''Brettanomyces bruxellensis'' (the
anamorph
In mycology, the terms teleomorph, anamorph, and holomorph apply to portions of the life cycles of fungi in the phyla Ascomycota and Basidiomycota:
*Teleomorph: the sexual reproductive stage (morph), typically a fruiting body.
*Anamorph: an a ...
of ''Dekkera bruxellensis'') is a
yeast
Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constit ...
associated with the
Senne valley near
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
. Despite its Latin species name, ''B. bruxellensis'' is found all over the globe. In the wild, it is often found on the skins of fruit.
Beer production
''B. bruxellensis'' plays a key role in the production of the typical Belgian
beer
Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...
styles such as
lambic
Lambic () is a type of beer brewed in the Pajottenland region of Belgium southwest of Brussels and in Brussels itself since the 13th century. Types of lambic beers include gueuze, kriek lambic and framboise. Lambic differs from most other be ...
,
Flanders red ale
Flanders red ale or Flemish red-brown, is a style of sour ale brewed in West Flanders, Belgium.
Flanders red ale is fermented with organisms other than ''Saccharomyces cerevisiae'', especially ''Lactobacillus'', which produces a sour characte ...
s,
gueuze and
kriek, and is part of spontaneous
fermentation
Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food p ...
biota. It is naturally found in the brewery environment living within oak barrels that are used for the storage of beer during the secondary conditioning stage. Here it completes the long slow fermentation or super-attenuation of beer, often in symbiosis with ''Pediococcus sp''. Macroscopically visible colonies look whitish and show a dome-shaped aspect, depending on the age and size.
''B. bruxellensis'' is increasingly being used by American craft brewers, especially in Maine, California and Colorado.
Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales
Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales is a brewery in Dexter, Michigan founded by Ron and Laurie Jeffries in 2004. Jolly Pumpkin produces unfiltered and unpasteurizedbeers.
Production
Jolly Pumpkin beers are aged in oak, including wine barrels, former b ...
,
Allagash Brewing Company,
Port Brewing Company,
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company,
Russian River Brewing Company and
New Belgium Brewing Company
New Belgium Brewing Company is a nationally distributed brewery in the United States. The brand produces Fat Tire Amber Ale, Voodoo Ranger IPA, Mural Agua Fresca Cerveza, and La Folie Sour Brown Ale, among other regular and seasonal beer varieti ...
have all brewed beers fermented with ''B. bruxellensis''. The beers have a slightly sour, earthy character. Some have described them as having a "barnyard" or "wet horse blanket" flavor.
Rocket Brewing Company on brettanomyces
Wine production
In the wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented grapes. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different ...
industry, ''B. bruxellensis'' is generally considered a spoilage yeast and it and other members of the genus are often referred to as ''Brettanomyces
''Brettanomyces'' is a non-spore forming genus of yeast in the family Saccharomycetaceae, and is often colloquially referred to as "Brett". The genus name ''Dekkera'' is used interchangeably with ''Brettanomyces'', as it describes the teleomorp ...
'' ("brett"). Its metabolic products can impart "sweaty saddle leather", "barnyard", "burnt plastic" or "band-aid" aromas to wine. Some winemaker
A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in winemaking. They are generally employed by wineries or wine companies, where their work includes:
*Cooperating with viticulturists
*Monitoring the maturity of grapes to ensure their quality and to dete ...
s in France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, and occasionally elsewhere, consider it a desirable addition to wine, e.g., in Château de Beaucastel
Château de Beaucastel is a winery located in the southern part of the Rhône valley in France, which is primarily noted for its Châteauneuf du Pape wines produced in a long-lived style. , but New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...
vintner
A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in winemaking. They are generally employed by wineries or wine companies, where their work includes:
*Cooperating with viticulturists
*Monitoring the maturity of grapes to ensure their quality and to dete ...
s generally consider it a defect. Some authorities consider ''brett'' to be responsible for 90% of the spoilage problems in premium red wines.
One defense against ''brett'' is to limit potential sources of contamination. It occurs more commonly in some vineyard
A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyard ...
s than others, so producers can avoid purchasing grapes from such sources. Used wine barrel
Oak is used in winemaking to vary the color, flavor, tannin profile and texture of wine. It can be introduced in the form of a barrel during the fermentation or aging periods, or as free-floating chips or staves added to wine fermented in a ves ...
s purchased from other vintners are another common source. Some producers sanitize used barrels with ozone
Ozone (), or trioxygen, is an inorganic molecule with the chemical formula . It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope , breaking down in the l ...
. Others steam or soak them for many hours in very hot water, or wash them with either citric acid
Citric acid is an organic compound with the chemical formula HOC(CO2H)(CH2CO2H)2. It is a colorless weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in citrus fruits. In biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, which occurs in ...
or peroxycarbonate.
If wine becomes contaminated by ''brett'', some vintners sterile filter it, add SO2, or treat it with dimethyl dicarbonate
Dimethyl dicarbonate (DMDC) is a colorless liquid and a pungent odor at high concentration at room temperature. It is primarily used as a beverage preservative, processing aid, or sterilant ( INS No. 242) being highly active against typical bever ...
. Both knowledge and experience are considered helpful in avoiding ''brett'' and the problems it can cause.
Biochemistry
''B. bruxellensis'' contains the enzyme vinylphenol reductase
Vinylphenol reductase is an enzyme that catalyses the reaction :
4-vinylphenol + NAD+ + 3 H+ ⇔ 4-ethylphenol + NADH
It is found in ''Brettanomyces bruxellensis'', a yeast responsible of the presence of ethyl phenols in wine formed from p-cou ...
.
See also
* Lambic
Lambic () is a type of beer brewed in the Pajottenland region of Belgium southwest of Brussels and in Brussels itself since the 13th century. Types of lambic beers include gueuze, kriek lambic and framboise. Lambic differs from most other be ...
* Wine fault
A wine fault or defect is an unpleasant characteristic of a wine often resulting from poor winemaking practices or storage conditions, and leading to wine spoilage. Many of the compounds that cause wine faults are already naturally present in wine ...
* Yeast in winemaking
The role of yeast in winemaking is the most important element that distinguishes wine from fruit juice. In the :wikt:anaerobic, absence of oxygen, yeast converts the sugar in wine, sugars of the fruit into ethanol, alcohol and carbon dioxide throu ...
References
* "Breaking the mold", ''Wine Spectator'',2006 (March 31), ''30(16)'', pp. 99–100 & 103.
* Wild Brews: Beer Beyond the Influence of Brewer's Yeast, Jeff Sparrow, Brewers Publications, Coulder, Colo., 2005
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brettanomyces bruxellensis
Yeasts
Oenology
Fungal grape diseases
Yeasts used in brewing
Saccharomycetes