Beer experiment

[JOHN WELSH]

My daughter came up with an idea while we were movingsome beer around to make room for lagering. She said I should make a fifteen gallon batch of wort. Split in into 3 vessels and subject each of them to different music while fermenting. Like one gets classical chamber music, one gets death metal and one gets silence. Then taste for differences
Has anyone tried anything like this? Does the yeast like one kind of music over another? Will this change the final outcome

 

[Tim Schmidt]

Beer likes the blues.

 

[mongoose33]

It's known that music influences animal functions; cows, IIRC, seem to do better with classical music as opposed to metal.

So why not yeast?

Well, I can't think of a reason why not, but by the same token, I can't imagine why such a simple organism would be influenced by music. But who knows?

Here are some issues:

1. You'd need three separate lagering chambers sound-isolated from the others.

2. You'd have to decide not only on the genre, but the specific types of music. Mozart? Metallica? Ozzie?

3. Then you need to have some sort of testing regimen to see if there's a difference. You could of course just taste them yourself, but unless it's blind, and presented to you randomly, it's hard to tell what the results would mean. Look up "triangle test."

 

[IslandLizard]

As long as you can keep all the other parameters (every single one) exactly the same, music style being the only variable, you may have a valid experiment. For example, no Death Metal should intrude upon the fermenter exposed to Classical.

 

[Dgallo]

interesting. Plays with the whole theoretical physics of the fabric of the universe idea that vibrations and waves cause all things at the molecular level. Would love to see the result

 

[CodeSection]

My daughter came up with an idea while we were movingsome beer around to make room for lagering. She said I should make a fifteen gallon batch of wort. Split in into 3 vessels and subject each of them to different music while fermenting. Like one gets classical chamber music, one gets death metal and one gets silence. Then taste for differences
Has anyone tried anything like this? Does the yeast like one kind of music over another? Will this change the final outcome

Not knowing how old your daughter is, it sounds like a neat Science Fair Experiment!

 

[IslandLizard]

Does the yeast like one kind of music over another?

Beer is a complex organism, the yeast is not the only ingredient exposed to and tested in the experiment.

Various sugars, hop components, minerals/ions, etc., including the water are part of the whole system being tested. Even the vessel plays a role. So when one finds significant evidence to prove the hypothesis, don't just attribute it to the yeast, but the whole system used in the experiment.

 

[mongoose33]

Not knowing how old your daughter is, it sounds like a neat Science Fair Experiment!

<alert, alert, alert>

I can see the headline now:

Junior high students caught drinking beer in alleged "test" of music on beer; teacher/advisor suspended without pay.

There will be fallout.

MTV will extol the virtues of music on beer. AB-Inbev will start adding music genre to the labels of their beer. Coors and Miller will release research showing the effect of using corn syrup in brewing is positively affected by the music they play while brewing.

And craft breweries the world over will start labeling their beers "double-metal" and "triple-metal."

 

[MildAvers]

Playing the radio in the barn while milking cows seemed to relax them.

I'm not sure what the effect of blasting Metallica in a closed chamber through a glass carboy would have. It might just break the carboy.

You might get significant results submerging a speaker in the fermenting wort. Are submersible speakers are a thing?

Of course one could reverse the experiment and submerge a microphone in the fermenting wort of various gravity/styles of beer, 1.040, 1.060, 1.080 and then observe the differences in waveform.

 

[CodeSection]

<alert, alert, alert>

I can see the headline now:

Junior high students caught drinking beer in alleged "test" of music on beer; teacher/advisor suspended without pay.

There will be fallout.

[Removed] MTV will extol the virtues of music on beer. AB-Inbev will start adding music genre to the labels of their beer. Coors and Miller will release research showing the effect of using corn syrup in brewing is positively affected by the music they play while brewing.

And craft breweries the world over will start labeling their beers "double-metal" and "triple-metal."

LOL, very good!

 

[CircaChris]

This is a proven scientific subject and music is now know to change the crystalline structure of water. Here is a short video:

There has also been study of thought and prayer on not only water but fermenting rice. The rice with positive thought fermented excellently, the rice with negative thought molded. The crystals from different music produced wildly different structure as well as with thought. Two samples of dirty water were taken and one prayed over continuously by monks. The one prayed over actually cleared in time. Amazing that thought power is just as prevelent on molecular vibration as action. The long version of this experiement here:


Hope you have the time to watch and that this will help satiate your curiousity or at least inform you further. Although I still strongly encourage the experiment. Your daughter who thought up the experiement probabaly saw one of these videos or had friends talking about it (you know youth and their youtube).

Good luck with the brew interested in the final results although almost sure classical will win. Maybe 90’s hip hop for one?

 

[deadwolfbones]

There have been several pro brewers (and wine makers) who have used music during production:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/beoplay-beobrew-music-infused-beer-news/
https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/art...winemaker-is-using-music-to-ferment-his-wines
https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/art...rewery-infuses-its-beer-with-the-wu-tang-clan
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/ed...n-to-study-impact-of-sound-on-fermenting-beer

Some academic studies, too:

https://www.researchgate.net/public...ility_of_starter_cultures_in_probiotic_yogurt

Jury's out on the effects, though.

 

[Rev2010]

Oh Lord, I can just see it now....

"The reason your NEIPA oxidized is because you didn't play Roy Orbison during primary fermentation"

"New Thread: Can anyone help me wire speakers inside my fermentation chamber?"

"New Thread: How do I soundproof my fermentation chamber?"

"New Thread: What music would make Wyeast 1968 most happy? Beetles or Rolling Stones?"

"Never ferment 3068 using Oompah band music! Contrary to popular belief the yeast haaate it, that's why your airlock blew off."


Rev.

 

[seatazzz]

Just my two cents, but death metal might make the yeast depressed and cause them to die off early. Or develop the tendency to heavy eyeliner and hating their parents and jumping out of the carboy early to join their friends down at the park to be nonconformists.

I personally subject my beer during brewing to Celtic music; the Irish know something about drinking and beer, and I think it helps the yeast get in the right mindset.

 

[Kirkwooder]

I would think that the increase vibration of heavy metal constantly playing would act like a stir plate and cause the beer to ferment faster.

I would hope that beer fermented to B.B. Kings Bluesville would come out the clear winner though.

 

[day_trippr]

"It's all about the bass"?

 

[grampamark]

For some reason, I think Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls" should be part of this experiment.

 

[SEndorf]

Your daughter gives me hope for the future.....

 

[Pkrd]

How much money do I need to spend on the speaker cable?