P-13

Uptake of wort amino acids during beer production: Impact of yeast strain and fermentation conditions.
PERPETE PHILIPPE, Santos Gumer, Bodart Etienne, and Sonia Collin. Universite Catholique de Louvain, Unité de brasserie et des industries alimentaires, Croix du Sud, 2/7, B-1348 Louavin-la-Neuve, Belgium.

According to Jones (J. Inst. Brew., 1964 - 1969), the amino acid absorption by Saccharomyces cerevisiae occurs sequentially in a complex medium. The sequence would not be influenced by individual concentrations. Although this model allows explanation, for instance, the well-known diacetyl peaks during a brewing fermentation, no comparison with the new data issued from molecular biology has been attempted up to now. The aim of the present work is therefore to clarify under which conditions four amino acid families can be really defined. For this purpose, the amino acid uptake has been monitored through fermentation in different media, at various scales and with several yeast strains. Taking into account available information about yeast permeases, an improved model emerges from these experiments.

Philippe Perpète has obtained a degree in biological sciences in 1990 at the Facultés Notre Dame de la Paix in Namur (Belgium), a degree in chemical sciences in 1992 from the same university and a PhD thesis in 1999 from the Université catholique de Louvain. His thesis was dedicated to alcohol-free beer organoleptic problems. He worked as research assistant from 1993 to 1999 in the Unit of brewery and food sciences headed by Prof. Sonia Collin. He is currently professor in this research unit.

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