13,586
edits
Changes
added graphs for hop sensitivity data
<blockquote>
There is a fair bit of research into hop tolerance out there; its it's not a simple topic as a number of factors come into play to produce hop tolerance. To make things even more complicated, hop tolerance is an inducable inducible trait in many ''Lactobacillus'' species - meaning that a seemingly susceptible strain can become resistant by culturing in ever-increasing doses, and a seemingly resistant strain can become susceptible after a generation or four in a hop-free media.
I've been trying to generate a permanently high-alpha acid resistant lacto strain for a few months now. I've been culturing ''L. brevis '' in escalating IBU wort (starting at 10, currently at 25). Every 4th generation (1 generation = a subculture of a stationary-phase lacto culture, not as in # cell divisions) I pass it through 2 generations of an IBU-free media to try and select for strains which maintain this resistance. This seems to have worked up to ~18 IBU (update: 20-30 IBU), but past that point the resistance appears to remain inducableinducible. I'm hoping a few more generations will provide me with a permanently tolerant strain. Update: I had made a strong (~80ibu) wort that I diluted with unhopped wort. I would grow the ''Lactobacillus'' for a few passages (1 passage = grow culture to completion, then dilute ~1:100 into fresh wort to start next passage) at a set the IBU level, then passage to a wort 3 or so IBU higher. I did 50-60 generations before I got to the high IBU levels (~3 months, 1-2 days per generation). I never did anything to determine how much of that resistance was inheritable <ref>[https://www.facebook.com/groups/MilkTheFunk/permalink/1421792324515644/?comment_id=1422244054470471&reply_comment_id=1422263561135187&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R6%22%7D Conversation 3 with Bryan of Sui Generis Blog on Milk The Funk regarding Lactobacillus hop tolerance. 09/30/2016.]</ref>.
There are some other options; I've purified (but didn't keep - doh) some pretty resistant strains from grain by by making plates where you half-fill a plate, on an angle, with a high-IBU wort, and then overlay that with a no-IBU wort. This gives you a gradient plate, with low-IBUs on the end where the hopped-wort layer is thinnest and high IBUs where it is thickest. Some of those strains were resistant to over 30IBU, but being early in my yeast farming days I didn't bother keeping those <ref>[https://www.facebook.com/groups/MilkTheFunk/permalink/1002795743081973/?comment_id=1003625646332316&offset=0&total_comments=16&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R%22%7D Conversation 1 with Bryan of Sui Generis Blog on Milk The Funk regarding Lactobacillus hop tolerance. 01/19/2015.]</ref>.
Hops contain multiple compounds which are bacteriostatic. Alpha acids are the best understood, but other compounds such as beta acids, a number of polyphenols (e.g. xanthohumol), and even some of the aromatic oils (e.g. humulene) have been found to have some inhibitory effects on ''lactobacilli''. The later compounds (especially the beta acids) are why aged hops retain inhibitory characteristics, despite being nearly devoid of alpha acids. In all cases these compounds appear to inhibit the bacteria in the same way - all of these compounds contain fairly large, flat-ish, hydrophobic regions. These regions do not "like" to be in water, and thus will be driven into the hydrophobic core of the bacterial plasma membrane. This opens minute holes in the membrane which prevents the bacteria from maintaining ion (in particular, proton) gradients, leading to suppression of growth and even death of the bacteria.
Hop resistance is generally due to the induced expression of "multi-drug transport" (MDT) genes, which are "pumps" that recognize the general chemical signature of membrane-disruptive compounds, and then pump them out of the cell. Other mechanisms may also be involved - a few papers have identified changes in the lipid make-up of the plasma membrane, which may increase stability. This change also occurs in response to alcohol (to improve stability), so its not clear if that particular change has anything to do with hop resistance.
Lactobacilli usually don't have these MDT genes 'on', which is why a lot of strains won't do well with hops in the first batch of beer, but over time become more and more tolerant as they increase expression of the MDT's. The overall MDT expression level, in theory, determines the maximum resistance of the bacteria. In the case of my experiments, I'm looking for mutants whose MDT's are permanently stuck 'on' for the resistant strain and 'off' for the sensitive strain <ref>[https://www.facebook.com/groups/MilkTheFunk/permalink/1143165635711649/?comment_id=1155715074456705&offset=0&total_comments=50&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R0%22%7D Conversation 2 with Bryan of Sui Generis Blog on Milk The Funk regarding Lactobacillus hop tolerance. 09/28/2015.]</ref>.
</blockquote>
Hop tolerance is not only species dependent, but is also strain dependent. For example, a dissertation by F.J. Methner measured the pH drop of wort that started at a pH of 5.55 from day 3 to day 14 for several strains of ''L. brevis'' at different IBU levels (7,9,11,13 and 18 IBU's). One strain of ''L. brevis'' eventually got down to a pH of 3.8 at day 14 with 7 IBU's, while another strain got down to 3.3 pH at day 14 (with other strains in-between those numbers). At 18 IBU, the relatively hop intolerant ''L. brevis'' strain got down to only 4.2 pH, while another strain got down to 3.7. In general, the higher the IBU, the slower the pH drop. Interestingly, another species called ''L. coryniformis'' was shown to be more hop tolerant than ''L. brevis''. ''L. coryniformis'' dropped the 18 IBU wort down to 3.6 pH over 14 days <refname="Methner">[https://www.facebook.com/groups/MilkTheFunk/permalink/1537381402956735/ Methner, F.D. Uber Die Aromabildung beim berliner weissebier unter besonderer berucksichtigung von sauren and estern (data reported and translated by Benedikt Rausch on Milk THe Funk Facebook group). 1987.]</ref>. Methner's data is shown below; graphs created by Benedikt Rausch <ref name="Methner" />. Y axis = pH, X axis = days. <gallery>File:Methner 18IBU.JPG|'''7 IBU''' File:Methner 18IBU.JPG|'''9 IBU''' File:Methner 18IBU.JPG|'''11 IBU''' File:Methner 18IBU.JPG|'''13 IBU''' File:Methner 18IBU.JPG|'''18 IBU''' </gallery>::'''L70''': ''L. coryniformis''::'''L14, L18, L22, L29, L88, L92''': ''L. Brevis''
See also: