The recycling of beer yeast is an economically essential function to the small scale brewery. While commonly practiced by the majority of professional brewers, quality control is increasingly compromised with every new generation of recycled yeast. To take preventative measures, a process called yeast washing is commonly used to cleanse the yeast of possible contaminants. In order to determine the most effective washing method, yeast from a local microbrewery was obtained to wash and ferment in separate identical batches of beer wort (unfermented beer). After completely fermenting, the samples were filtered until clear and analysed for the presence of esters, diacetyl, essential oils and other flavor- and aroma-affecting organic compounds in beer by various chromatographic methods. Results were then compared to the original first generation yeast beer for final evaluation.

Determination of the presence of flavor- and aroma-affecting compounds in beer resulting from various yeast washing techniques

249th National Meeting (2015)

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