xico
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- Jan 22, 2015
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I figured in the interest of keeping my research "open" I would share my progress with the community here.
The project examines the types and varieties of organisms found in natural and human environments around central Washington state. I've collected samples of soil, bark, flowers, leaves/needles, sap, fungi, moss, etc. from four distinct biomes in the county I live. I am now beginning to collect samples from an active hop farm, vineyard, and orchard as well as a wild hop area, orchard abandoned 25 years back, and fruit and oak trees around the town of Ellensburg.
All samples are split into two flasks, each fermented at different temps (8C and 20C) and incubated 3-6 weeks. The media I made is highly selective with 5% ethanol and a pH of 3.5. I'm now beginning to develop the appropriate method to isolating the cultures onto plates, to be frozen down for future examination. Early Septmember I will be sequencing all the samples to determine the varieties of organisms found in the area.
Any Saccharomyces found will be compared to a running database of thousands of strains in Bavaria in hope of shedding more light on the hybridization history of the popular lager yeast. Bringing genetic material from the Pacific northwest to the data set will help determine the genealogy of the parentage species of Saccharomyces pastorianus.
From there, I will begin selection of yeast for brewing/distilling using media (different broths and petri dish gels) and gas and liquid chromatography (GC and HPLC). Media can be made with phenolic precursors like ferulic, coumaric, cinnamic acids will help determine is the yeast is Phenolic Off Flavor positive (POF+). Media with varying IBUs made from hop extract help to determine hop tolerance. And media with varying ratios of types of sugars determines the kinds of brews are best suited to the organism. For example, some yeast prefer fructose over glucose, or maltotriose over maltose, and this information can inform how we utilize the organism for fermentation.
GC and HPLC will be used to measure the possible presence of 10 common off-flavors created by yeast to further weed out the cultures that won't make for a pleasant product. Without getting into the details, these machines can help us quantify the presence of different compounds in tiny samples of beer. It saves a lot of time to remove the yeast that put off fresh baby diaper aromas in 10mL of broth before throwing it into your hard-earned wort. Ultimately, the ~200 yeast I may find, we will possibly yield a dozen yeast with promise so developing an efficient method of selection will be paramount to repeating this process.
In tandem with this project I will begin working with a new genomic sequencer in beta development that will allow us to compare the genetic markers of strains within a species. The aim will be to further develop the debate over the working taxa of the genus Brettanomyces. From what my mentors have found, Brettanomyces lambicus is not a species and is misnamed. It is becoming apparent that it is actually a strain of Bruxelensis. There is a lot of debate over Dekkera/Brettanomyces and our hope is to bring more data to the table.
I will follow up with news and results as they are received and analyzed if there is a show of interest in hearing more. I figured I'd make myself and project available to this community which has been so generous to me over the years.
All the best!
The project examines the types and varieties of organisms found in natural and human environments around central Washington state. I've collected samples of soil, bark, flowers, leaves/needles, sap, fungi, moss, etc. from four distinct biomes in the county I live. I am now beginning to collect samples from an active hop farm, vineyard, and orchard as well as a wild hop area, orchard abandoned 25 years back, and fruit and oak trees around the town of Ellensburg.
All samples are split into two flasks, each fermented at different temps (8C and 20C) and incubated 3-6 weeks. The media I made is highly selective with 5% ethanol and a pH of 3.5. I'm now beginning to develop the appropriate method to isolating the cultures onto plates, to be frozen down for future examination. Early Septmember I will be sequencing all the samples to determine the varieties of organisms found in the area.
Any Saccharomyces found will be compared to a running database of thousands of strains in Bavaria in hope of shedding more light on the hybridization history of the popular lager yeast. Bringing genetic material from the Pacific northwest to the data set will help determine the genealogy of the parentage species of Saccharomyces pastorianus.
From there, I will begin selection of yeast for brewing/distilling using media (different broths and petri dish gels) and gas and liquid chromatography (GC and HPLC). Media can be made with phenolic precursors like ferulic, coumaric, cinnamic acids will help determine is the yeast is Phenolic Off Flavor positive (POF+). Media with varying IBUs made from hop extract help to determine hop tolerance. And media with varying ratios of types of sugars determines the kinds of brews are best suited to the organism. For example, some yeast prefer fructose over glucose, or maltotriose over maltose, and this information can inform how we utilize the organism for fermentation.
GC and HPLC will be used to measure the possible presence of 10 common off-flavors created by yeast to further weed out the cultures that won't make for a pleasant product. Without getting into the details, these machines can help us quantify the presence of different compounds in tiny samples of beer. It saves a lot of time to remove the yeast that put off fresh baby diaper aromas in 10mL of broth before throwing it into your hard-earned wort. Ultimately, the ~200 yeast I may find, we will possibly yield a dozen yeast with promise so developing an efficient method of selection will be paramount to repeating this process.
In tandem with this project I will begin working with a new genomic sequencer in beta development that will allow us to compare the genetic markers of strains within a species. The aim will be to further develop the debate over the working taxa of the genus Brettanomyces. From what my mentors have found, Brettanomyces lambicus is not a species and is misnamed. It is becoming apparent that it is actually a strain of Bruxelensis. There is a lot of debate over Dekkera/Brettanomyces and our hope is to bring more data to the table.
I will follow up with news and results as they are received and analyzed if there is a show of interest in hearing more. I figured I'd make myself and project available to this community which has been so generous to me over the years.
All the best!