Scientific Publications

A listing of peer reviewed scientific publications and non-peer reviewed scientific studies that focus on subject material that is relevant to sour brewing. Some good journals to keep an eye on for new publications about sour and funky beers include Cerevisia, The Journal of the Institute of Brewing, and The International Journal of Food Microbiology.

Some of the papers are freely accessible and others require journal subscriptions for access.

Brettanomyces

Much of the scientific research done to date on Brettanomyces approaches the yeast from the view point of wine production and treating the yeast as a spoilage organism. These papers can still be useful to brewers interested in using Brett while recognizing the possible preconceptions, motivations, and biases that this viewpoint might contribute. Other groups, notably those led by a couple of Belgian researchers as well as Chad Yakobson's masters work, have studied Brett from the viewpoint of a desired component in certain beer fermentations.

Title	Authors	Date	Note
Analysis of Growth Inhibition and Metabolism of Hydroxycinnamic Acids by Brewing and Spoilage Strains of Brettanomyces Yeast	Michael Lentz and Chad Harris	2015	Free access.
Insight into the Dekkera anomala YV396 genome	Samuel Aeschlimann	Sept 2015	Self published on Eureka Brewing Blog.
Brettanomyces yeasts — From spoilage organisms to valuable contributors to industrial fermentations	Jan Steenselsa, Luk Daenenc, Philippe Malcorpsc, Guy Derdelinckxd, Hubert Verachtertd, Kevin J. Verstrepen	2015	Free access.
The wine and beer yeast Dekkera bruxellensis	Anna Judith Schifferdecker, Sofia Dashko, Olena P. Ishchuk and Jure Piškur	2014	Free access. Good summary of up to date information.
Rapid identification of the genus Dekkera/Brettanomyces, the Dekkera subgroup and all individual species	M. Hulina, E. Harrisona, M. Stratfordb, A.E. Whealsa	2014	Not free access.
Pure Culture Fermentation Characteristic of Brettanomyces Yeast Species and Their Use in the Brewing Industry	Yakobson	2011	MSc thesis. Free access.
Screening and evaluation of the glucoside hydrolase activity in Saccharomyces and Brettanomyces brewing yeasts	Daenen, Saison, Sterckx, Delvaux, Verachtert, Derdelinckx	2008	Free access.
Physiological, biochemical and molecular characterisation of hydroxycinnamic acid catabolism by Dekkera and Brettanomyces yeasts	Victoria Harris	2010	Free access. PhD thesis. HCA's are the precursors to phenolic compounds in beer. See phenol production in Brettanomyces
Evaluation of the glycoside hydrolase activity of a Brettanomyces strain on glycosides from sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) used in the production of special fruit beers	Daenen, Saison, Sterckx, Delvaux, Verachtert, Derdelinckx	2008	Free access.
Survey of enzyme activity responsible for phenolic off-flavour production by Dekkera and Brettanomyces yeast	Harris, Ford, Jiranek, Grbin	2009	Not free access.
Genetic diversity and physiological traits of Brettanomyces bruxellensis strains isolated from Tuscan Sangiovese wines	Agnolucci, Vigentini, Capurso, Merico, Tirelli, Compagno, Foschino, Nuti	2009	Not free access.
Dekkera and Brettanomyces growth and utilisation of hydroxycinnamic acids in synthetic media	Harris, Ford Jiranek, Grbin	2008	Not free access.
The effect of sugar concentration and temperature on growth and volatile phenol production by Dekkera bruxellensis in wine	Barata, Pagliara, Piccininno, Tarantino, Ciardulli, Malfeito-Ferreira, Loureiro	2008	Free access.
Formation of 4-vinyl and 4-ethyl derivatives from hydroxycinnamic acids: Occurrence of volatile phenolic flavour compounds in beer and distribution of Pad1-activity among brewing yeasts	Vanbeneden, Gils, Delvaux, Delvaux	2008	Not free access.
Genome Survey Sequencing of the Wine Spoilage Yeast Dekkera (Brettanomyces) bruxellensis	Woolfit, Rozpędowska, Piškur, Wolfe	2007	Free access
Release of hydroxycinnamic acids and formation of flavour-active volatile phenols during the beer production process	Nele Vanbeneden	2007	PhD Thesis. Free access.
Brettanomyces bruxellensis: effect of oxygen on growth and acetic acid production.	Aguilar Uscanga, Délia1, and Strehaiano.	2003	Free access.
Acetic acid production by Dekkera/Brettanomyces yeasts.	S.N. Feer	April 2002	Not free access.
Role of oxygen on acetic acid production by Brettanomyces/Dekkera in winemaking.	Maurizio Ciani and Luisa Ferraro	April 1999	Not free access
The Phylogenetic Relationships of Species of the Genus Dekkera VAN DER WALT Based on the Partial Sequences of 18S and 26S Ribosomal RNAs (Saccharomycetaceae)	Yuzo Yamada, Minako Matsuda, Kojiro Maeda, Kozaburo Mikata	1994	Free access. Shows that D. custersianus should be reclassified as a new genus.
Localization and Characterization of α-Glucosidase Activity in Brettanomyces lambicus	Shantha Kumara, De Cort, Verachtert	1993	Free access.
Esterase Activity in the Genus Brettanomyces	Spaepen and Verachtert	1982	Brett ester production and destruction. Free access.
Brettanomyces. I. Occurrence, Characteristics, and Effects on Beer Flavour	R. B. Gilliland B.A., B.Sc., F.R.I.C.	1961	Free access.

