Schoffleine
Member
But I'm curious...I've just recently (as in today) gotten interested in Homebrewing so I've been reading the Wiki on the steps.
One step that caught my eye was aeration, adding O2 to the wort. Perhaps I misunderstood but I thought alcohol was the product of anaerobic glycolysis? Where as adding the oxygen would result in (with the presence of pyruvate dehydrogenase, which the yeast may not have) citric acid?
Now, obviously the oxygen works, has for years, but does anyone know why the yeast turn it into alcohol (ethanol if you want to get technical) instead of citric acid?
Or perhaps lactic acid is the anaerobic product where as ethanol and citric acid are the aerobic products dependent on presence of enzymes. So yeast would have alcohol dehydrogenase (and pyruvate carboxylase) instead of pyruvate dehydrogenase?
Anyone know? It's been a while since I've learned this stuff.
One step that caught my eye was aeration, adding O2 to the wort. Perhaps I misunderstood but I thought alcohol was the product of anaerobic glycolysis? Where as adding the oxygen would result in (with the presence of pyruvate dehydrogenase, which the yeast may not have) citric acid?
Now, obviously the oxygen works, has for years, but does anyone know why the yeast turn it into alcohol (ethanol if you want to get technical) instead of citric acid?
Or perhaps lactic acid is the anaerobic product where as ethanol and citric acid are the aerobic products dependent on presence of enzymes. So yeast would have alcohol dehydrogenase (and pyruvate carboxylase) instead of pyruvate dehydrogenase?
Anyone know? It's been a while since I've learned this stuff.