Molecular biology methods as tools in brewery quality control: current applications and future prospects

摘要

Over the last 25 years molecular biology has progressed from being a scientific curiosity to being a major industrial technology. The techniques developed have led to new industrial processes where biology has replaced chemistry, to modified foodstuffs, to advances in forensic medicine and to new rapid techniques for medical diagnosis and for the detection of food-borne pathogens. Although not employed widely in breweries at present, in the future these technologies will allow the brewer to identify beer spoilage organisms more rapidly and more precisely, to identify raw materials, to ensure yeast strain authenticity, to detect adulteration and to confirm brand identity.