Talk:Mixed Fermentation

I don't feel confident in taking up the Funky Mixed Fermentation page here (Sacch + Brett fermentations), if someone wants to jump in. This isn't my brewing wheelhouse. DanABA (talk) 20:26, 7 February 2015 (CST)

Rough draft entry for https://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Mixed_Fermentation#Staggered_Versus_Co-Pitching:

Hubbe et al. (2024) looked at the growth rate of copitching Lactobacillus + Brettanomyces + S. cerevisiae during the first 22 days of fermentation. 6 total strains were tested, all of which were banked at Technische Universität Berlin by traditional (and now defunct) Berliner Weisse breweries: L. brevis, L. parabrevis, B. bruxellensis, B. anomalus, and 2 strains of S. cerevisiae. They compared single strain fermentation, co-fermentation with ''Lactobacillus + Brett, and co-fermentation with Lactobacillus + Brettanomyces + S. cerevisiae. One of the findings was that the co-fermentations with S. cerevisiae had an inhibitory effect on both the Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus growth in the first 22 days. Both Lactobacillus strains were greatly inhibited, and growth of Brettanomyces was cut in about half. The co-fermentations with S. cerevisiae also had the higher pH and lower TA values, as would be expected based on the inhibited growth of LAB and Brettanomyces, with the pH values ranging from 3.85-4.0. PH values continued to drop during bottle conditioning. They also measured the yeast viability over time. One notable findings here was that the Brettanomyceswas more viable when co-fermented with S. cerevisiae + Lactobacillus than when it was fermented on its own with just Brettanomyces + Lactobacillus, demonstrating that Brettanomycesappears to prefer a co-fermentation environment with S. cerevisiae. We've seen anecdotes of this elsewhere, and primary fermentation with Brettanomyces is not well studied, but this really demonstrates this odd behavior. Another odd finding here was the effect that S. cerevisiae seemed to have on the lag phase of Brettanomyces. When Brettanomyces was co-fermented with just Lactobacillus, both species had a lag phase. When co-fermented with Brettanomyces + Lactobacillus + S. cerevisiae, the Brettanomyces had immediate growth. Esters other than ethyl acetate tended to be lower in the co-fermentations with S. cerevisiae. One thing that is emphasized in this paper is that the ability to maintain a mixed culture via simple backslopping techniques can be difficult in a commercial brewing environment. In particular, the growth of Lactobacillus in the presence of S. cerevisiaewas greatly diminished. S. cerevisiae also tends to diminish after primary fermentation. The authors suspect this can have an impact on inconsistency in a brewing environment where mixed cultures are re-pitched rather than reformulated from isolated cultures.