Topic: Fermentation
Brewing With Lactobacillus
FREEWhy does Brettanomyces get all of the attention when it isn’t even responsible for making sour beers sour? Lactobacillus can do in a week what takes Pediococcus a year! Lactobacillus needs a
Blending Sour Beers with the Solera Method
MEMBERS ONLYRather than blending to taste at bottling, a solera relies on mixing beers of multiple ages together during aging. When a portion is removed for packaging, the volume is replaced with younger beer. The younger beer can be unfermented, fermented, or even soured. In this way, the solera slowly evolves.
Beer-Wine Hybrids
MEMBERS ONLYBeer and wine hybrids are bridging the gap between breweries and wineries
Brewer’s Yeast & Brett Fermentation Flavors
MEMBERS ONLYYeast cultures have flavor. Ever tried one? An unfiltered beer with yeast in it therefore will have yeast flavor. But what about filtered beers? Yes, those beers have yeast-derived flavors too. Yeasts synthesize flavors during fermentation, and many of these flavors stay in the beer, even when the yeast is removed. Yeasts do this in
Lager Fermentations: Tips from Pros
MEMBERS ONLYWe all love to drink tasty, cool-fermented lagers, but when it comes to fermenting them it is sometimes easier said than done. in this issue, two lager experts discuss some advice for running your best lager fermentation.
Running Wild Fermentations at Home
MEMBERS ONLY“I remember several years ago Jean Van Roy at Cantillon telling me, ‘You can spontaneously ferment in the United States, but, keep in mind that it probably won’t be the same way we do it here. You might have to come up with your own program.’ In the case of Allagash they’ve pretty much been able to
Fermentation Temperature Control
MEMBERS ONLYFermentation temperature is a critical brewing variable. Temperature directly influences the metabolic rate of the yeast and the rate of the biochemical reactions associated with fermentation. Fermentation temperature has a significant impact on the quality of the finished beer, so control of this variable is very important for the brewer. There are numerous ways for
Oxygenation of Wort
MEMBERS ONLYAvailability of dissolved oxygen to yeast during the initial stage of fermentation is very important. Yeast use oxygen to build cell membrane components that are essential to replication. Unsaturated fatty acids, sterols (both found in wort) and oxygen are all necessary for yeast to rapidly reproduce during the initial stage of fermentation. Without enough available
Airlock Blowout
MEMBERS ONLYIn the commercial world of brewing, one of the biggest fears is a fermentation that is slow to start or one that lacks vigor when it does come to life. These traits foreshadow problems lurking on the horizon. Any microbiological critters coming forward into the fermenter from wort production or bacteria associated with pitching yeast
High Gravity Fermentation
MEMBERS ONLYThis is one of the questions that makes me scratch my head, and for more reasons than one. My first response actually has nothing at all to do with the question. And that response is “stop pouring samples back into your fermenter!” Taking a sample from a fermenter to check gravity can easily result in
Wort Temperature During Fermentation
MEMBERS ONLYAn active fermentation does create an appreciable amount of heat energy. In small fermenters where the ambient air temperature is used for cooling, there is always an increase in fermentation temperature as the brew goes into active fermentation. Most brewers compensate for this by setting the room temperature a little cooler than the desired fermentation temperature.
Amylase Enzymes
MEMBERS ONLYAt first glance, wort fermentability could be the problem with this brew. It seems that plenty of healthy yeast was used, the wort was well oxygenated and fermentation conducted at a very comfortable range for this yeast strain. One would expect a healthy fermentation from 1.095 to about 1.025–1.030 in two to three weeks. Having