Stibnut
New Member
Hi everyone! I've been brewing now for a little under three years. I picked up the hobby around the middle of 2020, when many people were locked down. That didn't really affect my job much, though.
Actually, I take that back. It was the best thing that ever happened to my employer, because I work in the lab at a large ethanol plant where we distill alcohol at all quality grades from USP and beverage down to fuel. The boom in hand sanitizer production turned it from a company staring down bankruptcy to one flush with cash, while also bringing on a whole bunch of additional regulation that made quality control labwork involve 20 times the paperwork it used to. Luckily for me, though, they were able to create an R&D position and promoted me into it, and now my workdays consist of tracking down the numerous interesting and not-so-interesting problems that happen at large scales while occasionally helping to develop new products like yeast extracts.
As for the problems, Public Enemy #1 is a wild Saccharomyces yeast that seems to like hanging out in dead legs and heat exchangers, taking over our continuous fermentation system 1-2 weeks after a re-pitch, and then gumming up the yeast plant that harvests our spent yeast while also calling it quits in fermentation with a percentage point of sugar remaining. There are also problems involving weird aromatic alcohols appearing in what should be grain neutral spirits and throwing off the UV-VIS absorbance test, and there are also mysterious odor compounds that human noses can detect at levels far lower than a GC can. These are challenging even with a GC-MS in SIM mode with ppb detection capabilities, and even when you detect them it's hard to track down where they're coming from. But I digress...
I actually started with home distilling as a way to teach myself firsthand about the science of fermentation along with distillation. I've always been much more of a craft beer drinker than a spirits drinker, though, and I never really distilled anything I liked better than a quasi-acceptable vodka. Also, it's illegal. So I've hung up my still and gravitated towards beer, mostly IPAs.
I've been doing all grain for about two years now, although it has all been BIAB. I feel I've been able to consistently make acceptable but mediocre IPAs, but I haven't been able to make anything truly great, and I'm here to learn how to do that. I also want to branch out to other styles, and I especially want learn how to brew something with lower ABV that doesn't taste watered-down.
My latest project involves an IPA brewed with a French Saison yeast that has been engineered to glow under UV light by inserting a GFP gene. I did this with a simple kit by The Odin - maybe some of you have played with it too? I've been able to get my beer to glow green with a 405 nm laser and with a strong blacklight, but it's fairly subtle, nothing like what some other brewers have managed to make. I'm still happy with it as a St. Patrick's Day brew though!
Actually, I take that back. It was the best thing that ever happened to my employer, because I work in the lab at a large ethanol plant where we distill alcohol at all quality grades from USP and beverage down to fuel. The boom in hand sanitizer production turned it from a company staring down bankruptcy to one flush with cash, while also bringing on a whole bunch of additional regulation that made quality control labwork involve 20 times the paperwork it used to. Luckily for me, though, they were able to create an R&D position and promoted me into it, and now my workdays consist of tracking down the numerous interesting and not-so-interesting problems that happen at large scales while occasionally helping to develop new products like yeast extracts.
As for the problems, Public Enemy #1 is a wild Saccharomyces yeast that seems to like hanging out in dead legs and heat exchangers, taking over our continuous fermentation system 1-2 weeks after a re-pitch, and then gumming up the yeast plant that harvests our spent yeast while also calling it quits in fermentation with a percentage point of sugar remaining. There are also problems involving weird aromatic alcohols appearing in what should be grain neutral spirits and throwing off the UV-VIS absorbance test, and there are also mysterious odor compounds that human noses can detect at levels far lower than a GC can. These are challenging even with a GC-MS in SIM mode with ppb detection capabilities, and even when you detect them it's hard to track down where they're coming from. But I digress...
I actually started with home distilling as a way to teach myself firsthand about the science of fermentation along with distillation. I've always been much more of a craft beer drinker than a spirits drinker, though, and I never really distilled anything I liked better than a quasi-acceptable vodka. Also, it's illegal. So I've hung up my still and gravitated towards beer, mostly IPAs.
I've been doing all grain for about two years now, although it has all been BIAB. I feel I've been able to consistently make acceptable but mediocre IPAs, but I haven't been able to make anything truly great, and I'm here to learn how to do that. I also want to branch out to other styles, and I especially want learn how to brew something with lower ABV that doesn't taste watered-down.
My latest project involves an IPA brewed with a French Saison yeast that has been engineered to glow under UV light by inserting a GFP gene. I did this with a simple kit by The Odin - maybe some of you have played with it too? I've been able to get my beer to glow green with a 405 nm laser and with a strong blacklight, but it's fairly subtle, nothing like what some other brewers have managed to make. I'm still happy with it as a St. Patrick's Day brew though!
