Beer is one of the oldest alcoholic beverages and is produced by the fermentation of sugars derived from starches present in cereal grains. Contrary to lager beers, made by bottom-fermenting strains ...of Saccharomyces pastorianus, a hybrid yeast, ale beers are closer to the ancient beer type and are fermented by S. cerevisiae, a top-fermenting yeast. Here, we use population genomics to investigate (1) the closest relatives of top-fermenting beer yeasts; (2) whether top-fermenting yeasts represent an independent domestication event separate from those already described; (3) whether single or multiple beer yeast domestication events can be inferred; and (4) whether top-fermenting yeasts represent non-recombinant or recombinant lineages. Our results revealed that top-fermenting beer yeasts are polyphyletic, with a main clade composed of at least three subgroups, dominantly represented by the German, British, and wheat beer strains. Other beer strains were phylogenetically close to sake, wine, or bread yeasts. We detected genetic signatures of beer yeast domestication by investigating genes previously linked to brewing and using genome-wide scans. We propose that the emergence of the main clade of beer yeasts is related with a domestication event distinct from the previously known cases of wine and sake yeast domestication. The nucleotide diversity of the main beer clade more than doubled that of wine yeasts, which might be a consequence of fundamental differences in the modes of beer and wine yeast domestication. The higher diversity of beer strains could be due to the more intense and different selection regimes associated to brewing.
Display omitted
•Top-fermenting beer yeast domestication is distinct from wine yeast domestication•Beer strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae are polyphyletic, contrary to wine strains•Beer strains are more diverse than wine yeasts, even considering only the main clade•Beer strains have distinctive genomic signatures of domestication
How different are S. cerevisiae strains used to produce top-fermented (ale-type) beer and wine? Gonçalves et al. show that on a genome-wide scale, they are clearly discernible, beer strains being more diverse and clustering according to beer type. Moreover, domestication signatures related to brewing were found to distinguish beer and wine strains.
Lemongrass (
) is a valuable source of vitamins, macro- and microelements, and essential oils. The purpose of this study was to compare the physicochemical properties, sensory properties, antioxidant ...activity, and microbiological stability of wheat beers enriched with varying additions of crushed lemongrass. Sensory evaluation showed that wheat beers enriched with 2.5%
/
lemongrass were characterised by balanced taste and aroma (overall impression). Physicochemical analysis of the wheat beers showed that increasing the concentration of lemongrass in the finished product negatively affected the ethanol content. Alcohol content in wheat beer enriched with 1%
/
lemongrass was on average 14.74% higher than wheat beer enriched with 2.5%
/
lemongrass and on average 17.93% higher than wheat beer enriched with 5%
/
addition of lemongrass. The concentration of lemongrass in the finished product also increased the acidity of the beers and affected the colour of the wheat beers compared to the control beer. The total polyphenol content and antioxidant activity of lemongrass-enriched wheat beers varied. Of the lemongrass-enriched beers analysed, the beer product with 5%
/
lemongrass was the most microbiologically stable. According to the study, crushed lemongrass-enriched wheat beer may represent a new trend in the brewing industry, but the brewing process still needs to be improved.
Given increasing social interest in health and wellness, rising cultural trends toward sobriety and moderating alcohol intake, and improvements in brewing technology, low(er) alcohol beer is a rising ...segment in the beer industry for both craft and larger-scale producers. In this paper, we assess the representation of low(er) alcohol beer among craft brewers in the United States. Using a novel quantitatively-informed qualitative analytical approach, we surveyed a randomized, non-representative sample of 400 craft brewery websites in the United States to assess the relative presence of low(er) alcohol beers as well as how these brews are represented by the breweries themselves. To do so, we recorded, both numerically and via website screenshots, the lowest ABV beverage on offer and noted the beer type, the beer name, and the ABV. Ales were the most prominent style of beer on offer, accounting for 62% of the low(er) ABV beers identified. Only 15.5% of the breweries surveyed in this study offered a beer with an ABV of less than 4%; however, an additional 67.9% offered a beer with an ABV of less than 5%. The representations of these low(er) alcohol products focused mostly on taste, health, and demographic indicators.
