Taste Testing and Other Research Progress

Yesterday, we finally were able to hold our tasting panel for the Sierra Nevada Stout Clone. There were two groups, BJCP testers and triangle testers. The BJCP group consisted of four volunteers who analyzed each of the four samples (3-step and single-step controls and Clarity-Ferm added beers) according to BJCP guidelines for category 13E, American Stout (the guidelines can be found here: http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style13.php#1e and the evaluation sheet here: http://www.bjcp.org/docs/SCP_BeerScoreSheet.pdf). The triangle testers were given three beers at a time, two of which were the same. Their task was to identify the beer that was different while performing some basic analysis. Many said this was very difficult to do, which was good news for us as it means that the Clarity-Ferm batches taste quite similar to the controls despite being gluten-free.

Cups set out and organized.

Beer poured. Just waiting for victims, err, volunteers.

Crackers, water, and evaluation sheets out.

Some of our gracious volunteers.

The rest of the wonderful volunteers.

The results of the BJCP tests were a little mixed. Some liked the Clarity-Ferm samples the most, while others liked the controls more. Some liked the 3-step and others liked the single-step. The overall consensus was positive, however.

A few days ago, we ran gels on the samples of beer we collected over the course of the summer. Oddly, they all have the same band at around 37 kD. After conducting some literature research, it seemed like the protein could be β-glucosidase. To test this assumption, we concentrated the beer samples through centrifugation and performed an assay using ONPG. Unfortunately, we did not see any activity. The protein could have been lost during purification or could be something completely different. We plan to run another gel in the near future to see if the protein is still present.

Microcentrifuge tubes waiting for samples.

This research certainly involves a lot of pipetting.

Heating the samples with Laemmli buffer.

Loading the gels.

Loaded gel.

Gels staining.

One of two gels. Notice the thick and consistent band at ~37 kD.

Over the past few days we've bottled our Oberon clone. At this point, it tastes pretty close to what we were hoping for, with little difference between the control and Clarity-Ferm samples. We'll perform another tasting panel in August to determine how it tastes after carbonation.

All our bottles from both the stout and Oberon clone.

After the last ELISA I performed, it seems as if the controls for the Oberon clone have well over 150 ppm gluten, the samples with 2 mL of Clarity-Ferm are bordering on gluten-free, and the samples with 4 mL of Clarity-Ferm are all completely gluten-free.

There likely won't be any updates for a while, but check back in August to see the results of our final taste test and detailed analysis of gluten content!