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There are a lot of used lab ware companies out there, but ironically one of our better local sources here is a surplus store. Ebay is a good place to look as well. Bryan

Biosafety cabinets are but one form of the many types of laminar flow hoods that exist. But again, in any area of microbiology in which I have had experience (which spans a pretty broad range of the field - although obviously not to plant microbiology) no one uses any form of laminar flow hoods...

It doesn't matter all that much - the amount of O2 actually entering the starter is rather small (I think Kai did some experiments on this end). The main benefit of stirring is removal of CO2, which will have no trouble getting past a tightly "sealed" foil cap. If you're making enough on your...

Sorry, by incubator I thought you meant growing at 30-37C. Regardless, many genes are regulated by environmental factors such as temperature, osmolarity, pH, etc. Meaning that yeast cultured under conditions different from than of beer may express different genes, and thus produce different...

Outside of non-bacterial cell culture, in the health sciences side of things we don't use hoods. In fact, they are counter-indicated for BSL 1 and BSL 2 organisms (i.e. our permits explicitly recommend against using hoods for those organisms). Its not until we hit BSL 3 organisms where we use a...

The answer is "it depends" - the dilution you need is proportional to the yeast density, which can be quite variable. 1:100 often works for fermenting wort (e.g. in a starter or a fermenter), 1:1000 to 1:10,000 is more typical for slurry or anything with a lot of bacteria in it. As a "rule"...

Aeration won't do much in terms of acetic acid production - the amount of dissolved o2 isn't enough for significant production, plus most gets consumed for cell division. O2 is an issue mostly after primary fermentation is done, so if fermenting in a bucket or anything else with a big air space...

I don't use an incubator. They can accelerate growth, but they can also alter gene expression in undesired ways. Other have mentioned this already, but fixation is rarely needed. The only time I do anything like it is if I am trying to get a good count on yeast vs. bacterial numbers, or am...

Someone was kind enough to link to my blog - I've got some videos (and more in production) about some of the things you may be trying to do in your home lab. I'm a microbiologist by profession, so I may be able to help you out a little, especially on the microscope and media front. Firstly, the...

I don't think there is a set definition for what qualifies something as candi; different manufactures are going to make it in different ways - the key thing is the end product. If its a mix of caramelized and malliarded (is that even a word) sugars than its some sort of candi. Otherwise its...

Looks good; based on your description and colour change, I'd say that you've got inversion and a nice medium-candi syrup prepared. If it tastes good on its own it should taste good in your beer! Let us know how it goes! Bryan

Anti-oxidants are simply chemicals that react well with oxidants. In our bodies the most common oxidant they react with is free radicals (which are produced in prodigious amounts by our day-to-day metabolism). However, they will react just fine with oxygen as well; just at a much lower rate...

Lactobacillus buchneri is a heterofermenter, meaning it can produce metabolites other than ethanol. CO2 it's a common metabolite of heterofermenterd, which may explain what you are seeing. B

Many, many, many years ago I brewed my first barleywine - to be honest, I was a young university student and was more interested in the alcohol content than the style... Anyways, two weeks in the primary,another 3 in the secondary and a couple weeks in the bottle made something undrinkable (as...

Sacch should appear in a day or two; lacto and pedio about the same speed. Brett is often a little slower - it may take 3-5 days for those colonies to appear. Bryan

I don't think anyone can say - if the sugar as a nitrogen source than heating (with water) should produce the notes of a darker candi. If it lacks a nitrogen source (i.e. is pure sugar) you will get some carmelization and thus caramel flavour, but wont develop the broader flavour profile typical...

Have fun!

Others have mentioned this already, but if you sour-mash you can have a berliner done in as little as 2 weeks, and easily within 5. There are a lot of posts and articles out there on sour mashing, so I won't bother repeating too much, but here is some general advice to ensure the best product...

Well done! You're lucky to have had such good success; I've found that around here about 1 in 4 cultures is brewable. Brya

You need very little DME; I add a roughly a tablespoon per kilo of sugar. There is no "test" for inversion; 30min for complete inversion is simply an estimate based on various sources I read. Rock candi is (as far as I know) sucrose, so using that would be little different than using table...