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Fungus Amungus: Microbes in the Tailoring of Barley Malt Properties

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This Friday, August 31, Research Scientist Arja Laitila will be defending her thesis, Microbes in the Tailoring of Barley Malt Properties, at the University of Helsinki, in the hopes of being awarded her PhD.

Arja Laitila

Her goal?

Microbes – bacteria, yeasts and filamentous fungi – have a decisive role in the barley-malt-beer chain. Microbes greatly influence the malting and brewing performance as well as the quality of malt and beer. A major goal of the dissertation was to study the relationships between microbial communities and germinating grains during malting.

The research for her dissertation investigated the impacts of bacterial and fungal communities on barley germination and on malt properties. Her work “revealed that by modifying the microbial populations during malting, the brewing efficiency of malt can be notably improved. Well-characterized lactic acid bacteria and yeasts provide a natural way for achieving safe and balanced microbial communities in the malting ecosystem. She showed that the malting ecosystem is a dynamic process, exhibiting continuous change. The microbial communities consisting of various types of bacteria, yeasts and filamentous fungi form complex biofilms in barley tissues and are well-protected. Inhibition of one microbial population within the complex ecosystem leads to an increase of non-suppressed populations, which must be taken into account because a shift in microbial community dynamics may be undesirable. Laitila found some new microbial species in the malting ecosystem.”

 
More from the press release:

Suppression of Gram-negative bacteria during steeping proved to be advantageous for grain germination and malt brewhouse performance. Fungal communities including both filamentous fungi and yeasts significantly contribute to the production of microbial b-glucanases and xylanases, and are also involved in proteolysis. Well-characterized lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus plantarum VTT E-78076 and Pediococcus pentosaceus VTT E-90390) proved to be effective way in balancing the microbial communities in malting. Furthermore, they have positive effects on malt characteristics and they improve wort separation.

Previously the significance of yeasts in the malting ecosystem has been largely underestimated. This study showed that yeast community is an important part of the industrial malting ecosystem. Yeasts produced extracellular hydrolytic enzymes with a potentially positive contribution to malt processability. Furthermore, several yeasts showed strong antagonistic activity against field and storage moulds. Addition of a selected yeast culture (Pichia anomala VTT C-04565) into steeping restricted Fusarium growth and hydrophobin production and thus prevented beer gushing. Addition of Pichia anomala into steeping water tended to retard wort filtration, but the filtration was improved when the yeast culture was combined with Lactobacillus plantarum E76. The combination of different microbial cultures offers a possibility to use different properties, thus making the system more robust.

For the more technically inclined among you, a pdf of her dissertation is available online.

 

In Memory of Steve Harrison

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A memorial service for Steve Harrison was held at the Sierra Nevada Brewery Friday morning for employees and business associates and a family service took place earlier today at the Lakeside Pavilion at California Park in Chico. I attended the service at the brewery on Friday and it was a very moving tribute to Steve’s life. There was a slide show of photos from throughout Steve’s life, from childhood playing the background during the entire service. Several of Steve’s childhood friends from where he grew up in Woodland Hills, California told stories about him when he was younger. Then family, brewery employees, and friends from the brewing community did likewise. It was really nice to hear about so many different sides of Steve and it was great seeing how many people’s live Steve touched, mine included.

There is also an online guestbook you can sign at the Chico Enterprise-Record and another one at his funeral home website.

The following obituary is posted on the website for Harrison’s funeral home:

Steve was born June 24, 1951 at Travis Air Force Base, California to Haldon and Toni Harrison. After graduating from Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California, he enrolled at California State University, Northridge. He moved to Chico in 1976 to attend Chico State University where he graduated with a degree in anthropology.

While in college, Steve became the first employee of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. He continued with the company for the next 27 years, most recently serving as Vice President. Steve’s role evolved from sales to a role blending the sales department with operations and production planning. For the past two years, Steve had been transitioning into retirement.

Steve was an avid cyclist, regularly joining friends on weekend rides throughout the North Valley, foothills, and mountains. He was a strong advocate for cycling in our community and a wonderful friend to his many cycling partners. He also enjoyed several foreign cycling trips with friends and family, most recently to Italy. He also loved to hike in Bidwell Park and the Sierra Nevadas.

Steve enjoyed a lifelong sense of curiosity and loved literature, fine films, and spirited conversation. He was devoted to the Chico community and appreciated its beauty, opportunities, and citizenry.

He was intensely interested in politics and was committed to progressive causes related to social justice, environmental sustainability, smart growth, economic opportunity, and universal health care.

