Historical Perspective and Current Challenges for Microbreweries on Bacterial Spoilage of Beer

Abstract

Beer is an ancient beverage that is more popular today than ever. Craft beer has cemented itself as a staple segment of the larger beer market. Microbreweries and brewpubs make up a large portion of craft beer producers. These smaller scale producers have an increased risk of their beer becoming contaminated by unwanted microorganisms. Although beer is typically considered a microbiologically stable product, beer can still become contaminated with specific bacterial species that are capable of evading beer’s intrinsic antibacterial properties and the processing hurdles of brewing that lower bacterial contamination risk. Research thus far is lacking in protecting the growing community of microbreweries and brewpubs. These producers face a unique set of challenges in protecting their products that larger breweries do not. Solutions need to be identified by new research. This article looks to summarize the current knowledge regarding bacterial contaminations in breweries to facilitate research in the future.