Hey all,
So and introduction to start. I'm a senior biology student with a focus in microbiology. The other day I came up with an...interesting research project. What I'm planning is to take some specific genes from a lactobacillus strain (the bacteria that they use to make sour beers) and put them into a brewing yeast. All of the details aren't set just yet, but the idea is to make a yeast that behaves normally under normal brewing conditions, BUT when you add lactose, it produces acid, making a sour. So basically you'd have a normal brewing yeast that you can also use to make sours, just add lactose, and you don't have to worry about contaminating your brewing gear with bugs that are hard to get rid of, it'd just be yeast that works just fine as long as you're not using lactose.
So and introduction to start. I'm a senior biology student with a focus in microbiology. The other day I came up with an...interesting research project. What I'm planning is to take some specific genes from a lactobacillus strain (the bacteria that they use to make sour beers) and put them into a brewing yeast. All of the details aren't set just yet, but the idea is to make a yeast that behaves normally under normal brewing conditions, BUT when you add lactose, it produces acid, making a sour. So basically you'd have a normal brewing yeast that you can also use to make sours, just add lactose, and you don't have to worry about contaminating your brewing gear with bugs that are hard to get rid of, it'd just be yeast that works just fine as long as you're not using lactose.