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Vegemite Beer: yeast extract spreads as nutrient supplements to promote fermentation

Vegemite is an iconic Australian food spread made from spent brewers’ yeast extract, which has been reported to be used as an ingredient in illegal home brewing. In this study, we tested the utility of Vegemite and the similar spread Marmite in promoting fermentation. We could not culture microorgan...

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Autores principales: Kerr, Edward D., Schulz, Benjamin L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4991886/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27602264
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2271
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author Kerr, Edward D.
Schulz, Benjamin L.
author_facet Kerr, Edward D.
Schulz, Benjamin L.
author_sort Kerr, Edward D.
collection PubMed
description Vegemite is an iconic Australian food spread made from spent brewers’ yeast extract, which has been reported to be used as an ingredient in illegal home brewing. In this study, we tested the utility of Vegemite and the similar spread Marmite in promoting fermentation. We could not culture microorganisms from either Vegemite or Marmite, consistent with these food-grade spreads being essentially sterile. To test if the addition of Vegemite or Marmite could assist in fermentation when additional viable yeast was also present, solutions containing glucose and a range of concentrations of either Vegemite or Marmite were inoculated with brewers’ yeast. No fermentation occurred in any condition without addition of extra brewer’s yeast. Fermentation did not occur when yeast was inoculated into solutions containing only glucose, but progressed efficiently with when Vegemite or Marmite was also added. Gas Chromatography confirmed that ethanol was present at ∼3% v/v post-fermentation in all samples which contained glucose, Vegemite or Marmite, and brewers’ yeast. Trace amounts of methanol were also detected. Mass spectrometry proteomics identified abundant intracellular yeast proteins and barley proteins in Vegemite and Marmite, and abundant secreted yeast proteins from actively growing yeast in those samples to which extra brewers’ yeast had been added. We estimate that the real-world cost of home brewed “Vegemite Beer” would be very low. Our results show that Vegemite or other yeast extract spreads could provide cheap and readily available sources of nutrient supplementation to increase the efficiency of fermentation in home brewing or other settings.
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spelling pubmed-49918862016-09-06 Vegemite Beer: yeast extract spreads as nutrient supplements to promote fermentation Kerr, Edward D. Schulz, Benjamin L. PeerJ Agricultural Science Vegemite is an iconic Australian food spread made from spent brewers’ yeast extract, which has been reported to be used as an ingredient in illegal home brewing. In this study, we tested the utility of Vegemite and the similar spread Marmite in promoting fermentation. We could not culture microorganisms from either Vegemite or Marmite, consistent with these food-grade spreads being essentially sterile. To test if the addition of Vegemite or Marmite could assist in fermentation when additional viable yeast was also present, solutions containing glucose and a range of concentrations of either Vegemite or Marmite were inoculated with brewers’ yeast. No fermentation occurred in any condition without addition of extra brewer’s yeast. Fermentation did not occur when yeast was inoculated into solutions containing only glucose, but progressed efficiently with when Vegemite or Marmite was also added. Gas Chromatography confirmed that ethanol was present at ∼3% v/v post-fermentation in all samples which contained glucose, Vegemite or Marmite, and brewers’ yeast. Trace amounts of methanol were also detected. Mass spectrometry proteomics identified abundant intracellular yeast proteins and barley proteins in Vegemite and Marmite, and abundant secreted yeast proteins from actively growing yeast in those samples to which extra brewers’ yeast had been added. We estimate that the real-world cost of home brewed “Vegemite Beer” would be very low. Our results show that Vegemite or other yeast extract spreads could provide cheap and readily available sources of nutrient supplementation to increase the efficiency of fermentation in home brewing or other settings. PeerJ Inc. 2016-08-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4991886/ /pubmed/27602264 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2271 Text en ©2016 Kerr and Schulz http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Agricultural Science
Kerr, Edward D.
Schulz, Benjamin L.
Vegemite Beer: yeast extract spreads as nutrient supplements to promote fermentation
title Vegemite Beer: yeast extract spreads as nutrient supplements to promote fermentation
title_full Vegemite Beer: yeast extract spreads as nutrient supplements to promote fermentation
title_fullStr Vegemite Beer: yeast extract spreads as nutrient supplements to promote fermentation
title_full_unstemmed Vegemite Beer: yeast extract spreads as nutrient supplements to promote fermentation
title_short Vegemite Beer: yeast extract spreads as nutrient supplements to promote fermentation
title_sort vegemite beer: yeast extract spreads as nutrient supplements to promote fermentation
topic Agricultural Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4991886/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27602264
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2271
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