FROM THE LAB TO THE CRAFT: BREWING TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER EXPERIENCIES IN ARGENTINA

CLARA BRUZONE; CARLOS BERTOLI; DIEGO LIBKIND; JUAN EIZAGUIRRE; ANDREA TROCHINE; JULIETA BURINI; MAILEN LATORRE

BARILOCHE

Congreso; ISSY 34; 2018

The discovery in 2011 of Saccharomyces eubayanus, the mother of the Lager yeast, had many scientific and technological implicancies, and opened the possibility to actively work together with the growing craft brewing industry in Argentina, particularly in Bariloche. Initially, our main goal was to work with the brewers and help them get prepared to work with this special yeast, available only in liquid format; but that goal expanded as it was clear that they lacked crucial knowledge on yeasts and their management in the brewery. The first approach to the industry was through a series of theoretical and practical courses that included basic brewing science and some with focus on yeast and fermentation. Currently we have an itinerant event of courses that goes through the country called Ciencia & Cerveza (Science & Beer). At the request of brewers and hop producers, high-level technological services from our Institute (IPATEC) were developed and made available. They included quality controls, yeast conservation and propagation; microbiological, sensory and physicochemical analysis, among others. Provision of different yeasts to Argentinean brewers was an important tool for product differentiation given only dry yeast is still available in our country. Another strong point of transference includes assessing producers in management and re-pitching of yeasts, and helping brewers build their own QC labs. From this interaction we developed a smartphone app (MicroBrew.AR) that simplify the task of assessing under the microscope the quality and quantity of harvested yeast and pitching calculations. The interaction with the craft brewing industry become a clear synergy and multiple funding programs were obtained together, multiple analytical tools become available for the brewers and many scientists are being trained in different aspects of brewing science. In overall, we want to communicate our unique case of academic and technological outreach activities related to brewing science, in particular related to yeasts.