Traditional lambic beer production takes place through wort inoculation with environmental air and fermentation and maturation in wooden barrels. These wooden casks or foeders are possible additional ...inoculation sources of microorganisms for lambic worts. To date, however, these lambic barrels have been examined only with culture-dependent techniques, thereby missing a portion of the microorganisms present. Moreover, the effects of the cleaning procedures (involving high-pressure water and/or fumigation) and the barrel type on the microbial community structures of the interior surfaces of wooden lambic barrels were unclear. The culture-dependent plating and culture-independent amplicon sequencing of swab samples obtained from the interior surfaces of different wooden casks and foeders used for traditional lambic beer production in Belgium revealed that the microbial compositions of these surfaces differed statistically throughout the barrel-cleaning procedures applied. At the end of the cleaning procedures, amplicon sequencing still detected fermentation- and maturation-related microorganisms, although only a few colonies were still detectable using culture-dependent methods. It is possible that some of the surviving microorganisms were missed due to the presence of many of these cells in a viable but not culturable state and/or engrained deeper in the wood. These surviving microorganisms could act as an additional inoculation source, besides brewery air and brewery equipment, thereby helping to establish a stable microbial community in the wort to diminish batch-to-batch variations in fermentation profiles. Furthermore, the microbial compositions of the interior barrel surfaces differed statistically based on the barrel type, possibly reflecting different characteristics of the lambic barrels in terms of age, wood thickness, and wood porosity.
Although the coolship step is generally regarded as the main contributor to the spontaneous inoculation by environmental air of fresh worts for lambic beer production, it is known that microorganisms often associate with specific surfaces present in a brewery. However, knowledge about the association of microorganisms with the interior surfaces of wooden lambic barrels is limited. To clarify the role of casks and foeders as additional microbial inoculation sources, it was important to determine the influence of the barrel characteristics and the cleaning procedures on the microbial communities of the interior barrel surfaces. Moreover, this helped to elucidate the complex spontaneous lambic beer fermentation and maturation process. It will allow further optimization of the lambic beer production process, as well as the wooden-barrel-cleaning procedures applied.
Reticulate evolution can be a major driver of diversification into new niches, especially in disturbed habitats and at the edges of ranges. Industrial fermentation strains of yeast provide a window ...into these processes, but progress has been hampered by a limited understanding of the natural diversity and distribution of Saccharomyces species and populations. For example, lager beer is brewed with Saccharomyces pastorianus, an alloploid hybrid of S. cerevisiae and S. eubayanus, a species only recently discovered in Patagonia, Argentina. Here, we report that genetically diverse strains of S. eubayanus are readily isolated from Patagonia, demonstrating that the species is well established there. Analyses of multilocus sequence data strongly suggest that there are two diverse and highly differentiated Patagonian populations. The low nucleotide diversity found in the S. eubayanus moiety of hybrid European brewing strains suggests that their alleles were drawn from a small subpopulation that is closely related to one of the Patagonian populations. For the first time, we also report the rare isolation of S. eubayanus outside Patagonia, in Wisconsin, USA. In contrast to the clear population differentiation in Patagonia, the North American strains represent a recent and possibly transient admixture of the two Patagonian populations. These complex and varied reticulation events are not adequately captured by conventional phylogenetic methods and required analyses of Bayesian concordance factors and phylogenetic networks to accurately summarize and interpret. These findings show how genetically diverse eukaryotic microbes can produce rare but economically important hybrids with low genetic diversity when they migrate from their natural ecological context.