Other Yeast/Bacteria

Title	Authors	Date	Note
Saccharomyces cerevisiae: a nomadic yeast with no niche?	Matthew R. Goddard, and Duncan Greig	2015	Proposes new hypothesis that S. cerevisiae is a generalized and nomadic microbe rather than a fruit-loving microbe based on the "neutral theory of ecology". Free access.
Regional microbial signatures positively correlate with differential wine phenotypes: evidence for a microbial aspect to terroir	Knight, Sarah and Klaere, Steffen and Fedrizzi, Bruno and Goddard, Matthew	2015	Free access. This is the first quantitative demonstration of a microbial component of terroir.
Alcohol-brewing properties of acid- and bile-tolerant yeasts co-cultured with lactic acid bacteria isolated from traditional handmade domestic dairy products from Inner Mongolia	Takashi Kuda Sarengaole, Hajime Takahashi, Bon Kimura	2015	Not free access.
Pyrosequencing reveals regional differences in fruit-associated fungal communities	Michael W. Taylor, Peter Tsai, Nicole Anfang, Howard A. Ross, and Matthew R. Goddard	2015	Free access. Showed that yeast diversity on wine grapes differs by region; Saccharomyces made up only 0.00005% of the total readings.
Microbial biogeography of wine grapes is conditioned by cultivar, vintage, and climate	Bokulich NA, Thorngate JH, Richardson PM, Mills DA.	2014	Suggests link between microbial terroir and vineyard environmental conditions.
Monitoring Seasonal Changes in Winery-Resident Microbiota	Nicholas A. Bokulich, Moe Ohta, Paul M. Richardson, David A. Mills	2013
Geographic delineations of yeast communities and populations associated with vines and wines in New Zealand	Velimir Gayevskiy and Matthew R Goddard	2012	Study leading up to the 2015 Goddard study above focusing on regional genetic differences in S. cerevisae.
Biotechnological potential of non-Saccharomyces yeasts isolated during spontaneous fermentations of Malvar (Vitis vinifera cv. L.)	Cordero-Bueso, Esteve Zarzoso, Cabellos, Gil-Díaz	2012	Free access. Records secondary metabolites produced by various wild yeasts in mono-culture fermentations of wine must.
Studies on growth and metabolism of Oenococcus oeni on sugars and sugar mixtures	D.-S. Zhang and R.W. Lovitt	2005

