cinnamon affecting fermentation?

[Monkey]

Anyone have experience using cinnamon? Does it speed up/slow down/inactivate fermentation? I am writing a scientific paper on yeast for a biology course and would like a little background information from the experienced (you).

my hypothesis is that cinnamon will increase the rate of fermentation

 

[broadbill]

Anyone have experience using cinnamon? Does it speed up/slow down/inactivate fermentation? I am writing a scientific paper on yeast for a biology course and would like a little background information from the experienced (you).

my hypothesis is that cinnamon will increase the rate of fermentation

Why do you think this?

 

[gtpro]

Actually this would suggest quite the opposite.

Anti-Microbial Activity

Cinnamon's essential oils also qualify it as an "anti-microbial" food, and cinnamon has been studied for its ability to help stop the growth of bacteria as well as fungi, including the commonly problematic yeast Candida. In laboratory tests, growth of yeasts that were resistant to the commonly used anti-fungal medication fluconazole was often (though not always) stopped by cinnamon extracts.

From: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=68

Although I have to say, my winter spice beer with cinnamon went pretty nuts in primary.

 

[Primetime]

The only time I had a problem with a beer I was brewing is when I put 2 tbs of cinn in at the 10 min mark. The beer took 4 days to take off, and thats after I repitched a second package of dry yeast. Then after it start fermenting, it went crazy and blew the lid off my bucket. Now I know it could have been a number of things, but I blame the cinn. FYI I think it was about my 40th brew, so I'm past the brand new brewer stage.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

IIRC, I have read that some breweries add a very small portion of fresh ground cinnamon to every brew. IIRC, it was like Jolly Pumpkin or Russian River. Not enough to be perceived.

The intent conveyed was to do with anti-oxidant properties of the spice. To improve shelf life.

 

[mojotele]

I'm just curious, why do you hypothesize that it will increase the fermentation rate? I don't agree or disagree - I honestly don't know. Just wondering what makes you think it will increase fermentation.

 

[Monkey]

I performed the experiment in my lab class. we used four tubes, measuring CO2 production with a respirometer.

the first was a control and received no cinnamon.


tubes 2, 3, and 4 received 1, 2, and 3 mLs of a 0.14% solution of cinnamon, respectively.
each tube contained a total of 7 mLs (2mL yeast suspection, 2mLs glucose + water and cinnamon)

all three of the tubes with cinnamon in them produced a little over double CO2 in comparison to the control


This tells me that cinnamon does speed up the rate of fermentation, has anyone else found this in real world settings? a couple of you mentioned that cinnamon-containing brews fermented vigorously..

 

[Monkey]

I'm just curious, why do you hypothesize that it will increase the fermentation rate? I don't agree or disagree - I honestly don't know. Just wondering what makes you think it will increase fermentation.

to be honest, i chose increase because i had two options for my hypothesis: it increases or it decreases the rate of fermentation.

I just picked one and went with it,
I didn't believe having no affect at all would be a possibility or cinnamon probably wouldn't have been a possible variable to use for this lab experiment (i was given options and chose cinnamon).

 

[mojotele]

Interesting experiment. Thanks for answering.

I'm thinking you'll get conflicting stories from us, though, simply because our environments aren't very tightly controlled. Someone may think that cinnamon increased their fermentation, but temperature could've accounted for it as well. Others may think it inhibited it, but they could've had poor quality yeast. Really tough to say!

 

[broadbill]

I performed the experiment in my lab class. we used four tubes, measuring CO2 production with a respirometer.

the first was a control and received no cinnamon.


tubes 2, 3, and 4 received 1, 2, and 3 mLs of a 0.14% solution of cinnamon, respectively.
each tube contained a total of 7 mLs (2mL yeast suspection, 2mLs glucose + water and cinnamon)

all three of the tubes with cinnamon in them produced a little over double CO2 in comparison to the control


This tells me that cinnamon does speed up the rate of fermentation, has anyone else found this in real world settings? a couple of you mentioned that cinnamon-containing brews fermented vigorously..

I would say you have your answer, and wouldn't rely on the chattings of some anonymous posters on an internet forum for your information. You've done more tightly controlled experiment that any of us are either capable of with our setups.

In reading your write-up, what I found interesting is that you added different amounts of cinnamon to the three tubes, yet all had a similar increase in CO2 production. Is that correct? A better way to do this experiment in order to show a dose-response for cinnamon. In other words, that increasing doses of cinnamon results in increased CO2. What your data tells me is that at the lowest level of cinnamon you are getting a maximal response already. Someone could argue that the result you see is from a non-specific effect of adding a crap-load of cinnamon, and not specific to cinnamon itself (always a criticism when you are looking at a maximal response).

Oh yeah, and when writing your lab report....watch out so you are using the word "effect" and "affect" correctly!

 

[PanzerBanana]

I've not used it yet myself, but I would have to agree with the others regarding the cinnamon at least slowing the yeast down. Depending on the amount used.