Steve is survived by his loving wife, best friend, and cycling partner, Linda Zorn; his father, Haldon Harrison, of Culver City, California; his mother and step-father, Toni and Jack Gardner of Pittsburgh, PA; his brother, Hugh, sister-in-law, Annie, and niece, Nicole Haskins, of Venice, California; his sister, Kate Harrison and her partner, Jim Hendry, of Berkeley, California; and several step-siblings.

Steve enriched the lives of all those with whom he shared himself, worked, and biked. His good humor, companionship, helpfulness to others, and social commitment will be greatly missed.

Donations in his honor may be made to the Steve Harrison Fund, which will be used to promote environmental sustainability and alternative energy projects. Donations may be sent to Newton-Bracewell Chico Funeral Home of Chico, which is handling arrangements.

It’s hard to put into words the importance Steve had to the success of Sierra Nevada Brewing and the craft beer industry as a whole. He was among the early pioneers of our fledgling segment of the beer industry. He was a tireless champion of small breweries both out in front and behind the scenes, such as in his role as President of the California Small Brewers Association. He will be greatly missed. Please join me in drinking a toast to Steve’s memory this evening. Any craft beer will do, but if you can manage a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, so much the better.

Craft Lagerfest Winners

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Although in its fifth year, the Craft Lager Fest is a festival I have not had the opportunity to attend. But I like the idea of it, being another niche festival that highlights a particular style of beer, in this case lagers broadly. But since the majority of craft beer is undoubtedly ales, shining a spotlight on lager styles is a great idea. In fact, I have an article coming out in the next issue of American Brewer on this very subject, the rise of the small, niche festival.

The Craft Lager Festival takes place in a small town in Colorado, Manitou Springs, which is near Pikes Peak. This year they got 30 breweries from Hawaii to Boston participating. The winning breweries are listed below.
 

2007 Winners List

PILSENER

  1. Blue Paddle (New Belgium)
  2. La Plata Pilsener (Carver Brewing)
  3. Polestar Pilsener (Lefthand Brewing)

EXPORT/HELLES:

  1. Light Lager (Rock Bottom Colorado Springs)
  2. Longboard Island Lager (Kona Brewing)
  3. Session Beer (Full Sail Brewing)

BOCK:

  1. Ltd. #2 (Full Sail Brewing.)
  2. Rye Bock Lager (Lefthand Brewing)
  3. Butthead Bock (Tommyknockers)

STRONG LAGER:

  1. No 1st Place Awarded
  2. Warning Sign Eis Bock (Good Ol’ Boys Brewing COOP)
  3. Dutch (Rockyard American Grill & Brewery)

OKTOBERFEST/VIENNA/MARZEN:

  1. No 1st Place Awarded
  2. Steam Engine Lager (Steamworks Brewing)
  3. Ornery Amber (Tommyknockers)

OTHER SPECIALTY LAGER:

  1. Spring Tonic Elixir (Carver Brewing)
  2. Cerbeza Real (Carver Brewing)
  3. Hop Goblin (Il Vicino Albuquerque)

 

Drink Up, Your Kidneys Will Thank You

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According to a study published in the British Journal of Cancer last month entitled Alcoholic beverages and risk of renal cell cancer, moderate consumption of alcohol — ideally strong beer or red and white wine — may lower the risk of renal cell cancer, better known as kidney cancer. The study concluded that your odds of getting kidney cancer was reduced around 40% by drinking approximately two glasses of wine or two bottles or beer per week. Curiously, while strong beer, red wine and white wine had this positive effect, light beer, medium-strong beer, strong wine, or hard liquor had virtually no effect.

The study’s authors speculated on the reasons for this in their concluding remarks.

A reduced risk associated with consumption of wine and beer might be due to the phenolics they contain as these possess antioxidant and antimutagenic properties (Elattar and Virji, 1999; Denke, 2000) or increase plasma antioxidant capacity in human (Ghiselli et al, 2000). However, the lower risk that we observed for three different alcoholic beverages and total ethanol intake suggests that alcohol itself rather than a particular type of drink is responsible for the reduction in risk. However, it is unclear why we observed an inverse association only for strong beer and not for medium-strong, or light beer, although this might be due to the lower ethanol content of light (1.8%) and medium-strong (2.8%) beer compared to strong beer (4.5%).

 

Sparkling Hop Liqueur?

