So the infamous WLP644, the "brett" / "sacch" strain that had everyone confused for a while. Fortunately, as with most things, some thoughtful science cleared it up. Thanks to Omega Yeast for doing some much needed sequencing on this strain to disabuse everyone of the notion that this was a Brettanomyces species, it is in … Continue reading Recipe #42: Wakatu Saison with WLP644 “Trois” (Batch #2015.03)
Category: Microbiology
Forward This post represents yet another direction I want to push this blog...into the huge world of yeast and bacterial species you probably have never heard of. I think everyone that is serious about homebrewing eventually comes across a non-Saccharomyces species of yeast but 99% of the time, we are talking about Brettanomyces and now even … Continue reading Off Beat Yeasts #1: Kluyveromyces lactis
A few months back a friend of mine, Mike (you may know him as the mad fermentationist), asked if I wanted to assist him in writing an article for Brew Your Own magazine (BYO) about homebrewing with Lactobacillus (here is the table of contents for that issue). After going back and forth a few times, we … Continue reading Beer Microbiology – Lactobacillus pH experiment
Happy Spring everyone, it is finally spring and the long winter is over. Of course on the first day of spring here in D.C. we got some snow. Go figure. I've had a lot going on lately with home life and work life and sort of let this blog go to seed for more than … Continue reading Physiology of Flavors in Beer – Lactobacillus Species
I am a microbiologist by trade, I have a Ph.D. and have been brewing for over 10 years at this point. A large portion of this blog is dedicated to my own homebrew efforts but sprinkled throughout are articles like this one, where I isolate a biological or chemical aspect of the beer and explain … Continue reading Beer Microbiology – What is a pellicle?
As a working scientist, I really want to get deep into the science of brewing, especially the microbiology of brewing. Throughout the life of this blog, who knows how long that will be, I want to sprinkle in articles with high resolution details about the organisms that we, as brewers, work with on a daily … Continue reading Physiology of Flavors in Beer – Saccharomyces Species
I thought I would throw in a quick post about something I've been working on that I've decided to add to this blog. There are a few hundred people that seem to look at this blog and follow it, so before I made a change I thought I would warn people. This blog serves a … Continue reading Introduction to Food Fermentation
I've been brewing with other people in the DC area a lot lately. I forgot how much fun it could be brewing with another person. It is great to get back into it. A few years ago, my friend Mike Thorpe came over to observe a brew day. He was excited to get into brewing … Continue reading Recipe #24: “Flowerfield” Saison — Collaboration Brew Day in Chicago (Batch #2014.11)
Authors Note: I try to post a recipe a week (or a post about brewing once a week) but this week I'm posting two, this being the second behind the Chinook and Cascade IPA disaster. I'm doing this to minimize the impact of that bad beer post on this blog and to reduce my backlog … Continue reading Sour Program — Part 2: A Blended Sour
I started this blog a few months ago but I've been brewing for about 10 years. I wanted to start the blog so I could keep better track of what beers I'm making and to force me to try more experiments...push my abilities and contact other brewers to refine my technique. This post isn't going … Continue reading Brettanomyces clausseni Ale
A Ph.D. in Beer - A Study of Beer and Fermentation Science 