Jeff Young

Jeff Young

Jul 29, 2016

Group 6 Copy 144
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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:

  1. A nutrient-rich starter will be prepared and inoculated with the chosen grain and let stir at 109F for 24 hours.
  2. The starter will settle for 1 hour and then 50 mL will be decanted and pitched into 2000 mL of wort.
  3. The wort will be stirred at 109F for 48 hours total.   

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About This Project

Sour beers are likely the original beer style and have made a recent comeback in terms of popularity among craft beer enthusiasts. They are made with a bacterial and fungal mix rather than pure cultures of Saccharomyces. yeast as in typical ales and lagers. However, the suite of different microbes and their relative abundances during the course of souring and fermentation remain a mystery. We aim to map part of the sour beer microbiome and identify the organic acids these microbes produce.

Blast off!

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