Coolest 'sciencey' Thing About Beer

[jonocarroll]

A question to the forum;

"What's the coolest science-related thing you can think of to do with beer and/or brewing?"

I'm not so much looking for 'I can brew a dunkel with five decoction steps', I'm writing a 'hey,-look-how-cool-science-is' type of newspaper article and I'm lazy. Very lazy. Anyways, I'm curious to see what I've not thought about, so can anyone think of something that might be interesting to write about? For that matter, something you don't know about, but might find interesting to read about if you weren't a brewer?

I've already covered a bit of the basics of yeast metabolism, CO₂ absorption, and water chemistry (written a lot less boring than that of course).

Any ideas?

 

[thelastspud]

Could look into spontanous fermentation of different things, A barrel of apples or pinapples. hmm thats not very good im drawing a blank right now, Im always saying to myself thats cool when i hear about brewing science things.

 

[KoNG]

George Fix

 

[ajdougall]

Hi Quantum Brewer,

I would do some research into old yeasts. I have read that beer with viable yeast has been found on sunk viking boats. I also think there is a beer available in the UK that is made from yeast isolated from beer found in a ship that sunk in the 1800s.

If viking yeast is commercially available, i would love to get some!

Cheers

Doogs

 

[booyablack]

Hi Quantum Brewer,

I would do some research into old yeasts. I have read that beer with viable yeast has been found on sunk viking boats. I also think there is a beer available in the UK that is made from yeast isolated from beer found in a ship that sunk in the 1800s.

If viking yeast is commercially available, i would love to get some!

Cheers

Doogs

Doogs

Not sure if you've already seen this thread or not but here's a beer made from pre-historic yeast. Not sure if that makes it better than the viking stuff but it's certainly older!

Also, possibly some science article material for you QB about the ability of yeast to remain viable after millions of years.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...7&hl=fossil

 

[Frank]

I think nucleation points for CO2 in glass wear is pretty amazing. I remember my early drinking days watching some of the old guys dropping a 1 cent piece or a small ball of talley hoe paper in their beer to aid in getting more head. Years ago I got a pint that had a crusty spot on the side and it looked like there was a CO2 port on the side of the glass with the amount of bubbles given off... Stared at it for ages and did not want to drink the beer. We all know about Headmaster glasses, that I personally don't like, but I do like the science behind it. It also looks pretty cool with etched Champagne fluets.
Not really a direct beer topic but associated.

 

[bcp]

The discovery of beer must have been a series of happy accidents.

Because fermentation is a combination of natural processes caused by disrupting other natural processes.

It's a very narrow opportunity we exploit: grain germinates - usually in the soil and relatively quickly - and enzymes convert the starch into sugars and away it goes... but somewhere way way back they discovered that you can halt the process - even start to play with the sugars for flavour - like caramelisation, etc - and take it on a completely different track...

But the completely different track always involved bringing in an invisible third party - yeast - that they couldn't see and didn't even know existed. Without it you'd have a rotten soup of bacteria...

But they must have learnt to repeat the happy accidents repeated because the results made them... happy.

 

[QldKev]

Not that exciting, but my son is off to do Biotechnology at UQ,

from their website http://biotech.facbacs.uq.edu.au/

Literally it is technology that utilises living things as scientific tools to make a product or to solve problems.

The Egyptians were already using biotechnology in 1550 BC when they used yeasts and the malting process to make bread,beer and wine. However the term "biotechnology" actually came about in 1917 referring to the use of large scale fermentation production.

 

[///]

Gibberelic Acid action and the subsequent synthesis of amalyses and cell structure changes in malt is pretty darn nifty!

Scotty

 

[newguy]

Something I find really interesting is why yeast evolved the ability to produce alcohol in the first place: chemical warfare to use against competing bacteria. Land on a food source and try to poison it as quickly as possible so that bacteria can't consume it, then when the sugar is gone, go back and "eat" the poison (alcohol). Quite ingenious in my humble opinion.

 

[brendo]

What about the conversion process in the mash run and the fact thr a brewer can manipulate conditions to favour different enzymes that alter the profile of the beer?

 

[MHB]

Guinness Bubbles
M

 

[hefevice]

How about a slightly different angle; the contribution that brewing has made to science in general?

Examples:

The beer related work of Pasteur (and it's flow on to other areas).
The invention of the pH scale by Sorensen at Carlsberg to analyse and control the mashing process.
The development of the Student T Distribution and Test by Gosset at Guinness as a way to predict yeast populations from small samples.
James Prescott Joule was a brewer. I don't have any direct references, but much of his work on the nature of heat is of interest to brewing.

I'm sure there are several more.

 

[Thommo]

It's gotta be Yahoo Serious splitting the atom to put bubbles into beer in Tasmania, doesn't it?

This conversation is already way over my head.

 

[jonocarroll]

Phew! What a wonderful response. Cheers everyone! It is only a general science article, so I'm going to be keeping the science at about high-school level. Keep 'em coming, but for now some feedback;

Also, possibly some science article material for you QB about the ability of yeast to remain viable after millions of years.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...7&hl=fossil

A good point, I'll try to find a good reference for it.

I think nucleation points for CO2 in glass wear is pretty amazing.

Definitely. I've added a section on CO₂ absorption (and de-absorption!) but nucleation might be a good point to add.

Gibberelic Acid action and the subsequent synthesis of amalyses and cell structure changes in malt is pretty darn nifty!

Guinness Bubbles

Yup. Nitrogenation and the 'Guinness Effect' if I've got room. These articles are only short, I could write volumes if given the chance.

How about a slightly different angle; the contribution that brewing has made to science in general?

Examples:

The beer related work of Pasteur (and it's flow on to other areas).
The invention of the pH scale by Sorensen at Carlsberg to analyse and control the mashing process.
The development of the Student T Distribution and Test by Gosset at Guinness as a way to predict yeast populations from small samples.
James Prescott Joule was a brewer. I don't have any direct references, but much of his work on the nature of heat is of interest to brewing.

I'm sure there are several more.

Now THAT's some serious lateral thinking. Awesome. :beer: I may need to purge some of the stuff I've already written to fit this in. I already had Pasteur in there, and I had something on pH, but I wasn't aware it was invented for brewing.

It's gotta be Yahoo Serious splitting the atom to put bubbles into beer in Tasmania, doesn't it?

I completely forgot about that. I think I've found my side-image. Cheers!

 

[benno1973]

What about the conversion process in the mash run and the fact thr a brewer can manipulate conditions to favour different enzymes that alter the profile of the beer?

I always find this amazing, that we can adjust mash temps up or down by a few degrees, and vastly change the profile and body of the resultant beer.

 

[Leigh]

You could also write about the preserving nature of hops and the science around that. I recall an article I read many moons ago explaining scientifically why the closer to the equator you live, the spicier the food, went mostly into biology, but was very interesting.

Why limit to one article, submit one every couple of months on a different topic.

 

[jonocarroll]

Why limit to one article, submit one every couple of months on a different topic.

Science section of the local newspaper. It rotates between authors from this part of this uni and they're pretty keen on diversity of topics. I'll see what they think of this one and see if they want a follow up later.

 

[daemon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Prescott_Joule

The joule is named after him, some of the work was derived from his involvement in managing a brewery.

Didn't know about pH though, yet another major scientific discovery from brewing beer

 

[Spartan 117]

I love the whole enzyme conversion of starches into fermentables (love enzyme kinetics), considering doing my honours on it if the opportunity is there. good luck with the article post a link or a copy when its done if you can.

Aaron