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Kirin Brewery announced today that they will releasing their third quasi-beer into the populy Japanese alcohol category known as “third-category.” The Japanese media came up with that name, officially they’re classified as “other miscellaneous alcohol” or “liquor.” Naturally they’re subject to lower taxes, are often made with soybeans but without malt. The first and second categories are “beer” and “happoshu,” which is a low-malt beer with less than 67% malt.

Kirin’s newest entry into the lucrative Japanese quasi-beer market is “Sparkling Hop,” which, according to the press release, will “feature a distinctive aroma created by blending Japanese and New Zealand hop varieties. Strong pressure gives the product a rich head and a refreshing finish, Kirin officials said.”

Sparkling Hop’s target demographic is twenty-somethings, the same group that are buying the dreaded alcopops.

Also from the press release:

Sparkling Hop is made by mixing a “happoshu” low-malt drink with spirits. Under Japan’s liquor tax system, the new product is classified as a liqueur, whose tax rate is lower than those for beer and happoshu.

This is Kirin’s third product in the third category, following “Ryoshitsu Sozai” and “Nodogoshi Nama.” With the three products, Kirin hopes to beat out its rivals in the heavily crowded third-category market.

These “third-category” products along with the low-malt happoshu will likely never reach our shores, because they’re largely a result of taxation. If Japan’s tax structure was different, they wouldn’t exist. But they appear to be having the same damaging effect as alcopops are having here, not so much in terms of underage drinking (in Japan it’s age 20), but insofar as the sweeter drinks are finding favor with kids raised on sweet soft drinks who are not acquiring a taste for bitter drinks like beer as they age. It’s somewhat ironic that Japan’s beer industry in trying to get around the tax laws, may be shooting themselves in the foot with these lower-taxed, highly sweetened alcoholic drinks.

 

Northern England’s 1st Female Brewer

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The term “brewster,” which means female brewer has fallen largely out of fashion, though I know a number of brewsters who do actually like the word. I’ve always liked the sound of it, myself, and it evokes a time when it was not only common for brewers to be female, but it was it was the norm as recently as the 1700s and into the early 1800s. Women brewed beer for the household, which is where the term “alewife” comes from. At one point, something like 80% of brewers were female.

The beautiful wooden fermenters at Wentworth Brewery.

 But then “monasteries began larger scale brewing for passing travelers, so women became less involved in brewing.” Later, in the mid-1800s, the industrial revolution took brewing from the home to the factory brewery and men became the dominant force in the industry. With rise of small craft breweries in the U.S. and abroad, women have been returning to brewing in greater numbers, especially in America.

From some reason, this is less so in England, where the promotion of Michelle Bright to head brewer at the Wentworth Brewery in South Yorkshire makes her only the second brewster in all of England, and the first in northern England. At just 26-years old, she’s also the youngest.

The only other brewster in the UK is Sara Barton, who owns and brews at Brewster’s Brewery in Grantham, Lincolnshire.

 

Both breweries are effectively with microbreweries, with small output over a local geographic area. A website for the village of Wentworth has a nice photo tour of the Wentworth Brewery online. And Brewster’s website features a short history of brewsters.

From the press release:

Michelle is also thought to be the only award winning brewster in the land, after winning the Gold Medal accolade at the Oakwood Beer Festival in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. She is an ex-army chef who has served in Kosovo and has since turned her skilful hand to brewing.

Steve Beech, Wentworth Brewery’s managing director, said: “Michelle has been with Wentworth for a few years now and has well and truly served her apprenticeship. She is a model employee and we are delighted that she has risen through the ranks to the dizzy heights of head brewer. She really deserves it and we are looking forward to tasting further exciting, new and interesting brews from Michelle in the future.”

Wentworth’s popular Oatmeal Stout – brewed by Michelle – scooped the best in show prize last year; at 4.8% it is dark, smooth, deeply delicious and definitely ‘moreish’! The outstanding Oatmeal Stout has already won many awards across the country and must be tasted to be fully understood. The satisfyingly malty flavour is achieved partly from the roasted barley and Golding hops.

Plus they’ve got some of the most beautiful labels I’ve seen. Here are just a few of them, but check out their website to see many, many more cool labels.

    

    

 

Steve Harrison’s Body Found

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The body of Sierra Nevada Brewing Vice-President Steve Harrison was found earlier today, around 4:15 p.m., in the Sacramento River, by a local resident who has helping been with the search on his Wave Runner since last week. Roughly two hours later, the local sheriff’s deputies recovered Harrison’s body, which had been caught on a snag in spot in the river known as the washout near Scotty’s Boat Landing, about half a mile from where his blue Toyota Prius had been discovered next to the river. Harrison had been missing since last Tuesday, August 7. The body has been turned over to the Butte County Coroner’s Office for an autopsy.

