ACETOBACTER INFECTION: PART II. STUDIES OFACETOBACTER VISCOSUMANDACETOBACTER ACETIISOLATED, RESPECTIVELY, FROM TOP-FERMENTATION BEER AND YEAST

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Abstract
The object of the present series of communications is to furnish adequate descriptions of Acetobacter species which have been found by the authors to occur in association with top-fermentation yeasts and beers. The first systematic description of an Acetobacter species isolated from beer in this country was given in 1912 and 1913 by Baker, Day and Hulton (this Journ., 1912, 651), who obtained from certain infected beers a hitherto unclassified virulent contaminant, Acetobacter viscosum. In the long intervening period cultures of their organism have been lost and, since the present authors isolated 2 years ago from a “ropy” beer an acetic acid organism which corresponds very closely to the description of A. viscosum as furnished by Baker, Day and Hulton, it has been thought of interest to give the characteristics of this recent strain. These characteristics have been determined under the same set of standardized conditions adopted in the work of the present authors with Acetobacter species (ibid., 1943, 88; 1944, 296). This standardized treatment may assist others interested in such infections to compare and identify specimens of “beer disease” organisms of the genus Acetobacter. Acetobacter aceti, which occurs in vinegar breweries, was described by Hansen a long time ago and, whilst Continental workers have stated that it can often be found as a contaminant in beers, there does not seem to be any record of the isolation of specimens of this species from beer brewed in this country. The authors showed (ibid., 1943, 276) that a culture of A. aceti (Hansen) obtained from the Lister Institute Collection of Type Cultures was capable of slow development in beer and they have now isolated, from the pitching yeast of a London brewery, an organism whose characteristics correspond very closely to those of the Lister Institute specimen of A. aceti (Hansen) when comparison is made under standardized conditions. Cultures of A. viscosum and of A. aceti isolated by the authors from the sources mentioned above, and described in this communication, have been deposited with the Curator of the National Collection of Type Cultures, The Lister Institute, London.

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