Problems inevitably arise in brewing and Brewlab has an extensive resource of experience to rapidly identify options to investigate and solve your issues. In many cases these are microbiological whereby identifying a contaminant microbe is important so the correct treatment may be made. Our laboratory uses classical and molecular biology DNA techniques to identify contaminants and also to type your yeast strain for future comparison. Identification also assists due diligence and provides information to determine if problems have a common source.
Some problems arise from ingredients such as hydrophobin proteins on malt inducing gushing in a bottled beer and can be identified by advanced techniques. In other cases, mutation may cause a yeast strain to show anomalous characteristics. Again, we can use appropriate techniques to identify the cause.
Example case studies
- A brewery experienced over-attenuation in certain beers but not in others causing excess carbonation in bottle. Analysis of the range of beers indicated a contaminant dextrin digesting yeast present in the problem beers and originating from the yeast supply. Sourcing purer yeast provided an immediate solution.
- A “worm” of slime found in a dispensed beer following a customer complaint suggested a beer line contamination. Observation of the sample indicated a community of microorganisms including lactic acid bacteria and yeast. Samples of the dispense system demonstrated the presence of a biofilm due to poor cleaning.