My heart goes out to his wife, Linda, and the rest of Steve’s family, not to mention all the close friends and colleagues at the brewery that he’d been working with since it began in 1979. The brewing community has lost one of its most influential and important members. This is very sad day for all of us.
 

Kirin Discovers Anti-Oxidizing Yeast

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Kirin Brewery, along with the Keio University Institute of Advanced Biosciences have announced the discovery of new yeast strain found by analyzing the metabolic byproducts that brewer’s yeast synthesizes. What they found was that brewer’s yeast creates large quantities of “hydrogen sulfide when processing a tiny number of metabolites of the amino acid asparagine.” The team then selected yeasts that unusually prolific asparagine metabolites. The new strain “processes large amounts of sulfurous acid — an antioxidant that helps keep beer fresh — without synthesizing hydrogen sulfide, which has an unpleasant sulfur smell.” In fact, the new Kirin yeast makes 50% more sulfurous acid but no hydrogen sulfide whatsoever. Kirin plans to start using the new yeast in the beer shortly, presumably after more testing is completed. But if true, it could revolutionize the brewing industry.
 

Craft Beer Growth Continues Double-Digit Growth in First Half of 2007

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The Brewers Association just released the sales numbers for craft beer covering the first half of 2007. It’s all good news and craft beer is again showing double-digit growth at approximately 11%, which is the same percentage growth rate it sustained in 2006.

From the press release:

The Brewers Association, the trade association that tabulates industry data for craft brewers, reports craft beer sales and growth continue to break records. The volume of craft beer sold in the first half of 2007 rose 11% compared to this same period in 2006 and dollar growth increased 14%. For the first time ever craft beer has exceeded more than a 5% dollar share of total beer sales.

Overall, the U.S. beer industry sold one million more barrels in the first half of 2007 compared to 2006, with 400,000 of these new barrels produced by craft breweries. This equates to 3.768 million barrels of craft beer sold in the first two quarters of 2007 compared to 3.368 million barrels sold in the first half of 2006.

Scan data from Information Resources, Inc. provide additional data points that confirm strength for the segment. Craft beer sales in the supermarket channel through July 15th, 2007 showed a 17.4% increase in dollar sales compared to the same period in 2006. This growth in sales was higher than any other alcohol beverage category.

“The 1,400 small, independent and traditional craft brewers in the U.S. have hit their stride,” said Paul Gatza, Director of the Brewers Association.“United States craft brewers are making many of the world’s best beers, and the marketplace is responding.”

Coupled with the growth statistics has been a tidal wave of media coverage in the first half of 2007 including NBC’s Today Show on July 3 stating, “Beer is the new wine and can go with just about any food.” Additionally, Gallup, in its latest poll on alcohol beverages, announced for the second straight year that “Beer Again Edges Out Wine as Americans’ Drink of Choice.”

Julia Herz, Director of Craft Beer Marketing for the Brewers Association concluded, “Craft beer market share is steadily and consistently growing. A grassroots movement is responsible for this success as appreciators continue to trade up.”

The definition of craft beer as stated by the Brewers Association: An American craft brewer is small, independent and traditional. Small = annual production of beer less than 2 million barrels. Beer production is attributed to a brewer according to the rules of alternating proprietorships. Flavored malt beverages are not considered beer for purposes of this definition. Independent = Less than 25% of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcoholic beverage industry member who is not themselves a craft brewer. Traditional = A brewer who has either an all malt flagship (the beer which represents the greatest volume among that brewers brands) or has at least 50% of its volume in either all malt beers or in beers which use adjuncts to enhance rather than lighten flavor.

In addition, the Brewers Association released the following charts:

 

 

California Redefines Distilled Spirits

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California’s Board of Equalization took the surprising move today (by a one vote margin) of redefining distilled spirits using some very odd language. The new definition, which takes effect in July 2008, was re-written in an effort by neo-prohibitionist groups to tax FMB’s (flavored malt beverages, a.k.a. alcopops or malternatives) at a higher rate under the pretense of keeping them out of the hands of children. The idea that by making them more expensive they’ll be less attractive to younger and underage drinkers is, of course, prima facie ridiculous. I can understand the state’s angle because it will produce more revenue for them, but that it will help cure underage drinking is pure fantasy. California State Controller John Chiang went so far as to say “taxing flavored malt beverages as liquor will also help reduce their popularity with young people by simply pricing the product out of their reach.” Tell that to the sixteen-year old punks driving around Marin County in new BMW’s that they won’t be able to afford Smirnoff Ice anymore. What utter hogwash.