Lactic Acid Bacteria

Title	Authors	Date	Note
The Use and Effects of Lactic Acid Bacteria in Malting and Brewing with Their Relationships to Antifungal Activity, Mycotoxins and Gushing: A Review	Deirdre P. Lowe and Elke K. Arendt	2012	Free access.
125th Anniversary Review: Bacteria in brewing: The good, the bad and the ugly	Vriesekoop, Krahl, Hucker, Menz	2012	Free access.
Lactobacillus: the Next Generation of Malolactic Fermentation Starter Cultures — an Overview	Maret du Toit & Lynn Engelbrecht & Elda Lerm & Sibylle Krieger-Weber	2010	Free access. Review paper.
Pediocins: The bacteriocins of Pediococci. Sources, production, properties and applications	Maria Papagianni	2009	Free access.
Fundamentals of Beer and Hop Chemistry	Keukeleire	August 12, 1998	Useful information regarding how beta acids and iso-alpha acids inhibit/effect the grown of gram-positive bacteria and LAB. Free access.
Beer spoilage bacteria and hop resistance	Sakamoto and Konings	2003	Another useful paper for antimicrobial properties of hops and bacterial resistance. Not free access.
Localization and Characterization of α-Glucosidase Activity in Lactobacillus brevis	De Cort, Shantha Kumara, Verachtert	1994	Free access.
Growth Response of Lactobacillus brevis to Aeration and Organic Catalysts.	J. R. Stamer and B. O. Stoyla.	Sep 1967	Referenced by Wyeast 5223 L. brevis. Free Access.
Phylogenetic analysis of the genus Pediococcus, including Pediococcus claussenii sp. nov., a novel lactic acid bacterium isolated from beer	C. Melissa Dobson, Harry Deneer, Sun Lee, Sean Hemmingsen, Sarah Glaze and Barry Ziola	2002	Free access.
Isolation of a Hop-Sensitive Variant of Lactobacillus lindneri and Identification of Genetic Markers for Beer Spoilage Ability of Lactic Acid Bacteria	Koji Suzuki, Kazumaru Iijima, Kazutaka Ozaki, and Hiroshi Yamashita	2005	Free access.

Lambic and Spontaneous Fermentation

Title	Authors	Date	Note
The microbial diversity of an industrially produced lambic beer shares members of a traditionally produced one and reveals a core microbiota for lambic beer fermentation	Spitaels, Wieme, Janssens, Aerts, Van Landschoot, De Vuyst, Vandamme	August 2015	Not free access
Microbiota and metabolites of aged bottled gueuze beers converge to the same composition	Spitaels, Van Kerrebroeck, Wieme, Snauwaert, Aerts, Van Landschoot, De Vuyst, Vandamme	May 2015	Not free access
Cross-Kingdom Chemical Communication Drives a Heritable, Mutually Beneficial Prion-Based Transformation of Metabolism	Daniel F. Jarosz, Jessica C.S. Brown, Gordon A. Walker, Manoshi S. Datta, W. Lloyd Ung, Alex K. Lancaster, Assaf Rotem, Amelia Chang, Gregory A. Newby,David A. Weitz, Linda F. Bisson, and Susan Lindquist.	Aug 2014	Free access. See Pediococcus.
An Evolutionarily Conserved Prion-like Element Converts Wild Fungi from Metabolic Specialists to Generalists	Daniel F. Jarosz, Alex K. Lancaster, Jessica C.S. Brown, Susan Lindquist.	28 August 2014	Not free access. See Pediococcus.
The Microbial Diversity of Traditional Spontaneously Fermented Lambic Beer	Spitaels, Wieme, Janssens, Aerts, Daniel, Van Landschoot, De Vuyst, Vandamme	April 18, 2014	Free access
BELGIAN ACIDIC BEERS Daily Reminiscences of the Past	Verachtert and Denderlinckx	2014	Not free access.
Taming Wild Yeast: Potential of Conventional and Nonconventional Yeasts in Industrial Fermentations	Steensels and Verstrepen	2014	Not free access
Brewhouse-Resident Microbiota Are Responsible for Multi-Stage Fermentation of American Coolship Ale	Bokulich, Bamforth, Mills	April 18, 2012	Free access.
Characterization of aroma and flavor compounds present in lambic (gueuze) beer	Katherine Witrick	2012	PhD Thesis. Free access.
Occurrence of sotolon, abhexon and theaspirane-derived molecules in Gueuze beers. Chemical similarities with ‘yellow wines’	Scholtes, Nizet, Colin	2012	Free access.
Fermentation Studies on the Traditional Russian Drink “Sourish Shchi”	Dankovtsev, Vostrikov, Markina	2002	Free access.
Microbiological Aspects of a Mixed Yeast—Bacterial Fermentation in the Production of a Special Belgian Acidic Ale	Martens, Iserentant, Verachtert	1997	Free access.
Synthesis of Aroma Compounds By Wort Enterobacteria During the First Stage of Lambic Fermentation	Martens, Dawoud, Verachtert	1992	Free access.
Wort Enterobacteria and Other Microbial Populations Involved During the First Month of Lambic Fermentation	Martens, Dawoud, Verachtert	1991	Free access.
Identification of Lambic Superattenuating Micro-Organisms By the Use of Selective Antibiotics	Shantha Kumara and Verachtert	1991	Free access.
Fatty Acids and Esters Produced During the Spontaneous Fermentation of Lambic and Gueuze	Spaepen, Van Oevelen, Verachtert	1978	Free access.
Microbiological Aspects of Spontaneous Wort Fermentation in the Production of Lambic and Gueuze	Van Oevelen, Spaepen, Timmermans, Verachtert	1977	The source of the data used to create the Apte chart of which microbes are active at a given time in Lambic Fermentation as presented in his 2004 slideshow and in Wild Brews. Free access.
Synthesis of Aroma Components During the Spontaneous Fermentation of Lambic and Gueuze	Van Oevelen, De L'Escaille Verachtert	1976	Free access.
Mapping microbial ecosystems and spoilage-gene flow in breweries highlights patterns of contamination and resistance	Nicholas A Bokulich, Jordyn Bergsveinson, Barry Ziola, David A Mills	March 9, 2015	Free access; measures LAB and yeast populations throughout a brewery with a coolship, controlled sour beer production, and traditional clean beer production. Also contains info about hop resistance levels of different LAB species.

