Yeast response to sound/tones/music

[GuitarGumption]

Yes, I know, from now on just from that title you will all dismiss anything I say!

But has there ever been any sort of study done on this that anyone knows of? (in modern times anyway...).

I was just reading some history about ancient cultures singing and talking to their wort to get the yeast to be happy and take off....which I could understand if I was hoping for the best random yeast in the air to come ferment my beer before the bad stuff took over!

Anyhow, on a related note, my oatmeal stout had seemed dormant for about a week+, when I started playing my guitar in the same room. I have a fairly loud tube amplifier, that produces all kinds of nice harmonics when overdriven, and I was playing loud. I swear the beer starting bubbling away again not too long after.

I know, I know, probably total coincidence or some other reason, but just thought I'd bring the subject up, it could be fun.

 

[Revvy]

does yeast like music?

 

[GuitarGumption]

Thanks for the link!

Sounds like not much was decided there, but some folks do think bassy music might wake yeast up a bit.

I'd argue that possibly live music would have a greater effect than playing a radio for example. Just like a dog often won't respond to barking dogs on tv, but somehow responds to the real dog blocks away that you can't even hear...

 

[pcollins]

Well, I have my fermentation area in my cellar which is the room right beside my studio. I play bass trombone and, it seems, I brew decent beer. I've never had a stuck fermentation and almost everything I brew ends up below 1.010.

Feel free to draw your own conclusions. LOL

 

[chumpsteak]

I heard yeast like sugar.

 

[GuitarGumption]

So do I, but I also like music, and even order harmonics.

Now, I will draw the line and say that I would expect yeast to not do so well when exposed to banjo playing.

 

[daksin]

Well, I can say for certain that the research HAS been done on plants, which are similarly adapted (read: not at all) to perceiving or reacting to music (or even vibration) to fungus (yeast). The results are pretty conclusive: plants don't care if you play angry or happy music for them, or even speak to them (the CO2 in your breath really isn't helping- it's not much more than the CO2 concentration of air). I would guess that fungi are quite the same way, particularly single-celled fungi which couldn't even collaborate to form structures which could perceive vibration, let alone tone, pitch, or timbre.

It's a fun idea, but not a great use of your time. I'd be more interested to see better experiments involving decoction mashes and mash temperature effect on fermentability. Both of those concepts are currently too ruled by conventional wisdom to be much use to any brewer. More data is needed!

 

[BBL_Brewer]

Your fermenter probably started bubbling again from CO2 knock out due to the vibrations.

 

[MrOH]

personally, I play this in my beer room as much as possible:
[ame]http://youtu.be/jSItEPTrKZM[/ame]

 

[GuitarGumption]

From what I have read, there actually is some research showing that music can stimulate plant growth in some cases. Perhaps these experiments were not carried out with enough scientific rigor, but there is some data in support anyway.

I don't think the plant has to actually "perceive" music as an animal would. I mean a sound wave of the appropriate frequency and amplitude can shake apart an inanimate object, and on a smaller scale cause everything within it to vibrate in certain ways. Perhaps certain frequencies and overtones could even organize structures on a small scale.

As far as being a great use of my time.... there are enough other folks to think about decoction mashes and mash temperature. I'm an engineer, I don't want to think about boring stuff when I don't have to, haha.

 

[osagedr]

I don't know if they like music, but they seem to respond to screaming curses at them in German.

 

[GuitarGumption]

Haha, I think that could scare anything into action.

 

[COLObrewer]

There are other things besides vibrations that affect fermentation that we dont usually think about, such as but not limited to: Barametric pressure, static electricity, moon phase, proximity of other objects, brewhouse pressure/vaccuum and the changing thereof, etc, etc, . . . .

 

[01steve]

i remember a team of scientists doing a similiar experiment-...
[ame="http://youtu.be/1vYRyqMw9yE"]http://youtu.be/1vYRyqMw9yE[/ame]

sorry-... the opportunity was left wide open.

i agree it could just be the vibrations causing pressure on the fermentor.

 

[kegerators]

http://www.springerlink.com/content/e6143q34160g633r/ Some interesting research on how sonic vibration affects the metabolism of yeast cells growing in liquid culture.

Now we need a carboy sound belt.