Abstract

Introduction

The quality control methods employed by breweries are too time-consuming and unspecific to allow the brewer to ensure the microbiological quality and safety of beer. The present proposal is a combined R & D and Demonstration project which aims at providing rapid, specific and thoroughly tested PCR methods for the microbiological monitoring of brewing processes. The aim of the R&D phase is to establish PCR methods which posses a level of sensitivity, simplicity and specificity to warrant their introduction to routine quality control. The PCR technology is expected to allow rapid detection and traceability of contaminants and determination of their harmfulness. The Demonstration phase aims at proving the technical and practical viability of the new methodology on a realistic scale in order to enable successful transfer of the PCR technology from the research phase to appliance. Effective dissemination of the project results using existing organisational framework of the European breweries will facilitate the adoption and acceptance of the new technology.

Objectives

The over-all objective of this combined R&D and Demonstration project is to improve the microbiological quality and safety of European beer through implementation of PCR technology in brewery QC. The specific R&D aims are:

• to establish robust PCR based assays for spoilage microorganisms in bright beer;
• to develop novel PCR based methods for the detection of spoilage microorganisms in the brewing process; and
• to improve and facilitate the analysis of brewery contaminant specific PCR amplicons.

The specific demonstration objectives are:

• to demonstrate the applicability of the PCR technology to QC environment;
• to evaluate the viability of the developed PCR applications for the microbiological monitoring of brewery samples;
• to demon-strate benefits of the PCR technology in brewery QC; and
• to create an early aware-ness of the possibilities of PCR in routine food control.

Expected Results and Achievements

• Robust PCR based methods for spoilage organisms in brewery process samples and final beer,
• Applicability of the PCR technology to routine food control,
• Technical performance and practicability of the new PCR methods,
• Real benefits of PCR in brewery QC in comparison to established methods,
• Standard PCR protocols for brewery samples in reference manuals,
• Exploitation of developed PCR kit prototypes,
• Transfer of the PCR technology to the brewing industry.

The PCR protocols and kit prototypes resulting from the project can be used for

• rapid microbiological quality control of brewery samples.
• identification of the most common beer spoilage organisms,
• tracing the origin of the contaminating species in the production line.

It is expected that the developed methods can be also applied for the detection of the same microorganisms in other beverages. The knowledge and experience gained in this project can be used as a basis for further application of PCR technology in other fields of Food production.

Contacts

Coordinator

• Jeff HODGSON / Scottish Courage Brewing Ltd Technical Centre / UNITED KINGDOM

Participant

• Stefan LUSTIG / Brauerei Beck & Co Qualitatswesen
• Stefan Loch AHRING / Brauerei Veltins GERMANY
• Eberhard GEIGER / Lehrstuhl für Technologie der Brauerei TU Munchen-Weihenstephan / GERMANY
• John GLASSON / Oxford Brookes University Biological & Molecular Sciences / UNITED KINGDOM
• Gudrun VOGESER / PIKA-Weihenstephen GmbH GERMANY
• Alf Dagfin HAUKELI / Pripps Ringnes AB NORWAY
• Sternquell-Brauerei GmbH Plauen GERMANY