Get involved in improving beer

18 March 2016

Over 20 million pints of beer are consumed every day in the UK and many of these are produced with the assistance of research by scientists at the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS). The yeast cells used in the brewing process can suffer damage due to high sugar and alcohol concentrations or changing temperatures and this damage gives the beer a bad taste. Understanding why some yeast cells survive when others do not is key to improving brewing and Microbiology scheme coordinator Dr Hazel Davey, has been investigating these stresses on yeast cells with help from undergraduate and postgraduate students. Improved monitoring of brew completion using the approaches developed allows the beer to be processed more quickly which benefits the brewer in terms of reduced costs and leads to a more consistent product quality. In turn, the customer enjoys a better pint. Follow this link for a video about this work: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KusEH5ltetM