Even if I accept such tortured logic, why should everybody — older adults included — be punished with higher prices and why should those companies arbitrarily now have to pay significantly higher taxes? I think McDonald’s happy meals are destructive to the health of our nation’s youth. Should we charge McDonald’s a health tax on every happy meal so they’re so expensive no one will buy them anymore, for the good of our children? I think Coke is rotting the teeth and insides of millions of kids. Should a bottle of Coca-cola cost $5.00 to compensate for the health risks and keep children from buying them? Would it then be fair that the rest of us have to spend $5, too, to buy a coke and a smile? Why should every product we don’t want kids to have be more expensive for the rest of us just so they may not be able to afford it? It just doesn’t make sense. But that’s effectively the logic at work here. Is that really how we want to orient our society?

Here is the new language:

Regulation 2558. Distilled Spirits. Define distilled spirits to include any alcoholic beverage, except wine, which contains 0.5 percent or more alcohol by volume from flavors or ingredients containing alcohol obtained from the distillation of fermented agricultural products. (emphasis added.)

What’s troubling about this decision is that this new definition could — which means probably will — be interpreted to include some beer aged in oak barrels as well as certain other craft beers as distilled spirits. If subject to the much higher spirits tax, it will make them either prohibitively expensive or, more likely, effectively force brewers to stop making them altogether. And that would effectively quash some of the most innovative beers being produced today.

According to people who attended the hearing, it appears likely that this issue may be challenged in the courts and/or be dealt with through the legislature. Neo-prohibitionist groups, of course, are already claiming victory and sending out celebratory press releases, such as the one I received from the Marin Institute, who referred to the votes as “historic” and applauded the “strong leadership” of California’s state controller John Chiang. Apparently they regard a strong leader as someone who does their bidding.

Here’s some more back-patting from the press release:

“This is an enlightened step forward in controlling underage consumption of alcohol,” said Bruce Lee Livingston, MPP, Executive Director of Marin Institute. “For generations, Big Alcohol has evaded proper taxation on these products. Now, the state will benefit and the health and well-being of our youth will be improved.”

I find it curious that they even use the word “enlightened,” since that brings to mind the Enlightenment, a time that couldn’t be more removed from the sort of tactics neo-prohibitionists are using now. To enlighten, means to “to give intellectual or spiritual light to” something, or in older parlance to simply “shed light upon.” Trying to remove alcohol from society in order to impose ones own morals on everyone else is the very opposite of enlightened.

Then there’s his “[f]or generations, Big Alcohol has evaded proper taxation on these products.” (my emphasis.) A generation is generally considered to be about thirty years. FMBs first appeared a little over ten years ago, fifteen at most. And they really didn’t become all that popular until the introduction of Smirnoff Ice, which was in 2001. That was only six years ago, not quite the at least sixty years that Chiang’s “generations” implies.

“Public policy trumped corporate-influenced politics today,” said Michele Simon, Director of Research and Policy at Marin Institute. That’s one way of looking at it, I suppose. Another is ‘fear mongering moral crusaders hijacked democracy in an effort to advance their own narrow agenda by pretending to care about the welfare of children and trumped common sense and reason today.’ It’s all how you choose to spin it.

Now personally I’m no fan of FMBs, either, and I also think they subvert young people from discovering the joys of craft beer, but I don’t believe making them more expensive is in any way useful. If the true goal of the neo-prohibitionists really is to keep them out of the hands of children (as they claim), a more effective strategy might be to keep kids from drinking sweet soda and developing a fondness for sweeter drinks in the first place. Then alcopops would not have the same appeal for them as they get older. Plus it would have the added benefit of keeping kids healthier by reducing their intake of sugar, high fructose syrup and other harmful chemicals in today’s soda-pop. But I don’t think this brouhaha really is about the children, but rather is anti-alcohol merely using children as a justification that’s easier to sell than another prohibition.

And that’s why I’m particularly troubled by the vague language of the new definition. Because I believe this is just another first step in a larger and more sinister effort not just to control children’s access to FMBs, but to restrict access to all alcohol. Today it’s FMBs, tomorrow … who knows what. So the enemy of my enemy is my friend in this case. If it was just about the taxes I wouldn’t like it, but at least I’d understand it. The way the neo-prohibitionist groups have been pushing against FMBs makes it obvious that it’s about more than just money. That they’ve persuaded the state of California to take this step and play into their hands is quite disturbing, to say the least.