In recent years, the awareness of consumers about the impact of food on health is constantly increasing. A high amount of dietary antioxidant intake can be supplied by beverages widely consumed, such ...as wine, coffee, beer. Recently, an increase in the consumer interest was observed for beer, in consequence of the high phenolic antioxidants and low ethanol content present in this beverage. Among all beer types, in recent years, consumption of craft beers has gained popularity. Being an unpasteurized and unfiltered, craft beer is potentially a new vehicle for delivering health effects. While health benefits of lactic acid bacteria as probiotics are well known, few data are available on probiotic yeasts in fermented food. Therefore, this study was aimed to analyse the effect of integrating the well-known probiotic yeast strain of S. cerevisiae var. boulardii (S.b) in mixed cultures with S. cerevisiae strains for production of beers with increased healthy benefits. The probiotic strain of S.b was tested in mixed cultures with selected S. cerevisiae strains, during wort fermentation. As the viability during processing operations is one of the criteria for selecting suitable strains of probiotic microorganisms, the survival of probiotic yeast during the fermentation and the presence of highly viable cells at the end of fermentations were evaluated. In almost all the mixed fermentations, at the end of the process the probiotic yeast was predominant on S. cerevisiae strain, and the experimental beers contained a high number of viable cells of S.b strain (ranging between 8 × 106 and 7.0 × 107/mL). The analysis of experimental beers for the content of main volatile compounds showed that the inclusion of S.b strain in mixed starter did not affect negatively beer aroma. Moreover, the inclusion of S.b strain in mixed starters determined an increase in the antioxidant activity and polyphenols content, in comparison to beers from single starter fermentations, indicating the influence of S.b strain on these parameters. Some mixed starter cultures tested in this study resulted a very promising tool to increase the healthy quality of the product, such as the improve the antioxidant activity and polyphenols content of beer.
•S. cerevisiae var. boulardii was tolerant to stresses from wort fermentation.•In mixed fermentation yeast strains interact metabolically each other.•S. cerevisiae var. boulardii in mixed starter did not affect negatively beer aroma.•Probiotic strain in mixed starter caused an increase of beer antioxidant properties.
The Role of ale in Mavea Narratives Guérin, Valérie; Alvanoudi, Angeliki
Oceanic linguistics,
06/2022, Letnik:
61, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The aim of this paper is to describe the functions of the Bislama discourse marker ale in Mavea narratives. We concentrate on a single narrative genre, oral personal histories, and on a single slot, ...clause initial position, to show that ale is a textual marker with at least four distinct discourse structuring functions: It is used to signal temporal sequence between events or actions. It closes off a digression and signals a return to the main narrative line. It indexes a change of footing as it closes off direct speech in the narrative. It highlights participants of thematic importance in the story. As ale is used alongside vernacular discourse markers with similar functions, the paper concludes with the social aspects of pragmatic borrowing in a contact situation in Vanuatu. Keywords: Mavea, Vanuatu, Bislama, borrowing, discourse marker, narrative analysis
To uncover patterns of consumer interest in craft beers, the authors explored the quality perception of craft beers in a panel of industrial mass-marketed beer drinkers (n=150) and examined the ...differences in interest for this beer segment between men and women. The authors adopted a conjoint rating experiment in which the respondents were given forty-nine beer profiles to evaluate and were asked to score the degree of interest in each profile on a 9-point scale. Each profile was described on eight attributes (type of brewery, brewing technology, characterizing raw materials, brewhouse equipment, location of the brewery, type of container, retail price, where to buy) varied at different levels. Results showed that Italian consumers placed greatest importance on type of container (30.49%) and on brewing technology (17.64%). Characterizing raw materials (13.44%) and type of brewery (12.64) rank 3 and 4 and were placed in the same band some way below brewing technology. Retail price (9.87%) and where to buy (8.73%) were of far less importance. The least importance of all was attached to brewhouse equipment (4.44%) and to location of the brewery (2.75%). As far as utility values are concerned, the factor level glass bottle+crown cap and the factor level microfiltration are the utilities that most increased the interest of consumers. They were followed by the factor level local grains, stainless steel keg and monastery. In contrast, the factor level PET Keg, aluminum can and large scale corporate brewery showed the greatest negative impact on interest. Men and women shared similar patterns of interest. However, men placed more importance than women on retail price, location of the brewery and where to buy. Women attached more importance than men on type of container, brewing technology and type of brewer. These findings are relevant to understanding consumers'behavior in the beer market and to translating consumer needs, wants and expectations into manufacturing designed to produce the best possible, cost-competitive, widely accepted product in a relatively short period.
Display omitted
•This study explored consumers' interest for CB in Italy.•Glass bottle+crown cap, microfiltration and local grains have the most positive effect on interest.•PET Keg, can and large-scale corporate brewery have the most negative effect on interest.•Men and women are similar in their interest for craft beer.•Men differ from the preferences of women for a few attribute levels only.
PDF
