Solution to Breweries Pouring Money Down The Drain

A centuries’ old problem that has resulted in breweries pouring away spoilt beer could now become a thing of the past thanks to a new detection kit from Labmedics. The Labmedics DR.Brewery kit can provide a rapid method for the identification of 12 contaminant bacteria encountered in beer manufacture. The kit, which provides results in less than five hours, can help companies speed up quality control as well as achieve low wastage and consistent beer flavour. The sensitivity of the kit also means that a concentration as low as 10³ CFU/ml can be detected.

“Every stage of beer production is prone to microbial contamination from various sources,” explained Julie Downsborough of Labmedics. “Most laboratories use conventional standard based cultivation methods, which rely on labour intensive and time consuming growth in culture media and isolation. The whole process can take up to seven days to complete and can be extended with additional analyses to positively identify the micro-organism present. The production process can be delayed by up to 14 days whilst this detection process is completed.”

The Labmedics’ kit will increase fermentation capacity and, since the process time can be reduced, the beer can be brought to market earlier. More frequent contamination testing to ensure the production run is free of spoilage bacteria could also save the cost of a whole production batch. The Labmedics DR.Brewery kit uses four molecular biology techniques: DNA extraction, multiplex PCR amplification, DNA hybridisation and colometric development. Results are interpreted and captured by DR AiM Reader and analysed using DR.Aimsoft. As well as solving problems in the brewing industry the technology can be equally applied to other industries, with detection kits for the food and the dairy/milk markets due to be launched.