P-15
Development of an artificial wort for yeast fermentation
studies.
The production of identical wort for laboratory or pilot plant studies is a considerable challenge. Fully defined or semidefined media which are suitable for laboratory work are often unsuitable for large scale work due to the cost of the medium or complications in their preparation. The requirements for an artificial wort are reproducibility of composition, similarity of carbohydrate and free amino nitrogen (FAN) spectra and independent control over wort components such as FAN and carbohydrate concentration. A cost effective artificial "wort" was developed using brewing syrup and nutritional supplementation. This was used to investigate the independent influences of FAN and carbohydrate concentration on yeast ester production over the OG range 10-15 P and the FAN concentration range of 90-180 mg/l. Ester production was linear with respect to each of the two components.
Behnam Taidi is a process innovation manager at Scottish Courage Brewing Ltd (SCBL) managing the progress of the strategic research programme. Behnam, a biochemist, has been involved in brewing research and innovation since 1993 when he joined BRi. He then joined SCBL in 1996 and has since been involved and responsible for various yeast, fermentation and molecular biology projects, site trials and management of the Pilot Brewery facility. Behnam has been a lecturer to the IOB Brewster and International courses and is currently a lecturer to the extensive SCBL internal training courses for the IOB Associateship Examinations.