Historical

These studies focus on historical beer analysis.

Title	Authors	Date	Note
Brettanomyces – hero or villain?	Ron Pattenson, Shut Up About Barclay Perkins	May 2015	Ron's analysis of a study on Brettanomyces beers in the Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 67, Issue 3, May-June 1961.
Analysis of Beers from an 1840s’ Shipwreck	John Londesborough, Michael Dresel, Brian Gibson, Riikka Juvonen, Ulla Holopainen, Atte Mikkelson, Tuulikki Seppänen-Laakso, Kaarina Viljanen, Hannele Virtanen, Arvi Wilpola, Thomas Hofmann, and Annika Wilhelmson	Feb 2015	Chemical analysis of historical beers found to have bacteria in them. Press conference that says 4 live species of Lactobacillus were found. Free access.

Misc Topics

Title	Authors	Date	Note
The Microbiology of Malting and Brewing	Nicholas A. Bokulicha and Charles W. Bamforth	June 2013	Free access.
Use of beta-glucosidase activity for flavour enhancement in specialty beers	Luk Daenen	2012 (presentation)	Free access.
Effects of pH Adjustment and Sodium Ions on Sour Taste Intensity of Organic Acids	E.R.D. Neta, S.D. Johanningsmeier, M.A.Drake	2009	Free access.
Release of hydroxycinnamic acids and formation of flavour-active volatile phenols during the beer production process	Nele Vanbeneden	2007	PhD thesis. Free access. Study on 4VG/4VP, ferulic acid, p-coumaric acid, etc. English sections available.
Ferulic acid release and 4-vinylguaiacol formation during brewing and fermentation: indications for feruloyl esterase activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.	Coghe S, Benoot K, Delvaux F, Vanderhaegen B, Delvaux FR.	2004	Not free access. Studied production of ferulic acid and 4VG production in barley and wheat based beers, fermented with S. cerevisiae.

Other resources

These studies, presentations, or discussions aren't peer reviewed but they do contain useful info for brewing sour and funky beers.

Title	Authors	Date	Note
Measurement of Oxygen Transfer Rates for Carboy Closures and Air Locks	Gibbs	November 10, 2011	Study performed by Better Bottle. Free access.
How to Make Sour Ale: an inquiry	Apte	2004	contains Apte's charts for oxygen permeability and other notable references. Free access.
Pickled beer: Concepts of Sour Ale	Raj Apte	2004	A presentation about sour beer. Free access.
Horse of a Different Color	Nate Sampson, Michael Tonsmeire, Steve Gale, Tomme Arthur, Al Buck, Cisco ?, Sean Paxton		Round table tasting and discussion of brett primary beers. The author of the transcript is not listed. Free access.
Methods of Creating and Maintaining 'Wild' House Cultures	Kyle Kohlmorgan	2013	Presentation at NHC 2013. Notes available here. Audio available from the AHA website past presentations section (must be an AHA member for access).
The Mystery of Lambic Beer	Jacques De Keersmaecker	1996	Article in Scientific American. Free access.

See Also

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