BREWING BACTERILOGY

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Abstract
The special features of beer as a medium restricting the types of bacteria capable of development therein are stressed. Of those encountered in yeast and beer, Flavobacterium proteus is of doubtful technological significance and Achromobacter anaerobium is comparatively rarely found, but acetic and lactic organisms are of considerable importance as potential causes of spoilage. Predisposition of beer to spoilage by Acetobacter spp. may arise in the mash tun, but oxygen relationships are also important and reducing substances such as ascorbic acid and reductones might conceivably help to combat these organisms. Of the lactic organisms, Lactobacillus spp. are especially fastidious in their nutritional habits, and although—like the beer streptococci (pediococci)—they have some resistance to hop antiseptics, a high content of such materials does help to inhibit their growth. The possibility of combating beer bacteria by the use of antibiotics is at present under study, and there is a possibility that growth of lactobacilli might be inhibited by trace amounts of straight-chain fatty acids.