bob Hansen, has been very helpful in determining what kind of malt samples would be the most useful and informative to conduct the experiments on.
I will be waiting for the 2016 harvest of barley (which is taking place during Aug/Sept) to collect fresh samples of "distillers malt." This type of malt is essentially the least kilned sample and, as Bob tells me, is known to have the highest load of microflora compared to more processed malts (like 2-row and pale). Also, with a fresh malt sample, we can retain some and occasionally test the microbiome to see how it develops throughout the year (this is of particular interest to Blue Owl Brewing since we've seen our souring results change as this year has gone on).
Additionally, we will be testing distillers malt from two different Briess malt-houses to see any differences. This will then be compared to distillers malt from a German maltster, Weyermann and also a southern hemisphere maltster, Patagonia. Patagonia does not make a distillers malt, but we will test their pale/pilsner malts.
Here is the tentative sample schedule:
Malt Microbiome Analysis Round 1:
[Samples of raw grain for sequencing]
1) Briess Distillers Malt—Plant #1
2) Briess Distillers Malt—Plant #2
3) Weyermann Distillers Malt
4) Patagonia Pilsner/Pale Malt
Wort Microbiome Analysis Round 1:
[Benchtop wort analysis for sequencing at ideal temperature w/ pH, control, TA, gravity]
1) Briess Distillers Malt—Plant #1; t=0, t=24, t=48
2) Briess Distillers Malt—Plant #2; t=0, t=24, t=48
3) Weyermann Distillers Malt; t=0, t=24, t=48
4) Patagonia Pilsner/Pale Malt; t=0, t=24, t=48
5) Control; t=0, t=24, t=48
Wort NMR Analysis Round 1:
[Benchtop wort analysis using NMR for organic acid content and production]
1) Briess Distillers Malt—Plant #1; t=0, t=24, t=48
2) Briess Distillers Malt—Plant #2; t=0, t=24, t=48
3) Weyermann Distillers Malt; t=0, t=24, t=48
4) Patagonia Pilsner/Pale Malt; t=0, t=24, t=48
5) Control; t=0, t=24, t=48
Sample Preparation:
- A nutrient-rich starter will be prepared and inoculated with the chosen grain and let stir at 109F for 24 hours.
- The starter will settle for 1 hour and then 50 mL will be decanted and pitched into 2000 mL of wort.
- The wort will be stirred at 109F for 48 hours total.
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