Saccharomyces boulardii

I've been curious about brewing with Saccharomyces boulardii since reading about it's probiotic benefits. In preparation for this years T-day festivities I brewed a simple batch of Hard Cider with S. boulardii. I served it up to a friendly bunch of grain and fruit homebrewers and their friends and family. It was well received. Went through most of a corney keg in an afternoon! It didn't taste significantly different from a "normal" S. cerevisiae Hard Cider. Anyone else ever try this, or other alternate species?

What are you propping from since I'm not finding this strain commercially?

I used two capsules of Jarrow Formulas product Saccharomyces boulardii + MOS. I started them in 75 degree F water with a pinch of yeast nutrient, and a healthy dollop of honey. Soak for about 5 minutes, to moisten, then shaken well to aerate. More or less my standard yeast starting process.

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Very interesting. I'd like to know where to get my hands on some.

Most health foods stores, and the intarwebs will sell you S. boulardii. My initial test batches, and my T-day hard cider experiments were all a smashing successes. Many of the folks drinking the tday batch are mead and wine brewers with a huge amount of experience compared to me. I've done hard cider before, but have been mostly a beer brewer. I was gratified to have enthusiastic positive feedback on my experiment. That's why I decided to share my results, in the hopes that others would try out this alternative brew.

What percentage apparent attenuation did you get?

How well did it flocculate?

Any distinctive esters or phenols? And what were the level of these?

What was your fermentation profile temp wise?

The questions below are exactly why I want you brew-geeks involved. I've gotten lazy of late, and haven't been taking numbers on my brews.

What percentage apparent attenuation did you get? didn't do OG or FG so it's hard to say. The cider was a mix of 1/2 tart and 1/2 sweet apples. The final product was not completely dry, was slightly sweet. I hope that helps.

How well did it flocculate? Flocculation was good at about 12 days there was about 2-3 inches of flocculant at the bottom of the 5 gallon glass carboy. Tho' one taster pronounced it "yeasty" attesting to the fact that some yeast were in suspension.

Any distinctive esters or phenols? And what were the level of these? I suspect, by olfactory examination that any present must have been at a very low level. It didn't smell like a Heiferwizzen, for instance.

What was your fermentation profile temp wise? Temp by fermometer was about 70 while it was going strong (first 2-3 days) and dropped to 66-68 after that. The room it was in stayed about 65-70 over the brewing period.

I wish I could tell you more.

Pressure? I didn't measure, but it was atmospheric at 7K feet above sea level, FWIW.

Very cool, I made a beer this summer with S. Boulardii and Bacillus coagulans. Basically I propped up a couple of GTs Kombuchas from Whole foods and pitched into a basic wheat beer. (Most store bought kombucha isn't the real multi-culture scoby thing, read the labels)

I fermented pretty warm (high 70s) and it definitely had a round/fruity kind of quality, a bit like Activia? It was ok. I ended up adding tart cherries and some wine dregs, now it's really tasty. This is definitely an area for homebrewers to explore. I think there was a commercial beer from Goose Island made with Boulardii - Fleur?

There are lots of other species of Sacc out there, now trying to figure out how to culture yeast from tree bark. (seriously)

Weizenstein said:

(Most store bought kombucha isn't the real multi-culture scoby thing, read the labels)

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GT's uses patented yeast. I don't know of another company that adds the yeast, but a few of them list the strains present in their brew. Most kombucha is from multiple colonies and strains. In industrial brewing some large companies simply use starter rather than allow SCOBYs to grow, but they are not controlling their yeast to the extent implied.

@jambafish I don't suppose you know how to get a kombucha to taste similar to GT's? what's their secret you think?