• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • About Craft Brewing Business

Craft Brewing Business

Professional Insight, Unfiltered

  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • COVID-19

D.I. Engineering explains how it controls S. diastaticus beer spoilage

February 17, 2020Chris Crowell

D.I.E.C genesig q16
The genesig q16 from D.I. Engineering

For Quality Control Month on CBB, we reached out to D.I. Engineering Corporation of America to understand the latest technology and techniques available for controlling S. diastaticus, specifically with its qPCR technology.

How do brewers control S. diastaticus successfully? 

Spoilage bacteria can form as part of the natural decay in the brewing process and can result in wasted product and loss of profit. Detecting these bacteria in yeast stocks or in brewing equipment is the fastest and easiest way to avoid a problem.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae variety diastaticus (S. diastaticus) is a super-weakening variant of brewer’s yeast which can grow in finished beer, producing a secondary fermentation which creates unwanted tastes, causes alcohol level non-compliance, sedimentation, increased turbidity and increased carbon dioxide concentrations which creates a pressure build-up which can lead to exploding bottles/cans. They cause unwanted secondary fermentation in the packed bottles, cans or kegs and the biggest threat is the possibility of explosion when handled by the consumer, as it can cause physical injuries by over-pressurized packaging with excess CO2.

These cases have been found mainly by craft brewers in the U.S., but European brewers are also suffering from the issues recently caused by S. diastaticus. As we are an international company that has been working with overseas breweries, we see that this is becoming a worldwide issue.

Testing points to know

There are various critical testing points to control S. diastaticus contamination. Detecting the contamination in the earliest stage is best to save money. If you can detect the contamination of the incoming yeast from the suppliers, it is ideal. However, realistically our customers take samples out of brite tanks or fermenters prior to packaging, or they take samples out of packaged cans/bottles for qPCR testing.

Luckily our customers have never experienced S. diastaticus contamination, however, if contamination is found, they must trace the entire product chain to identify the contamination source then sanitize the entire production chain from the contamination point onward.

How DIEC’s qPCR system works

How DIEC’s qPCR system works

A brewing science study traced the cause of the S. diastaticus contamination by utilizing a real-time PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and 71% of them were caused by contamination events during the filling process.

The identification of S. diastaticus may be performed by traditional microbiological methods such as utilizing starch-containing agar plate, however, a single cell is enough to cause a bottle/can explosion, so no level of contamination is safe.

Therefore, we think the safest method to detect S. diastaticus is qPCR (real-time PCR) analysis, which an STA1 gene in the yeast can be identified quickly and most accurately. It is a sensitive detection method, plus quantitative results are useful in tracing the source of contamination.

We specially designed the genesig Easy Beer Spoilage Detection Kits and genesig q16, portable and easy to use real-time PCR for breweries who have no microbiological background, therefore, anyone can adopt this technology for their QC process and protect their assets from critical contaminations like S. diastaticus.

weber scientific
The Hidden Beer Spoiler: Finding diastaticus with FPDM (new CBB webinar)
Polyclar stabilizers
Why filtration is vital in the brewing process
oculyze camera kit
Oculyze has a Microscope Camera Upgrade Kit for quick and easy yeast cell counting
craft beer lab testing quality
Eight quality assurance articles your craft brewery should read

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • Old dogs, new tricks: How sales have changed in the wholesale channel
  • Psst. Hi-Wire Brewing has plans for a Louisville, Kentucky taproom
  • Oregon Fruit Products launches Canned Fruit Purees for homebrewers, test batches and consumers
  • Here are the U.S. recommended malting barley varieties for 2021, additions include Flavia, Mayflower and Moravian 179

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • wholesale beer salesOld dogs, new tricks: How sales have changed in the wholesale channel
    January 27, 2021
  • Anheuser-Busch cuts Budweiser ad from Super Bowl LV but is still running four minutes of commercials
    January 26, 2021
  • Voodoo-RaintreeExpansion by franchise’n: How Voodoo Brewing is scaling its business nationwide
    January 25, 2021
  • Beer rebrands continue: Ballast Point, Fremont, New Glory and Blue Point (also, enjoy some tips for your refresh)
    January 21, 2021
  • virginia-beer-co-renovationHow Virginia Beer Co. used the shutdown to overhaul its facility (and keep people employed)
    January 19, 2021
  • Clean air, clean beer: New Ingersoll Rand oil-less reciprocating air compressors are ideal for breweries (aeration to canning)
    January 18, 2021

Footer

  • Email Newsletter Sign Up
  • About Craft Brewing Business
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise on Craft Brewing Business
  • Media Kit Download
  • Privacy and Terms

© 2021 · CBB Media LLC

Continue ...

sponsored by