Enrichment cultivation of beer-spoiling lactic acid bacteria

Abstract

Various molecular methods have been developed for the rapid microbiological analysis of beer and brewing process samples. However, enrichment cultivation is still needed in order to reach the detection limits of the molecular assays, and it may directly contribute to the costs and accuracy of detection. The selection of proper enrichment cultivation conditions may be complex due to the wide variety of available media, and controversial reports of their performance. Therefore, this article aims to clarify this process by summarizing the main factors affecting the growth of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in the enrichment cultures and reported media for this purpose. © 2011 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling.