thesis ideas for homebrew

Hello everyone,

I have just graduated from calpoly slo last spring in biology and just entered the biochemical engineering MS program there. I'm trying to come up with a thesis project idea that can incorporate homebrewing. My initial thoughts were to come up with something that has to do with wild ales or lambics (especially after tasting SN Brux) and the microbial ecology of yeast and bacteria. So my question is what would you guys do or what would you like to know about homebrewing? Im open to all suggestions so let the brainstorming begin!

These may results of interest to home brewers:

- effect of various yeast propagation techniques on fermentation performance and flavor
- effect of yeast age on fermentation performance and flavor

Do you have access to a good lab?

Yes I pretty much have all the equipment I could ask for, its just the money that is the problem. I am going to contact Firestone Walker later this week to see if they could possibly fund me. I also heard they are starting a large sour beer project, so that may be an option as well...

Are you open to pairing your biological research with psychometric a as well? Comparing lab results with human perception is a very interesting topic

I don't know if you read Science Brewer but he's a PhD microbiologist who has done a ton of blog entries on yeasties. I'm sure reading his blog could give you some ideas.
You could look into what causes the various mutations in a given strain after going through however many cycles it takes to ferment out a batch of beer. Find the interactions between IBUs(break it down further into the various humulenes), effects of wort gravity on mutation rate/specific mutations.
How these mutations affect metabolism of sugars.
Find a common ancestor for a given set of strains.
I'm sure some of it has been done, but those abstracts might give you inspiration. Speaking of abstracts have a chat with these folks: http://sdbn.org/2012/03/30/brewing-...ion-with-asbmb-april-23rd-at-mission-brewery/
http://www.asbmb.org/News.aspx?id=16163