Recent content by ni*

His suspicion at the end of the article, is that any strain of yeast would have similar results but that there has been little research into the subject. He would seem to have been wrong about both any strain of yeast having similar results and about there having been little research on this...

I think I'd think twice about someone extolling the health benefits of yeast who doesn't know what kingdom it's in. But more to the point, deciding something is true and then setting out to determine why you're right is just completely wrong-headed, and a major reason why people believe a lot...

I think you've misunderstood his question (although interestingly enough, I've also done research on pseudohyphal growth in yeast). weirdboy, the article is a bit misleading when it says that yeast were once multicellular, albeit in a way that popular science reporting very often is. What it...

Anyone confused can resolve the matter easily enough with a highschool-level experiment: grow yeast on a dextrose agar plate for a week or two (or a month, or whatever it takes to satisfy you -- transfer it to a new plate a few times if you're feeling especially stubborn). Transfer it to a...

No, it really doesn't. Again, you are misunderstanding what is meant by "permanent inactivation". Yes, the maltose permease protein present is permanently inactivated, but this will not hinder the yeast in producing new maltose permease given appropriate stimulation. This is why they had...

You're misinterpreting the paper and the citation it provides for this behavior. The paper you linked to says "Gorts (16) first described the glucose-induced inactivation of maltose transport. He noted that the inactivation took about 90 min and was irreversible in the absence of de novo...

As I have posted here before, the "telltale white powder" isn't yeast -- it's wax, as any intro botany book will clarify (this is an incredibly persistent, and somewhat baffling myth: how would the yeast multiply to macroscopic densities without the fruit showing any sign of decay, and indeed...

Reading optical density, or doing most of what has been described, doesn't seem at all beyond the scale of what can be accomplished at home for someone otherwise interested in these things. Only a tetrad dissection microscope would be particularly expensive (and it's the only piece of equipment...

It is interesting to think of what one might use as a marker in ale yeast. I (strongly) suspect that most of the obvious unambiguously scorable traits (high alcohol tolerance, say, or strong clove flavor) are polygenic. If you had two easily scorable traits, it would be easy enough to sort out...

I've never really doubted that -- in a sense it's kind of obvious. Where else would researchers have gone to get their strains, after all, other than breweries and bakeries, who would be certain to have healthy strains with know growth parameters? They're still pretty different from anything in...

Yes, I am referring to the effect of drift versus selection. I assumed this is what you meant because it was in the section you labeled "drift". Yes, I agree, it is easy to intentionally arrange things to increase the strength of drift, but unless you are doing this (intentionally or otherwise)...

This is a flabbergastingly correct post which somehow avoids all of the predominant misconceptions about evolution and genetics in the homebrewing community. I have only two minor objections: Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of mutations will have no effect on the fitness of the...

While there are many definitions of "acid", none requires a carboxyl group, organic acid or not. Alpha acids are, in fact, classically acidic by any definition. The pKa of humulone is ~ 4.5 - 5.5 (depending on which source you pay attention to), which shows that it is, in fact, fairly strong as...

I would certainly be curious. Mashing unmalted grain alone will not result in much (if any) conversion. You will need at least a portion of your grain to be malted. Otherwise, you can go without mashing and rely entirely on the endogenous yeast amylases to break down the starch, but this will...

Whoa. You should see a doctor IMMEDIATELY.